Affiliations: [a] University of Bari, Bari, Italy | [b] Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA | [c] University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA | [d] Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand | [e] OSMAIRM Rehabilitation Center, Laterza, Italy | [f] Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy | [g] Lega F. D’Oro Research Center, Osimo, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: L. Desideri, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Carlo Berti Pichat, 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy. Tel.: +39 51 209 1330; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disability and motor impairment have reduced opportunities to participate in recreational and communication activities. OBJECTIVE: This study reports on the evaluation of a new tablet-based program to help seven participants with mild/moderate or moderate intellectual disability, motor impairment, and limited communication skills to access leisure events and video calls independently. METHODOLOGY: The program relied on the use of a tablet fitted with the WhatsApp Messenger and MacroDroid applications. The leisure and communication options (i.e., music, films, and video calls) were presented in sequences of three. The participant could choose the first, second or third element of the sequence by touching/covering the tablet’s proximity sensor once, twice or three times. The program was evaluated according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. RESULTS: During the baseline (i.e., when the program was not in use), the participants failed to access leisure events or video calls independently. During the post-intervention (i.e., with the program), their mean percentages of session time spent with the two types of engagement were within the 80–90 range. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the new tablet-based program can be a fairly efficient and beneficial tool to enable people with intellectual disability and motor impairments to access leisure events and video calls independently.
Keywords: Communication, recreation, electronic aids to daily living, neuromuscular impairment, intellectual disability
