Socio-technical environments supporting people with cognitive disabilities using public transportation

Public transportation systems are among the most ubiquitous and complex large-scale systems found in modern society. For those unable to drive such as people with cognitive disabilities, these systems are essential gateways for participation in community activities, socialization, and independence. To understand the magnitude and scope of this national problem, we highlight deficiencies identified in an international study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council and present specific cognitive barriers identified in empirical studies of transportation systems in several U.S. cities.An interdisciplinary team of HCI researchers, urban transportation planners, commercial technologists, and assistive care specialists are now collaborating on the Mobility-for-All project to create architectures and prototypes that support those with cognitive disabilities and their caregivers. We have grounded our research and design efforts using a distributed cognition framework. We have derived requirements for our designs by analyzing “how things are” for individuals with cognitive disabilities who learn and use public transportation systems. We present a socio-technical architecture that has three components: a) a personal travel assistant that uses real-time Global Positioning Systems data from the bus fleet to deliver just-in-time prompts; b) a mobile prompting client and a prompting script configuration tool for caregivers; and c) a monitoring system that collects real-time task status from the mobile client and alerts the support community of potential problems. We then describe a phased community-centered assessment approach that begins at the design stage and continues to be integrated throughout the project.This research has broad implications for designing more human-centered transportation systems that are universally accessible for other disenfranchised communities such as the elderly or nonnative speaker. This project presents an “in-the-world” research opportunity that challenges our understanding about mobile human computer interactions with ubiquitous, context-aware computing architectures in noisy, uncontrolled environments; personalization and user modeling techniques; and the design of universally accessible interfaces for complex systems through participatory design processes.This article provides both a near-term vision and an architecture for transportation systems that are socially inclusive, technologically appealing, and easier for everyone to use.

[1]  T. Landauer,et al.  Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction , 1997 .

[2]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  The invisible computer , 1998 .

[3]  James Sullivan,et al.  Mobile Architectures and Prototypes to Assist Persons with Cognitive Disabilities using Public Transportation , 2003 .

[4]  Dennis E. Egan,et al.  Handbook of Human Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[5]  Allen Newell,et al.  The Prospects for Psychological Science in Human-Computer Interaction , 1985, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[6]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Organizational Issues in Development and Implementation of Interactive Systems , 1997 .

[7]  Eric S. Raymond,et al.  The cathedral and the bazaar - musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary , 2001 .

[8]  G. Salomon.  Distributed cognitions : psychological and educational considerations , 1997 .

[9]  J. Krikke.  T-Engine: Japan's ubiquitous computing architecture is ready for prime time , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[10]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Enhancing communication, facilitating shared understanding, and creating better artifacts by integrating physical and computational media for design , 1997, DIS '97.

[11]  M. C. Rizzolo,et al.  Emerging Technologies and Cognitive Disability , 2004 .

[12]  A S Iannuzziello.  Communicating with Persons with Disabilities in a Multimodal Transit Environment , 2001 .

[13]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Transcending the information given: designing learning environments for informed participation , 2002, International Conference on Computers in Education, 2002. Proceedings..

[14]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Symmetry of ignorance, social creativity, and meta-design , 2000, Knowl. Based Syst..

[15]  Johan F. Hoorn,et al.  Distributed cognition , 2005, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[16]  Harold W. Thimbleby,et al.  Reflexive CSCW: Supporting Long-Term Personal Work , 1990, Interact. Comput..

[17]  Peter Gregor,et al.  Human Computer Interfaces for People with Disabilities , 1997 .

[18]  Pelle Ehn,et al.  Work-oriented design of computer artifacts , 1989 .

[19]  R. J. Bogumil,et al.  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action , 1985, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[20]  Barbara Stover Gingerich.  Evaluating, Selecting and Using Appropriate Assistive Technology , 1998 .

[21]  Mark Weiser,et al.  Some computer science issues in ubiquitous computing , 1993, CACM.

[22]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Where the action is , 2001 .

[23]  Alexander Repenning,et al.  Tactile programming: a unified manipulation paradigm supporting program comprehension, composition and sharing , 1996, Proceedings 1996 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages.

[24]  Edward R. Tufte,et al.  Envisioning Information , 1990 .

[25]  J. Brown,et al.  Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation , 1991 .

[26]  James D. Hollan,et al.  Distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research , 2000, TCHI.

[27]  F. Fischer,et al.  The Interplay of Internal and External Scripts , 2007 .

[28]  Julie A. Jacko,et al.  A review and reappraisal of information technologies within a conceptual framework for individuals with disabilities , 2001, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[29]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition , 1998 .

[30]  Mark Weiser.  The computer for the 21st century , 1991 .

