Everyday Technology to Support Leisure and Daily Activities in People with Intellectual and Other Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Objective: The study evaluated a smartphone-aided program to support independent access to leisure events and performance of daily activities in seven participants with moderate intellectual disability, four of whom also had severe hearing loss.

Method: The program relied on the use of a Samsung Galaxy J4 Plus smartphone with Android 9.0 operating system. The smartphone’s functioning was automated via the MacroDroid application. The program was to allow the participants to alternate access to leisure events (delivered via the smartphone) with performance of vocational activities (guided through smartphone-delivered pictorial or pictorial and verbal instructions) over sessions of about 30 min.

Results: During the baseline, the participants failed to access leisure events and perform scheduled activities independently. When the program was used, however, all participants succeeded in both accessing leisure events and performing activities independently.

Conclusions: The smartphone-aided program can be a useful tool for people like the participants of this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure
• daily activities
• smartphone
• intellectual disability
• hearing loss

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by a relevant Ethics Committee. All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained for the participants’ involvement in the study.