Bridges for the Mind: Opportunities for Research on Cognitive Disabilities


Clayton Lewis
Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities
University of Colorado

Keynote talk at ASSETS 2005,  Seventh International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Baltimore, MD, October 10, 2005.

Thanks to the conference organizers, the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Bill and Claudia Coleman, Cathy Bodine, Elbert Johns, and RERC-ACT: Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Advancement of Cognitive Technologies.

Cognitive disabilities are diverse and widespread

Cognitive disabilities are poorly understood

IQ is defining for some cognitive disabilities, yet understanding of “intelligence” is elusive
There is no art to read the brain's information processing construction in the [intelligence-related] data we have at present.

        --Deary, I. (2000) Looking Down on Human Intelligence: From Psychometrics to the Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Causes are complex

Chromosomal abnormality in Down syndrome produces many changes in brain structure

We do not know which, if any, aspects of the currently-known neurological phenotype causes the mental retardation found in Down syndrome.

             --Pennington, B. and Bennetto, L. (1998) Toward a neuropsychology of mental retardation. In J. A. Burack, R. M. Hodapp, and E. Zigler (Eds.) Handbook of Mental Retardation and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Multiple disabilities are common
Many people with cognitive disabilities also have visual, motor, auditory, or other challenges as well

Cognitive disabilities are hard to think about

We don’t have good ways to simulate cognitive disabilities empathically. Here are two examples of difficult to understand situations.

Despite the difficulties, conceptual frameworks are emerging for  cognitive technology

Examples

Possibilities are growing with technology

There is a small but lively industry

But volumes are low and prices therefore high

Needed:

Coopetition within assistive technology industry

With supporting standards, e.g. AIMS

Better interaction with mainstream technology

Example: Specifying information presentation preferences in Single System Signon

The vision: User can specify information presentation preferences on the Web in a profile, in a single signon, and not have choose options or express preferences at each site visited.

Standard is evolving for profile content:  IMSGLOBAL ACCLIP

This is being picked up by US Government e-Authentication project in its USPerson schema

Progress will be aided by convergence of accessibilty needs and needs for device independent presentation on the web:

At first, it may seem that the challenges being addressed … are separate and distinct. On closer inspection it becomes apparent that there are significant overlaps … .

--Device Independence, Accessibility and Multimodal Interaction. An informative statement by the Device Independence Working Group in advance of WWW2005 

Example

Improved support for “Occasionally Connected Computing” may simplify development for many assistive applications

Standards are Crucial… for mainstream tech and for AT

[L]aws and standards are a driving force in the market for accessibly designed products, as they set the standards and guidelines for what must be done by the government and industry to accommodate the needs of individuals with disabilities.

        --Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace. Industry White Paper, National Council on Disability, 2004

Cognitive assistive technologies have mainstream applications

Many conditions blur towards cognitive limitations

Stress, low literacy, effects of aging

The same “Plain Language” writing techniques used to accommodate children who are deaf, people with cognitive reading disabilities and users of English as a Second Language (ESL) can reduce the cost to translate content into multiple languages by as much as 30%.

       --Steve Jacobs, IDEAL Group (2004) http://www.ideal-group.org/wb_conference.htm

Rapidly-advancing language technology should be explored

Machine translation is now quite good

Techniques for text simplification could be developed
Manual editing is expensive

Automated methods could increase user independence

This technology would have many mainstream applications

Opportunity for innovative user interface architecture

To allow choice structures as well as interaction media to be varied within an application

Allow tradeoff of number of choices per screen and number of screens presented in sequence

From technology to people…

The aspirations of people with cognitive disabilities are for integration and self-determination in society

We have been prepared enough

ASK the people who are living in institutions

Would you trade places

Close institutions

Get us real jobs

Close sheltered workshops

Give US the money to live OUR lives

Money follows the person means it is OURS not programs

We have the right to make our own decisions

with or without the support from others

WE CAN RUN OUR LIVES

       --Self Advocates Becoming Empowered, Summit Statement

Historically, much of “cognitive disability” has been socially imposed

What we usually understand to be an individual problem is actually an interactional, or social, product.
     --Mark Rapley, The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004

Into at least the 1960’s it was generally assumed that people with Down syndrome could not learn to read.

Our society is becoming more demanding cognitively

In the rural community, the mildly and moderately intellectually handicapped had a task and were able to contribute to the maintenance of the family.

           --Ake Johansson, self advocate, in G. Dybwad and H. Bersani, Jr., New Voices: Self-Advocacy by People with Disabilities. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books, 1996

[There is a] mismatch for at least some portion of our lives between the complexity of the culture's "curriculum" and our capacity to grasp it.

           -- Robert Kegan, In over our heads: the cognitive demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994

Can technology help create a more supportive social fabric?

Virtual exercise partners [Illinois-Chicago, Colorado]

Always on, unobtrusive communication?

Not based on text?

Social support systems

–43Things, PledgeBank

Things to Do