1. A Mobile App to Optimize Social Participation for Individuals with Physical Disabilities: Content Validation and Usability Testing
- Author
-
Eva Belanger, Andrea Corbeil, Tian Qiang Wu, Catherine Blanchette-Dallaire, Meena Kandiah, Barbara Mazer, Dahlia Kairy, and Mir Abolfazl Mostafavi
- Subjects
030506 rehabilitation ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Community organization ,Applied psychology ,lcsh:Medicine ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,User-Computer Interface ,0302 clinical medicine ,physical disability ,Humans ,Relevance (information retrieval) ,Disabled Persons ,030212 general & internal medicine ,mHealth ,User-centered design ,business.industry ,lcsh:R ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Usability ,mobile application ,Social engagement ,Social Participation ,Mobile Applications ,accessibility ,usability ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Information and Communications Technology ,Thematic analysis ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,business ,User-Centered Design - Abstract
Background: Social participation is beneficial for individuals’ health. However, people with disabilities that may lead to mobility limitations tend to experience lower levels of social participation. Information and communication technologies such as the OnRoule mobile application (app) can help promote social participation. Objectives: To obtain potential users’ perceptions on the usability and content of the OnRoule app for providing information on accessibility, as well as its potential to optimize social participation. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional user-centered design study. Individuals with physical disabilities (n = 18) were recruited through community organizations and interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three main themes were identified: (1) “user-friendliness”, (2) “balance between the amount and relevance of information”, and (3) “potential use of the app”. Discussion and Conclusion: Findings from this study indicated that the app was easy to use, had pertinent information, and enabled a positive experience of finding information. However, several areas of improvement were identified, such as the clarity of specific elements, organization and amount of information, optimization of features, and inclusiveness. Apps such as OnRoule could optimize social participation by facilitating the process of finding resources in the community and building a sense of connectedness between users.
- Published
- 2021