Development of a Chatbot to Encourage the Use of Assistive Technologies and Reduce the Rate of Discontinuance

Abstract

Assistive Technology is an interdisciplinary group of tools that assists people with impairment. Even though 30% of people that use these discontinued using them, complicating their autonomy, quality of life, and social inclusion. For that, a prototype of Chatbot was developed to assist individuals with impairment to increase their adherence to Assistive Technologies. Chatbots are virtual assistants that interact with their users through messages, images, videos, and sounds, using an Artificial Intelligence tool named Natural Language Processing to simulate a person. It can be used in smartphones, computers, and other devices. This prototype was developed in the BLiP® platform, introducing a Knowledge Base with all the essential information about Assistive Technologies. The prototype assessment consisted of the White Box (Structural) and the Black Box (Functional) tests. The prototype was tested and presented a great flow of conversation and no errors in the structure. Besides the benefits provided, Chatbots cannot substitute a healthcare professional but only assist. Chatbots can be potential assistants that will increase and improve healthcare treatments. I. INTRODUCTIONAssistive technology (AT) is an interdisciplinary group of products, resources, methods, strategies, practices, laws, and services that assist individuals with special needs in achieving autonomy, independence, accessibility, quality of life, and social inclusion. 1,2,3 These technologies aim at reducing or eliminating the limitations faced by the visually impaired so that they can better experience the different aspects of their lives, both professional and personal. 2 ATs used for the visually impaired are divided into optical or non-optical resources, electronic resources, and software/applications. These resources are used mainly to improve reading, writing, manual work, mobility, professional activities, and leisure. 3 Some examples of ATs worth mentioning are adjustable tilt desks, proper illumination for reading, writing, reading guides, glasses, magnifiers, telescopes, device cameras built into a cell phone or other devices to magnify objects, Windows® accessibility system, Braille system, blindness canes and guide dogs. 2,3 A literature review from 2015 concluded that 30% of those using any AT discontinued using it within the first five years of use, and some never even got to use it consistently. In 2018, Mission et al. demonstrated that the rate of AT discontinuance use is high, but it is hard to