UC Irvine

A growing body of Accessible Computing (AC) research addressing the design of computing systems for disabled users suggests that social factors, like stigma and the presence of nondisabled others, impact the success of AC systems. To date, the vast majority of research aimed at understanding how social factors influence AC system design and use has focused on public and work-oriented contexts—neglecting, in particular, domestic spaces. But, examining the ways social factors impact the design and use of AC systems for domestic contexts may be particularly prescient; Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research which does not examine disability consistently demonstrates that social aspects of domesticity impact the design and successful adoption of digital technologies in home environments. But, it remains unclear whether the social factors impacting the design of domestic AC systems are similar to, differ from, or extend beyond those identified in HCI studies of nondisabled people. Additionally, it remains unclear why this gap in knowledge exists, given the increasing acceptance of social approaches to AC and consistent demonstration of the need to understand social factors indomestic HCI.

Toward advancing social approaches to domestic AC research, this dissertation makes three contributions, through three studies. Firstly, I empirically examine blind adults’ perspectives on social considerations of domesticity relevant to AC design research, in their roles as parents, through a content analysis of a social media group for blind parents and, in their roles as partners, through a paired-interview study of blind and sighted intimate partners. Secondly, I investigate AC design researchers’ perspectives on social considerations of domesticity relevant to AC design research, to explore whether patterns of research praxis contribute to a lack of scholarly attention in this domain, through a critical discourse analysis of recent domestic AC literature. Thirdly, and finally, through synthesizing these studies, I compare blind adults’ perspectives and AC design researchers’ perspectives on social considerations of domesticity relevant to AC design research, to understand whether and how AC design researchers may need to adjust their approaches to better attend to the lived experiences and perspectives of disabled users, like blind adults.

I found that blind adults’ perspectives and AC design researchers’ perspectives on social considerations of domesticity relevant to AC design research differ in three primary areas: 1) Conceptions of disabled people’s resource contributions to the household, 2) directionality and reciprocity of care in familial relationships between disabled and nondisabled people, and 3) desirability of disabled people’s individual agency and autonomy in domestic spaces. In response to these tensions, I outline a framework of AC design research principles based on Disability Rights advocacy intended to align the perspectives of AC researchers and those of the anticipated disabled users of their domestic technologies.