Zhang, Hanlin; Feng, Yifan; Walker, Adam; Rode, Jennifer A; (2025) "I Felt Like I Was in a Fishbowl": Lived Experience with Telepresence and Non-Visible Disabilities in Higher Education. In: ASSETS '25: Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. Association for Computing Machinery (In press).

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Abstract

Telepresence robots are promising tools for enabling remote and embodied classroom participation. While existing research has primarily investigated students with physical disabilities in K–12 contexts, little is known about their use by students with non-visible disabilities such as neurodivergence (e.g., autism, ADHD) and mental health conditions in higher education. To explore this gap, we conducted a 10-week ethnography with disabled college students using four brands of telepresence robots, focusing on accessibility challenges and adaptive strategies introduced by telepresence. Our findings reveal several barriers, including audio distortion, sensory overload, spatial sensitivity, and anxiety tied to loss of control that affect neurodivergent students and those who have mental health-related disabilities. However, with thoughtful training, empathetic technical support, and inclusive pedagogical practices, many of these barriers can be mitigated. Finally, we propose design recommendations for both robotic design and instructional practices to improve telepresence robots’ usability and usefulness for students with disabilities.

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