Abstract
A population often overlooked in the design of cellular phones is people with cognitive disabilities. This study evaluated the ability of persons with moderate to severe cognitive impairments to use mainstream cellular phones programmed with experimental interface features that allowed operation with minimum cognitive ability. Two modes were tested. The first allowed an individual to place calls by simply opening a flip phone. The second displayed four pictures on the touchscreen and allowed a call to be made by touching one of the pictures. Sixteen individuals with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores from 6 to 19 participated. There was a 100% success rate using the flip mode in both Instruction and Carryover conditions and a 100% success rate in Instruction and 81.3% success in Carryover for the picture mode. This was compared to standard ‘touchtone’ dialing mode success rate of 12.5% in the Instruction condition and 6.3% in Carryover condition.
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