Inclusive Design
One of the most important things we need to keep in mind when designing for people is for our system to be available to all and accessible to all. We have to design for a whole range of people, optimize the product for each user's needs and also involve a diverse user group in the design and development process. Accessibility is closely related to usability and providing all users with an equivalent experience, meaning tending to different users that might need different functionalities. We can provide direct access, meaning that all users can interact with our system without assistance, or indirect access, meaning to make the system compatible with assistive technology (e.g. screen readers). When tending to disabilities, we should also remember that there is not one "disabled user", but different disabilities (perceptual, motor, cognitive) will require different functionalities. Finally, another factor that a design can be exclusive to is social and economic factors, and how it can be created to fit into the life of multiple different people.
For an inclusive design, the users should be involved at the earlier stage, in order to design around their needs. This allows for mutual learning and a deep understanding of their specific needs and might also reveal different approaches to the issue at hand. Although it can be very empowering for the users, it also takes a lot of time for both parties and, depending on the product, proper communication needs specialized knowledge which is most often not established.
In our scenario, the robot is employed to help individuals in their own space, which, considering the price of the robot itself, can be quite difficult to distribute in the average household. However, Alzheimer's disease can progress quite quickly to a stage where more immediate human assistance is needed. Therefore, a way to reduce the cost is to either rent the robots or resell and reuse them on different patients, since there is a functionality for personalizing the interaction. Another accessibility issue would be for people who are either deaf or hard of hearing, which might very well be the case considering that Alzheimer's affects mostly older people. The construction of the robot doesn't allow for a wide range of motions in order to be used as sign language, but they can definitely be used to emphasize what it is saying at the time. Additionally, we noticed that its pronunciation can be a bit wrong or weird, depending on the words, which can make it hard to understand. Finally, for people that are hard of hearing, the volume might not be sufficient to hear the robot, but that can be adjusted up to a point.