Cultural influences on perception of disability and disabled people: a comparison of opinions from students in the United Kingdom (UK) Pakistan (PAK) about a generic wheelchair using a semantic differential scale

Abstract

Assistive Technology (AT) product use occurs within a socio-cultural setting. The growth internationally in the AT product market suggests that designers need to be aware of the influences that diverse cultures may have on the societal perception of an AT product through its semantic attributes. The study aimed to evaluate the visual interaction with an AT product by young adults from Pakistan, a collectivist society, and the United Kingdom (UK), an individualist society. A paper-based questionnaire survey was carried out with 281 first-year undergraduate students from the UK and Pakistan to evaluate their perception towards the visual representation of a generic conventional wheelchair image. A semantics differential (SD) scale method was used involving a seven-point bipolar SD scale incorporating sixteen pairs of adjectives defining functional, meaning, and usability attributes of the product. The mean (M) and standard deviation (sd) values were obtained for each pair of adjectives and compared between both groups by employing appropriate parametric tests. The results show that having a diverse cultural background did not appear to have overtly influenced the meanings ascribed to the generic manual wheelchair, which was unexpected. The University ‘Internationalist’ environment may have influenced the results. Some minor but critical differences were found for some pairs of adjectives (bulky-compact, heavy-light), having p-value less than .05 (p < .05) that related to previous experience of wheelchairs and/or their use. Further studies are planned to investigate and validate outcomes with other student and non-student groups.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• The semantic attributes of assistive technologies highlight a number of aspects that have implications for those involved in Assistive Technology (AT) product development, manufacturing and marketing.

• • For online sales, the AT products rely on the web page image to communicate the purpose and attributes of the product. There are limited explorations related to the semantic/communicative attributes of AT product presented in images, as perceived by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.

• • The knowledge towards semantic meaning ascribed to the AT product is important to investigate to provide a perspective that goes beyond practical functions of the AT product towards the communicative function.

• • Information of comprehending semantics and significance of the AT product from a social (non-users) viewpoint may benefits manufacturers in the development of AT products that best meet the societal needs, preferences and expectations.

• • A model of best practice, with a focus on semantic manipulation will offer Industrial Designers (ID) internationally with the suitable process and tools to reframe perceptions of disability and enhance acceptance of AT products not only for users, but also for the society around them.

Keywords:

• Assistive technologies
• communication
• diverse cultures
• semantics
• visual interaction
• visual product semantics
• wheelchair

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this paper is the part of PhD research that is funded by University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore and Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan under FDP scholarship scheme. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The author wishes to thank Prof. Dr. Sabahat Alamgir for her continuous support and her assistance during data collection from the student in Design Department from UET, Lahore, Pakistan. Especially to colleagues from UET, Lahore, Ms. Arooj Zaidi who generously gave their time for gathering and invading data prior to analysis.