[31]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Beyond access: informed participation and empowerment , 1999, CSCL.

[32]  Andrew Gorman,et al.  Creating Distributed Support Systems to Enhance the Quality of Life for People with Cognitive Disabilities , 2003 .

[33]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[34]  E. D. Newbigging,et al.  Therapy methodology. Riding the bus: teaching an adult with a brain injury to use a transit system to travel independently to and from work. , 1996, Brain injury.

[35]  Clayton Lewis,et al.  TASK-CENTERED USER INTERFACE DESIGN A Practical Introduction , 2006 .

[36]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Turning breakdowns into opportunities for creativity , 1994, Knowl. Based Syst..

[37]  B Phillips,et al.  Predictors of assistive technology abandonment. , 1993, Assistive technology : the official journal of RESNA.

[38]  J. Epstein,et al.  Use of a Technological Prompting Device to Aid a Student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to Initiate and Complete Daily Tasks: An Exploratory Study , 2000 .

[39]  Anders I. Mørch,et al.  Three levels of end-user tailoring: customization, integration, and extension , 1997 .

[40]  Paul W. Richardson.  The culture of education , 1996 .

[41]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  ClearBoard: a seamless medium for shared drawing and conversation with eye contact , 1992, CHI.

[42]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Things that make us smart , 1979 .

[43]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers , 1994, CACM.

[44]  Steven E. Stock,et al.  Enhancing Independent Task Performance for Individuals with Mental Retardation through Use of a Handheld Self-Directed Visual and Audio Prompting System. , 2002 .

[45]  Vijay V. Raghavan,et al.  On the reuse of past optimal queries , 1995, SIGIR '95.

[46]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  User Modeling in Human–Computer Interaction , 2001, User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction.

[47]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Charting past, present, and future research in ubiquitous computing , 2000, TCHI.

[48]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  The construction of usefulness: how users and context create meaning with a social networking system , 2004 .

[49]  Gerhard Fischer.  Domain-oriented design environments , 2004, Automated Software Engineering.

[50]  Eric Horvitz,et al.  Attention-Sensitive Alerting , 1999, UAI.

[51]  G. Fischer.  Distributed Cognition: A Conceptual Framework for Design-for-All , 2003, HCI.

[52]  Raymond McCall,et al.  Making Argumentation Serve Design , 1996, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[53]  M. Mcluhan.  Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man , 1964 .

[54]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Innovative Media in Support of Distributed Intelligence and Lifelong Learning , 2005, WMTE.

[55]  Stefan Carmien.  Task Support for People with Cognitive Impairments and Their Caregivers , 2004 .

[56]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Human-centered public transportation systems for persons with cognitive disabilities , 2002 .

[57]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Knowledge Management: Problems, Promises, Realities, and Challenges , 2001, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[58]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Research on Computer Supported Cooperative Work , 1997 .

[59]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  Collaborative, programmable intelligent agents , 1998, CACM.

[60]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Transcending the individual human mind—creating shared understanding through collaborative design , 2000, TCHI.

[61]  Doug Riecken,et al.  Introduction: personalized views of personalization , 2000, CACM.

[62]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Meta-design , 2004, Commun. ACM.

[63]  L. Homsted,et al.  American with Disabilities Act. , 1998, The Florida nurse.

[64]  Dolores Hagen,et al.  Computer technology in special education and rehabilitation , 1988, CSC '88.

[65]  Susan Leigh Star,et al.  The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving , 1989, Distributed Artificial Intelligence.

[66]  William J. Lynch.  You must remember this: Assistive devices for memory impairment , 1995 .

[67]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  Roomware: Toward the Next Generation of Human- Computer Interaction Based on an Integrated Design of Real and Virtual Worlds , 2001 .

[68]  Yahiko Kambayashi,et al.  A New Passenger Support System for Public Transport using Mobile Database Access , 2002, VLDB.

[69]  Austin Henderson,et al.  There's No Place Like Home: Continuing Design in Use , 1992, Design at Work.

[70]  D. Norman.  Categorization of action slips. , 1981 .

[71]  Rogerio DePaula,et al.  A Framework for the Adoption of Assistive Technology , 2002 .

[72]  P. Drucker.  The Age of Social Transformation , 1994 .

[73]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Interface: an evolving concept , 1993, CACM.

[74]  Brenda White,et al.  DEPARTMENT OF LABOR , 2006 .

[75]  Allison Druin,et al.  Real meets virtual: blending real-world artifacts with computational media , 1996, CHI Conference Companion.

[76]  Jack Goody,et al.  Literacy in Traditional Societies. , 1970, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[77]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things , 1990 .

[78]  M Scherer.  Chapter 1 – Matching Consumers with Appropriate Assistive Technologies , 2002 .

