Bridging the Divide: Exploring the use of digital and physical technology to aid mobility impaired people living in an informal settlement
Giulia Barbareschi, Ben Oldfrey, Long Xin, Grace Nyachomba Magomere, Wycliffe Ambeyi Wetende, Carol Wanjira, Joyce Olenja, Victoria Austin, Catherine Holloway · 2020 · Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020) · doi:10.1145/3373625.3417021
Summary
This qualitative study examines how people with mobility impairments living in Kibera, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, use both traditional assistive technology (wheelchairs and tricycles) and digital technology (mobile phones) in their daily lives. The researchers conducted contextual interviews and ethnographic observations with eight mobility impaired residents (four women and four men, aged 30-63), all of whom were wheelchair or tricycle users with mobile phone experience. Interviews were conducted primarily in Swahili at participants' homes and lasted 60-90 minutes, supplemented by observations of participants navigating their environment. The study is framed through two theoretical lenses: human infrastructure, which examines how social connections enable intermediated technology use, and interdependence, which challenges the traditional view that independence is the ultimate goal of assistive technology. The research represents the first known study comparing traditional and emerging technology use by people with disabilities in informal settlements, addressing a significant gap in accessibility research that has predominantly focused on high-income, Western contexts. The study setting of Kibera — a densely populated settlement with poor road infrastructure, limited electricity, and overcrowded conditions — creates unique challenges for wheelchair users that differ substantially from those addressed in mainstream assistive technology research.
Key findings
Wheelchairs were transformative for participants' mobility but faced severe limitations in Kibera's physical environment. Muddy, narrow side streets with open drains made wheelchair use extremely difficult, and most participants required physical assistance to travel from their homes to main roads — often being carried or crawling. Mobile phones served as an "accessibility bridge" when physical barriers became insurmountable, allowing participants to call for assistance, coordinate help, manage businesses remotely via M-Pesa mobile money, and maintain social connections. The social network emerged as the critical enabler for both technologies: supported interactions (community members pushing wheelchairs, helping with phone features) were essential for the technologies to function. Restricted interactions — characterized by exclusion — affected both domains, with wheelchair features limited by cost and environment, and phone features limited by cost and digital literacy. The two technologies were handled differently regarding repair: phones were replaced rather than repaired due to unreliable repair services, while wheelchairs had to be preserved at all costs since replacements depended on charitable provision. Participants spent 20 KES daily on airtime and faced phone damage from falls while navigating inaccessible terrain.
Relevance
This study is essential reading for accessibility practitioners working in global contexts, as it challenges the field's predominant focus on high-income settings and individual technology solutions. The finding that mobile phones bridge physical accessibility gaps has important implications for digital accessibility — if phones serve as critical assistive technology for mobility impaired people in low-resource settings, ensuring these devices and their services (like M-Pesa) are accessible becomes a matter of basic mobility and survival, not just convenience. The interdependence framework offers a valuable corrective to the Western emphasis on independence in assistive technology design, showing that technology functions within social networks rather than in isolation. For organizations working on accessibility in the Global South, the study highlights that improving digital infrastructure and literacy may be as important as providing physical assistive devices. The research also underscores the need for WHO-compliant wheelchairs designed for the durability demands of informal settlement environments.
Tags: mobility impairment · assistive technology · wheelchairs · mobile phones · informal settlements · Global South · human infrastructure · interdependence · ICT4D · low-resource settings