Evaluating the usability of a tablet application to support adults with mild intellectual disabilities during primary care consultations

Patients with mild intellectual disabilities (ID) face significant communication barriers when attending primary care consultations. Yet there is a lack of two-way communication aids available to support them in conveying medical symptoms to General Practitioners (GPs). Based on a multi-stakeholder co-design process including GPs, domain experts, people with mild ID and carers, our previous work developed prototype technology to support people with mild ID in GP consultations. This paper discusses the findings of a usability study performed on the resulting prototype. Five experts in ID/usability, four caregivers, and five GPs participated in cognitive and post-task walkthroughs. They found that the application has the potential to increase communication, reduce time constraints, and overcome diagnostic overshadowing. Nevertheless, the participants also identified accessibility barriers relating to: medical imagery; the abstract nature of certain conditions; the use of adaptive questionnaires; and the overloading of information. Potential solutions to overcome these barriers were also discussed.