Proceedings of the 11th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
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People with motor impairments experience a range of challenges when interacting with computers. While much prior research has explored the effects of motor impairments on accessing computer input devices, such as keyboards, mice, and touch screens, we know relatively little about how real world use of a wheelchair affects why people in power wheelchairs choose specific computing devices, and how they switch between such devices. We interviewed 8 power wheelchair users about their use of computers and mobile devices. We found that participants often had difficulty switching between the various devices in their life, and that technology use was especially challenging on the go. Our findings suggest that there are numerous opportunities to make computing more wheelchair-friendly, by consolidating devices, improving reachability and portability of devices, and by creating technology that is robust to the challenges of moving around in a wheelchair.