A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) provides an optimal environment for the care of preterm babies. Bedside nurses are fundamental to this care provided to preterm babies in the NICU. Modern NICUs are technology-intensive space, instrumented with several monitoring technologies to help the nurses track the babies in their care. These technologies help the nurses in a way that is essential for the successful operation of the NICU. To understand how these monitoring technologies function in the NICU from the viewpoint of the nurses, we conducted semi-structured interviews with seven nurses who work at a NICU in the US. We then performed a thematic analysis on the interviews and we found that, despite the utility of the monitoring technologies, they also pose several challenges to the nurses in performing their duties. More specifically, we discovered that: (1) all elements of the monitoring technologies posed a challenge in some way; (2) in a few specific situations, the nurses were able to make up for some of these challenges; and (3) the nurses suggested improvements to all elements of the monitoring technologies. Based on these findings, we describe six areas of future research that argue for the design of monitoring technologies as a way to empower nurses. These include: improved vital signs monitoring that facilitate kangaroo care, using voice to manage alarms, video feeds controlled by nurses in the patient rooms, giving more control over the alarm sounds to the nurses, having a common interface and leveraging augmented reality to help the nurses control the monitoring technologies.

Recent years have seen a proliferation of security-focused smart home devices (SSHDs). SSHDs, such as smart locks and cameras, are designed to accomplish critical tasks, such as protecting one’s home and property. However, their use by and for people with disabilities (PwD) has not been broadly investigated. To explore the state of SSHD use by PwD, we collected 114,871 amazon.com reviews for popular SSHDs and created a data set of reviews pertaining to PwD. We performed a broad analysis of the reviews in this data set and found that the presence of SSHDs empowered PwD to secure their domiciles independently. Further, caregivers used SSHDs to monitor PwD, ostensibly for the latter’s safety, albeit without explicit consent. Moreover, we also found that SSHDs have several drawbacks that impose various barriers of use on PwD. We analyze the significance of these findings and suggest five future research opportunities for SSHD design.

In the US people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) comprise one of the most likely groups to experience traumatic life events. These experiences often produce negative effects (e.g., stress, anxiety, grief, numbing, etc.) that need to be managed. Methods such as emotional self-regulation are often used to help people cope when these effects present themselves post-trauma. In recent years mobile-computing-devices-based apps have been increasingly used to help the general population with autonomous self-regulation. However, none of these is designed for people with I/DD or is cognizant of the trauma they experience in their lives. We interviewed eight (8) practitioners at a trauma services organization that, among other things, helps people with I/DD learn and practice post-trauma self-regulation. The goal of the interviews is to understand what it would take to build post-trauma self-regulation apps for people with I/DD. Based on the interview responses we argue for a set of guidelines, based on the social work practice of trauma-informed care, to design post-trauma self-regulation apps for people with I/DD.