ShakePal: Developing and Testing a Communications App for People with Learning Disabilities

Nowadays, smartphones are increasingly used by the general population in their everyday lives. However, this upward trend is not the same for people with disabilities due to a variety of factors including usage difficulty. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research evidence regarding the design and use of technology for and by people with disabilities and that is mainly due to a variety of differences individuals' disabilities and the concept of smartphone devices. Building on previous work by one of the authors (Williams, 2019), we developed 'Shakepal', a simplified mobile application to overcome both elicited and potential difficulties faced by the cohort. The development of 'Shakepal' aims to allow users to easily communicate with their contacts through messaging and calling. The research was carried out at a centre for people with learning disabilities in Belo Horizonte in Brazil and the sample consisted of functionally literate individuals aged between 17-40 years old. The study provided insights regarding the aesthetics, the text and icon size of the smartphone application, and showed the value of adopting both User-Centered and Participatory Design approaches. Recommendations, based on our findings, are made regarding future application development.