Empowering Diverse Abilities: A Revised DesignABILITY Framework for Designing Assistive Technologies

This paper presents the revised DesignABILITY framework to improve the development of assistive technology for individuals with severe speech and motor impairments. To concentrate on utilizing user potential rather than just meeting immediate needs, it introduces an "Empowerment Planning" stage. The framework was validated through an innovative system called "MorSpeech," which integrates a multiplatform application and ESP32 hardware using alternative inputs like vegetables and water containers. Due to intricate ethical issues, wide range of etiologies, and the requirement for customized testing procedures based on individual capacities, recruiting for such studies is difficult. As a result, the final prototype was assessed by three individuals with variety of conditions, including cerebral palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Two participants had a 100% task completion rate, according to the results. The prototype showed adaptability to severe neurological disabilities, despite the third participant's completion being limited by significant application timing constraints. By prioritizing empathy throughout the design process, this work illustrated the efficacy of the updated framework in developing assistive technologies that empower users with a range of abilities. Additionally, this study emphasizes how iterative design can overcome constraints to enhance overall wellbeing.