Developing navigational services for people with Down's Syndrome

The ability to commute and travel alone is an important skill that enables people to be more independent, and integrated with society. People with Down's Syndrome often experience low social integration, and low degree of independence. As part of the European Commission funded POSEIDON project, we want to explore how context-aware, and assistive technology can enable users with Down's Syndrome be more independent, including the ability to commute alone to a place of interest. In this paper, we report on our current progress in developing navigational services within the context of the POSEIDON project. We carried out a semi-structured qualitative evaluation of an early version of our navigational services with 6 individuals with Down's Syndrome, and report on our findings

Developing navigational services for people with Down's Syndrome

The ability to commute and travel alone is an important skill that enables people to be more independent, and integrated with society. People with Down's Syndrome often experience low social integration, and low degree of independence. As part of the European Commission funded POSEIDON project, we want to explore how context-aware, and assistive technology can enable users with Down's Syndrome be more independent, including the ability to commute alone to a place of interest. In this paper, we report on our current progress in developing navigational services within the context of the POSEIDON project. We carried out a semi-structured qualitative evaluation of an early version of our navigational services with 6 individuals with Down's Syndrome, and report on our findings

Co-creation of smart technology with (and for) people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. This methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Down’s Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project is developed by a consortium of commercial, academic, and enduser supporting organizations. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped the projec

Co-creation of smart technology with (and for) people with special needs

We report on the lessons learnt during the application of a methodology to develop Intelligent Environments. This methodology was applied to a project which aimed at helping people with Down’s Syndrome and those with similar conditions and needs, to be more included in society. The project is developed by a consortium of commercial, academic, and enduser supporting organizations. One important feature of the methodology is that of being strongly user-centred and we report on how that interaction with users took place and how it continuously shaped the projec

Designing location based learning experiences for people with intellectual disabilities and additional sensory impairments

The research reported here is part of a larger project which seeks to combine serious games (or games based learning) with location based services to help people with intellectual disability and additional sensory impairments to develop work based skills. Specifically this paper reports on where these approaches are combined to scaffold the learning of new routes and ultimately independent travel to new work and educational opportunities. A phased development methodology is applied in a user sensitive manner, to ensure that user feedback drives the ongoing development process. Methods to structure this include group feedback on conceptual storyboards, expert review of prototypes using usability heuristics relating to the main system goals, and finally co-discovery methods with student pairs exploring all three modes of the system in real world contexts. Aspects of developmental and cognitive psychological theories are also reviewed and it is suggested that combining games based learning approaches with location based services is an appropriate combination of technologies for an application specifically designed to scaffold route learning for this target audience

BILINGUALISM: A WAY TO DELAY THE ONSET OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND FIGHT THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE IT IMPOSES

Dementia is the second leading cause of death (accounts for 16.5%) and the leading cause of dependency and disability worldwide (GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators, 2019). This burden associated with dementia falls heavily on family members, communities, and the individuals themselves. When looking at global dementia cases, the numbers are on the rise and expected to triple by 2050 (World Health Organization, 2019; Robinson, Stephan, & Magklara, 2019). The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which accounts for 60-80% of all dementia cases (DeTure & Dickson, 2019). Characterized by memory impairment and cognitive decline, AD later impacts behavior, speech, visuospatial orientation, and the motor system (DeTure & Dickson, 2019). Specifically, it leads to atrophy of the brain in multimodal association cortices, limbic lobe structures, gyri in frontal and temporal cortices, posterior cortical areas, the amygdala, and hippocampus (DeTure & Dickson, 2019). One way to delay the onset of AD is through lifelong bilingualism. In addition to other brain changes, increased grey matter can be found in the temporal lobe and orbitofrontal cortex (Abutalebi et al., 2015). This increased grey matter builds-up at a young age and is maintained throughout a lifetime. This allows it to act as a defense against neuroanatomical changes and atrophy commonly associated with AD (Abutalebi et al., 2015; Green & Abutalebi, 2016). More specifically, bilingualism has been found to delay AD development by an average of 4.7 years (Brini et al., 2019)

Comparing the efficacy of different web page interface attributes in facilitating information retrieval for people with mild Learning Disabilities

This research aimed to determine what web page attributes facilitate optimal website design for use by learning-disabled people – a topic hitherto rarely addressed. Qualitative research developed methods appropriate for this cohort, determined attributes that impact on usability and explored ways of eliciting preferences. Attributes related to menu position, text size and images, which were then examined quantitatively by comparing web pages of different layouts. Task-times were analysed, determining which attributes have the greatest impact on performance. The main predictor of task-time was menu position, followed by text size. Images did not affect performance. The study also found that learning-disabled people have only ‘serial access’ to information when searching individual pages – it being imbibed sequentially until the required content is reached. Words on the left of horizontal menus were found quicker than those in the middle or right. Information access took longer from vertical menus, possibly because of the juxtaposition of distracting body text. Images were ignored until reached ‘serially’– and thus did not help signpost content. Small-text was consumed quicker than large, as the latter took up more lines and required more eye movements to negotiate. A three category rating scale and simple interviews elicited web design preferences. The ‘neutral’ category proved troublesome and so a refined four category scale without this mid-point was adopted which yielded a greater variety of results. In verbally eliciting preferences, ‘acquiescence bias’ was minimised by avoiding polar interrogatives - partly achieved by comparing different designs. Preferred designs were for large-text and images – the reverse of those facilitating fastest retrieval times, a discrepancy due to preferences being judged on aesthetic considerations. Design recommendations are offered which reconcile preference and performance findings. These include using a horizontal menu, juxtaposing images and text, and reducing text from sentences to phrases – facilitating preferred large-text without increasing task-times

Effect of liver x receptor target genes Apolipoprotein E and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 on beta-amyloid dependent pathology in Alzheimer's disease model mice

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that overtime interferes with daily tasks. Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) is a multifactorial disease with a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors. The APOEε4 allele of Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the major genetic risk factor for LOAD. However, APOEε3 patients still account for the majority of LOAD cases, suggesting additional genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors as risk modifiers. We examined the effect of high-fat diet (HFD) and liver x receptor (LXR) agonist T0901317 (T0) in representative mouse models of AD phenotype. LXRs regulate cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism. ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) and APOE are major LXR target genes involved in lipid and cholesterol generation and transport and are implicated in AD pathology. We determined that Abca1ko mice have cognitive deficits. Lack of ABCA1 impaired neurite morphology in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. We then examined the effect of HFD on memory deficits and microglia morphology in AD model mice expressing either mouse Apoe or human APOE isoforms. HFD exacerbated cognitive deficits in APP23 mice. Microglia morphology resembled activation state in HFD fed female APOE4 mice, suggesting differential response to diet. Lastly, we examined the effects of T0 on the phenotype and transcriptome of APP/E3 and APP/E4 Abca1 haplo-deficient mice, revealing the ability of T0 to ameliorate APOE4-driven pathological phenotype. These findings suggest that disturbances in cholesterol metabolism may negatively impact AD-related patholoy, HFD exacerbates AD-related pathology, and that T0 treatment ameliorates APOE4-induced AD pathogenesis. These results could have clinical implications on lifestyle or dietary and pharmacological interventions for AD patients. The public health significance of this research supports efforts in developing primary prevention techniques, with the end goal of inhibiting or delaying disease onset, AD-related pathology, and promoting healthy brain aging. Targeting the LXR-ABCA1-APOE regulatory axis could be an effective therapy for individuals at risk of dementia and to treat AD patients regardless of APOE genotype. Further developing studies that better assess cholesterol metabolism genes in AD pathology are essential for modifying guidelines and therapies for those at risk of dementia