As messaging becomes increasingly salient to social connection and well-being, there exists a gap in understanding and support for neurodivergent users who may struggle with interpreting tone in computer-mediated communication (CMC). We look to existing accessibility practices among neurodivergent communities to thus propose a system of alternative cues that explicitly flag tone and intent, in hopes of better scaffolding neurodiverse communication styles. Through a mixed-method study of conversational pairs (N=18), we assessed the impact of these tone indicators on participants' experiences of synchronous messaging and social connection, interpreting our findings in the context of disability-focused design for messaging interfaces. We found that these alternative cues lowered the overall cognitive load of live tone interpretation for neurodivergent users, enabling a greater sense of confidence and control over self-presentation. In turn, participants reported more positive and in-depth conversations with their partners. We further observed that some participants typed more slowly, wrote longer messages, and used additional communication cues, like emojis and text stylization, concurrently. Participants' use and feedback on this tool also illuminated social context and collaboration's role in cue ambiguity. Our work subsequently suggests future research and design directions on supporting communicative accessibility via the intentional design of alternative cue systems and co-customization.

Online peer support provides space for individuals to connect with others and seek support. However, while empathy is critical for effective support, studies have found that highly empathetic support on these platforms can be rare. Using data from online peer support platforms, we conducted a mixed-methods analysis to study the factors that lead to support seekers’ perceived empathy. We found that CBT techniques like active listening and reflective restatements, along with fostering a space for exploration, increase perceived empathy, whereas rigid adherence to structure, misalignment of concerns, and lack of emotional validation can contribute to low perceived empathy. In addition, despite the high levels of empathy reported by most support seekers (85%), computational models reported low averaged empathy (1.69/6). Lastly, we propose that empathy is not a quantifiable metric and that future algorithmic empathy measurements require human perspectives.

Messaging is a ubiquitous digital communication medium. It is also a minimal medium of communication because of its inability to convey immediate feedback, tone, facial expressions, hesitations, and pauses, or follow the train of the other person’s thoughts. This paper combines quantitative and qualitative approaches for analyzing richer forms of typing indicators in messaging interfaces, such as showing text as it is typed. By assessing users’ subjective workload and interpreting these findings in the context of users’ experiences, we found that more expressive typing indicators were perceived as “rich in communication”, as they helped people communicate more allowing for closer connections. These indicators also increased users’ perceived co-presence. In addition, our research suggests there may be benefits of designing customized typing indicators for relationship maintenance and task-based communication.

The Global South is a reference to the underdeveloped regions of the world and though it is often synonymous with the marginalisation of people through living standards and access to resources, not everyone falls under this margin. The children in the margins in the Global South encompasses those with little or no access to modern communication, technologies and academic resources. This spectrum also includes children with learning and developmental disabilities, mental and physical health issues and hostile home or school environments. Marginalization in the Global South places a significant portion of the children at an elevated risks of inequality from lack of access, knowledge and training of ICTs to digital exclusion. Moreover, the recent global pandemic has exacerbated these challenges. This workshop aims at tracing research lines and questions around methodological and technological in designing tools to support children on the margins in the Global South.