Living with disabilities – the many faces of smart home technology acceptance

Abstract

To face the challenges of increasing care needs due to demographic change, the development of smart home and Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies present one approach, which is continuously forwarded. Besides aspects of technical development and implementation, user acceptance of diverse stakeholders plays a major role for a successful rollout and sustainable adoption of those technologies. So far, user acceptance research in this context has concentrated mostly on age-related issues. In contrast, disabilities and related care needs have hardly been researched yet. The current study focused on persons having different experiences with disabilities and care needs. In a qualitative interview pre-study (n = 9) and a follow-up quantitative online questionnaire study (n = 279) perceived benefits and barriers, use conditions, and acceptance of AAL technologies were contrasted. Four user groups were under study: disabled participants, relatives of disabled persons, professional caregivers, and, as a control group, persons without experience with disabilities. Results indicate that disabled and care-needy people show a higher acceptance and intention to use an AAL system than not-experienced people and especially professional caregivers. The motives for acceptance and rejection differ strongly regarding user diversity as well. The results contribute to a better understanding of user-specific acceptance of smart home and AAL technologies and show that the integration of diverse user groups into the technologies’ design and evaluation process is necessary.