Am I speaking to a human?: Voice, choice and the role of technology companies in designing accessible virtual assistants

This grant was awarded to Professor Jeannie Paterson, Dr Yvette Maker and Gabby Bush in the Melbourne Disability Institute's 2022 Seed Funding round.

This grant was awarded to Professor Jeannie Paterson, Dr Yvette Maker and Gabby Bush in the Melbourne Disability Institute's 2022 Seed Funding round.

This project investigates how people with disabilities use virtual voice assistants, and related technologies (eg Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Duplex) in their daily lives. We will consider the ways in which people with disabilities do or do not find these technologies useful, what they use the technologies for, and the ways in which people with disabilities think about and respond to privacy and cyber security considerations in their use of digital technologies.  We will also investigate the acknowledgment or steps taken by technology companies in understanding these uses and concerns by people with disabilities. We will partner with the Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) in undertaking this research, and benefit from ACCAN's expertise in IoT, and in equity and accessibility for consumers in using digital communications technologies. The project will build on earlier research, including an online survey to understand more about how people generally use and understand these devices.

Researchers