Supporting Functional Occupation of People with Moderate Intellectual Disability and Blindness Using a Smartphone-Based Technology System

Gloria Alberti, Giulio E. Lancioni (), Nirbhay N. Singh, Mark F. O’Reilly and Jeff Sigafoos
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Gloria Alberti: Lega F. D’Oro Research Center, 60027 Osimo, Italy
Giulio E. Lancioni: Lega F. D’Oro Research Center, 60027 Osimo, Italy
Nirbhay N. Singh: College of Medicine, Augusta University, Augusta, GA 30912, USA
Mark F. O’Reilly: Department of Special Education, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Jeff Sigafoos: School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand

Disabilities, 2025, vol. 5, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: People with intellectual disability and visual impairment often have difficulties in accessing leisure events, engaging in cognitive activities, and performing physical exercise. The present study assessed a program aimed at helping six adults with moderate or moderate-to-mild intellectual disability and blindness in each of the aforementioned areas. The program relied on the use of a technology system involving a smartphone, which was supplied with Internet connection and fitted with the Live Transcribe and MacroDroid applications. These applications were set up to (a) enable the participants to use verbal utterances to successfully access preferred songs and comic sketches (leisure events) and answer series of verbal questions (cognitive activity) automatically presented to them, and (b) enable the smartphone to verbally guide the participants’ performance of series of body movements (physical exercise). The program was introduced according to a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The intervention was divided into two phases, which included 17–33 and 39–48 sessions, respectively. The results showed that the participants’ baseline performance (without the support of the system) was generally poor. During the intervention with the system, all participants succeeded in accessing the music or comic events available, satisfactorily answering series of questions, and performing series of body movements. The Percentage of Nonoverlapping Data and the Tau (novlap) methods used to compare baseline and intervention performance produced indices of 1 for all participants (confirming the strong impact of the intervention). These results, which need replication to establish their generality, suggest that the technology system might represent a useful tool for helping people like the participants of this study.

Keywords: intellectual disability; blindness; technology; smartphone; leisure; cognitive activity; physical exercise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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