Cited by 109Digital Accessibility for DisabilitiesAssistive Technology in Communication and MobilityDisability Education and Employment

Understanding the telework experience of people with disabilities

Tang, John·2021·Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

To understand the lived experience of how people with disabilities telework in the United States, 25 people were interviewed. The participants included people who are blind or low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, neurodiverse, have limited mobility/dexterity, and have chronic health issues. The interviews focused on how they used video calling, screen sharing, and collaborative editing technologies to accomplish their telework. The interviews found ways in which design choices made in telework technologies interact with people's abilities, especially those who are blind or low vision, since the tools rely heavily on the visual channel to enable remote collaboration. A central theme emerged around how design choices made in telework technologies affect the digital representation of people's online activities in the video call interface: those who turn off their video (because they are blind or do not want to expend the cognitive effort to present themselves over video) are relegated to a static icon on a blank video frame with their name while those who are deaf and speak silently through a sign language interpreter never show up in interfaces that use active speaker detection to choose which video streams to display. Users with disabilities may avoid using screen sharing and collaborative editing tools which "leak" cues that disclose their disabilities. Because the interviews were conducted during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic response, they also provided a preview of how the sudden shift to pervasive teleworking affected their telework experience.

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Crossref · 10.1145/3449104

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21 of 21 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • The collaborative editing interfaces common when WFH could also be cognitively overwhelming.

    “The collaborative editing interfaces common when WFH could also be cognitively overwhelming [56].”
  • Participants in several studies described experiencing distractions while WFH.

    “Participants in several studies described experiencing distractions while WFH [41,42,44,47,55,56,58,60].”
  • People with ADHD were concerned about distractions at home preventing them from working productively.

    “and people with ADHD were concerned about distractions at home preventing them from working productively [56].”
  • Participants with various neuro-diverse conditions opted to switch videos off, so they did not need to suppress tics or behaviours.

    “Participants with various neuro-diverse conditions opted to switch videos off, so they did not need to suppress tics or behaviours [55,56].”
  • Participants who used dictation features, screen readers or text read-aloud features struggled to manage multiple streams of information, and needing to attend simultaneously to information on chat windows and presentations could be stressful.

    “Participants who used dictation features, screen readers or text read-aloud features struggled to manage multiple streams of information [39]; needing to attend simultaneously to information on chat windows and presentations could be stressful [56].”

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Authors
Tang, J.
Affiliations
Microsoft (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Tang, John
Venue
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Published
2021-04-13
Volume
5
Issue
CSCW1
Pages
1-27
ISSN
2573-0142 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3127682176
Cited by
109
References
21
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 6
FWCI
37.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (publishedVersion)
  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Digital Accessibility for Disabilities
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
Keywords
remote work, people with disabilities, video calls, screen sharing, collaborative editing, blind and visually impaired users, deaf and hard of hearing users, neurodiversity, active speaker detection, disability disclosure, COVID-19 pandemic, remote collaboration

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