AphasiaWeb: development and evaluation of an aphasia-friendly social networking application

ABSTRACT

Background: Individuals with aphasia are at risk for social isolation, given physical, attitudinal, environmental, and communication constraints. Social networking platforms may be one means to connect individuals with aphasia with others with aphasia and family or friends without aphasia. Individuals with aphasia express a desire to engage with others using technologies such as social networking.

Aims: Examine the posting patterns of individuals with aphasia in an aphasia-friendly social networking application (AphasiaWeb), as they interact with other individuals with aphasia. Identify participant feedback on interface design at pre-development, in response to prototype version, and after a 2-month trial period.

Methods & Procedures: Interdisciplinary developers including speech-language pathologists, computer scientists, and individuals with aphasia designed and implemented an aphasia-friendly social networking application (AphasiaWeb) by altering the interface to facilitate participation and communication. The investigation followed a participatory action model, involving four individuals with aphasia in application design. Among the design elements identified by a predesign focus group were a linguistically and visually simplified layout and multimodality input/output features. The interface provided forums for group sharing as well as commenting on individual posts. A mixed methods design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data for a 2-month trial of the application among seven individuals with aphasia.

Outcomes & Results: Quantitative data identified preferred exchange topics, such as sharing about family, personal identity, and living with aphasia (accessed through a Community Area feature). Evidence also suggests that threads initiated with a photograph generate more response threads, are preferred as a means to initiate interactions, and are easier to respond to by other participants. Qualitative findings characterised a range of information shared concerning identity, daily experiences, and shared perspectives. Individuals with aphasia identified a desire to interact with others with aphasia in an aphasia-friendly context but also value more universal platforms for interacting with friends and family.

Conclusions: AphasiaWeb may serve as a model for aphasia-friendly and accessible social exchange platform interfaces. Individuals with aphasia value social exchange platforms that are accessible and where they can connect exclusively with other individuals affected by aphasia. Participants also expressed an interest in access to more universally available social networking platforms for interactions with friends and family without aphasia. While they value more aphasia-friendly interfaces for universal social networking platforms, a few were willing to confront this barrier in order to interact on social networking.

KEYWORDS:

• Aphasia
• relationships
• social networking
• social exchange

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs research and development grant. Ten iPads were loaned for an extended trial by the College of Education and Human Sciences technology lab and repository. Dr. Thomas Sather rated aphasia type and severity measures. We would also like to thank the individuals with aphasia who participated in the AphasiaWeb trial and contributed important feedback about design and accessibility of the application.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.