Educational Robots and Their Control Interfaces: How Can We Make Them More Accessible for Special Education?

Abstract

Existing design standards and guidelines provide guidance on what factors to consider to produce interactive systems that are not only usable, but also accessible. However, these standards are usually general, and when it comes to designing an interactive system for children with Learning Difficulties or Disabilities (LD) and/or Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) they are often not specific enough, leading to systems that are not fit for that purpose. If we dive into the area of educational robotics, we face even more issues, in part due to the relative novelty of these technologies. In this paper, we present an analysis of 26 existing educational robots and the interfaces used to control them. Furthermore, we present the results of running focus groups and a questionnaire with 32 educators with expertise in Special Education and parents at four different institutions, to explore potential accessibility issues of existing systems and to identify desirable characteristics. We conclude introducing an initial set of design recommendations, to complement existing design standards and guidelines, that would help with producing future more accessible control interfaces for educational robots, with an especial focus on helping pupils with LDs and/or ASC.