Mixed-ability workplaces are work settings that focus on strengths contributed by people with different types of disabilities and people without disabilities. The overarching goal of this work was to build research capacity with an interdisciplinary team of researchers, to develop a convergent agenda for FW-HTF research necessary to augment the level of accessibility in mixed-ability workplaces.

This grant allowed the PIs to conduct observations and contextual inquiry at a university library in Italy that has been able to support a mixed-ability work setting for the past five years. This enabled the PIs to explore context and challenges of mixed-ability settings, and to identify technological interventions that can support mixed-ability settings in the U.S. We learned that mixed-ability work settings can be supported by a complex network of partner organizations. In the case of the partner library, two non-profit staffing companies provided mixed-ability workers to temporarily support tasks that were under-staffed. Moving forward, we recommend further exploring the current landscape of mixed-ability workplace philanthropic interventions, by sampling philanthropic and nonprofit organizations engaged in workplace accessibility in the U.S.

We observed how groups of mixed-ability workers and their supervisors used different mental patterns to refer to their tasks and work practices. This complicates communication across and within working teams. We analyzed interview transcripts using the lens of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a theory from cognitive linguistics that posits that we acquire basic mental patterns (e.g., UP/DOWN, NEAR/FAR, MORE/LESS, etc.) at very young age thanks to our physical interaction with our environment, and that these patterns influence how we understand the world around us. For example, multiple participants frequently relied on the MORE/LESS mental pattern when describing how they operated a scanner. Fortunately, technology can mitigate these challenges. In the scanner example, we could revamp the button-based scanner interface in a way that is more directly based on the MORE/LESS schema, e.g., by letting workers adjust the brightness by adding more (or less) paper clips into a coffee mug (equipped with a pressure sensor). Through this process, the mental patterns of these workers are made visible to other co-workers. In summary, the individual mental patterns that mixed-ability workers used the most provide clues for designing novel technologies (based on common office objects) that support mixed-ability work.

This grant allowed a diverse pool of undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research activities. It enabled the PIs to connect with fellow researchers and to organize a workshop around the role of technology in workplace accessibility with participants from philanthropic foundations, nonprofit service providers, and university centers. Findings were disseminated at highly competitive international conferences in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. 

Last Modified: 12/13/2022
Modified by: Francesco Cafaro