Examining the Usability of Touch Screen Gestures for Children With Down Syndrome

[EN] The use of multi-touch devices for all types of users (from children to the elderly) has grown considerably in the recent years. However, despite the huge interest in this technology there is a lack of research addressing usability studies on children with Down's Syndrome. This article evaluates the abilities of these children (aged from 5 to 10 years) when performing a basic set of multi-touch gestures (tap, double tap, long press, drag, scale up and down, rotation) in tablet devices. The results show that regardless of their more limited motor skills, DS children are able to perform most of the evaluated multi-touch gestures with success rates close to 100% and that this technology could be fully exploited for developing applications targeted specifically at this type of user.
Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and funded by the European Development Regional Fund (EDRF-FEDER) with the project TIN2014-60077-R (SUPEREMOS). This work was also supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship within the Formacion de Profesorado Universitario (FPU) program from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports to V. Nacher (FPU14/00136) and by a pre-doctoral scholarship given by the SENESCYT (Secretaria Nacional de Educacion Superior, Ciencia y Tecnologia e Innovacion) of the government of Ecuador (No. 381-2012) to Doris Caliz.