Designing assistive technologies for the ADHD domain

Abstract

Assistive technologies have proven to support and empower people with a variety of mental diagnoses in performing self-care activities in their everyday lives. However, little research has explored the potentials for assistive technologies for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In this paper, we identify a set of challenges that children with ADHD typically experience, which provides an empirical foundation for pervasive health researchers to address the ADHD domain. The work is grounded in extensive empirical studies and it is contextualized using literature on ADHD. Based on these studies, we also present lessons learned that are relevant to consider when designing assistive technology to support children with ADHD. Finally, we provide an example (CASTT) of our own work to illustrate how the presented findings can frame research activities and be used to develop novel assistive technology to empower children with ADHD and improve their wellbeing.