[79]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[80]  D. Schoen,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action , 1985 .

[81]  J. Shaoul.  Human Error , 1973, Nature.

[82]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things", Basic Books Inc , 1988 .

[83]  Thomas D. Williams,et al.  The visions system , 1975, SGAR.

[84]  Andrew Gorman,et al.  Supporting Collaboration and Distributed Cognition in Context-Aware Pervasive Computing Environments , 2004 .

[85]  Kevin Lynch,et al.  The Image of the City , 1960 .

[86]  G. Fischer.  Communities of Interest: Learning through the Interaction of Multiple Knowledge Systems , 2001 .

[87]  K. Jellinger,et al.  Wayfinding Behavior, Cognitive Mapping and Other Spatial Processes Reginald G. Golledge, ed. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 1999. 428 pp., ISBN 0–8010–5993–X. , 2000 .

[88]  Masatoshi Arikawa,et al.  Dynamic map synthesis utilizing extended thesauruses and reuse of query generation process , 1997, GIS '97.

[89]  D. Braddock,et al.  Public financial support for disability at the dawn of the 21st century. , 2002, American journal of mental retardation : AJMR.

[90]  Ikaputra,et al.  MOBILITY FOR ALL - Towards Barrier-Free Environment in Yogyakarta-Indonesia - , 2001 .

[91]  FischerGerhard,et al.  Socio-technical environments supporting people with cognitive disabilities using public transportation , 2005 .

[92]  Stefan Carmien,et al.  MAPS: Dynamic Scaffolding for Independence for Persons with Cognitive Impairments , 2003, User Modeling.

[93]  N. Postman,et al.  "Mix a Little Folly with Your Wisdom"--Horace@@@Children and Television.@@@Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. , 1987 .

[94]  Alexander Repenning,et al.  The Pragmatic Web: Agent-Based Multimodal Web Interaction with no Browser in Sight , 2003, INTERACT.

[95]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Articulating the Task at Hand and Making Information Relevant to It , 2001, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[96]  R. Florida.  The Rise of the Creative Class : And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life , 2003 .

[97]  Andrew Gorman,et al.  Increasing Workplace Independence for People with Cognitive Disabilities by Leveraging Distributed Cognition among Caregivers and Clients , 2003, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[98]  Jeff Rose,et al.  MANTIS: system support for multimodAl NeTworks of in-situ sensors , 2003, WSNA '03.

[99]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  A Conceptual Framework and a Toolkit for Supporting the Rapid Prototyping of Context-Aware Applications , 2001, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[100]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[101]  Douglas Schuler,et al.  Participatory Design: Principles and Practices , 1993 .

[102]  B. Nardi.  The Use of Ethnographic Methods in Design and Evaluation , 1997 .

[103]  Colin Potts,et al.  Design of Everyday Things , 1988 .

[104]  Neal Adams,et al.  Disability at the Dawn of the 21st Century and the State of the States , 2003 .

[105]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Embedding critics in design environments , 1993, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[106]  Richard W Pew,et al.  Technology for Adaptive Aging , 2004 .

[107]  M. Resnick,et al.  Programmable Bricks: Toys to Think With , 1996, IBM Syst. J..

[108]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Meta-design: design for designers , 2000, DIS '00.

[109]  Jeff Rose,et al.  MANTIS OS: An Embedded Multithreaded Operating System for Wireless Micro Sensor Platforms , 2005, Mob. Networks Appl..

[110]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  Beyond "Couch Potatoes": From Consumers to Designers and Active Contributors , 2002, First Monday.

[111]  Thomas P. Moran,et al.  Tailorable domain objects as meeting tools for an electronic whiteboard , 1998, CSCW '98.

[112]  Donald A. Schön.  The reflective practitioner : how professionals think in action , 1986 .

[113]  Stefan Carmien,et al.  MAPS: creating socio-technical environments in support of distributed cognition for people with cognitive impairments and their caregivers , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[114]  G E Lancioni,et al.  Promoting Independent Task Performance by Persons with Severe Developmental Disabilities through a New Computer-Aided System , 2000, Behavior modification.

[115]  Douglas C. Engelbart,et al.  Toward augmenting the human intellect and boosting our collective IQ , 1995, CACM.

[116]  L. Suchman.  Plans and situated actions , 1987 .

[117]  Thomas W. King,et al.  Assistive Technology: Essential Human Factors , 1998 .

[118]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms , 1997, CHI.

[119]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Seeding, Evolutionary Growth and Reseeding: The Incremental Development of Collaborative Design Environments , 2003 .

[120]  Gerhard Fischer,et al.  MetaDesign: Beyond User-Centered and Participatory Design , 2003 .

[121]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .