Disability and Orientation-Specific Performance during a Reciprocal Tapping Task

Abstract

Reciprocal tapping tasks have frequently been used to quantify user performance and motor control system function. This experiment used a reciprocal tapping task to examine differences in performance for participants oriented both in front and to the side of a touch screen. Evaluating performance in different orientations for touch screen users is important because public spaces and workplaces may have barriers which preclude touch screens from always being operated from directly in front. Additionally, building design standards may require a wheelchair user in a public building to operate a touch screen from the side because there may not be enough clearance to orient their wheelchair in a manner which allows them to only operate the screen from the front. Participants with motor control impairments affecting the upper extremity and participants without upper extremity motor control impairments completed a study examining reciprocal tapping performance while using a touch screen. Both groups included wheelchair users. Results indicate the orientation of the user, with respect to the touch screen, influences the number of taps which can be completed in five seconds and the amount of force used to activate the buttons. Both variables are negatively affected when the touch screen is oriented to the side of the user. Additionally, users with motor control impairments affecting the upper extremity completed fewer taps and had longer dwell times on the buttons than participants with non-impaired upper extremities. This experiment helps us begin to understand the impact of user-interface position but more research, including more ecologically valid tasks for the user, is needed.