TapeBlocks: A Making Toolkit for People Living with Intellectual Disabilities

Ellis, K., Dao, E., Smith, O., Lindsay, S. and Olivier, P. (2021) TapeBlocks: A Making Toolkit for People Living with Intellectual Disabilities. In: 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21), Yokohama, Japan, 08-13 May 2021, ISBN 9781450380966 (doi: 10.1145/3411764.3445647)

Abstract

The accessibility and affordability of tangible electronic toolkits are significant barriers to their uptake by people with disabilities. We present the design and evaluation of TapeBlocks, a low-cost, low-fidelity toolkit intended to be accessible for people with intellectual disabilities while promoting creativity and engagement. We evaluated TapeBlocks by interviewing makers, special educational needs teachers and support coaches. Analysis of these interviews informed the design of a series of maker workshops using TapeBlocks with young adults living with intellectual disabilities, led by support coaches with support from the research team. Participants were able to engage with TapeBlocks and making, eventually building their own TapeBlocks to make personal creations. Our evaluation reveals how TapeBlocks supports accessible making and playful discovery of electronics for people living with disabilities, and addresses a gap in existing toolkits by being tinkerable, affordable and having a low threshold for engagement.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lindsay, Dr Stephen
• Authors: Ellis, K., Dao, E., Smith, O., Lindsay, S., and Olivier, P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• Publisher: ACM
• ISBN: 9781450380966
• Copyright Holders: © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
• First Published: First published inCHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence