Mobile Location-based Social Networking in Supported Employment for People with Cognitive Impairments

Abstract

The widespread use of cellular telephones and the availability of user location information are facilitating personalized location-based applications and, in particular, mobile location-based social networking (MLSN). The research was started with an aim to use MLSN as a measure to increase social connectedness and improve the quality of life for the majority of otherwise-employable persons who remain unemployed, rarely access appropriate community services, and are socially isolated. An interactive, multimedia, location-based application approach has been proposed to address the needs that frequently arise in the field work of supported employment. An MLSN prototype has been implemented and the results are presented as a case study. Throughout the years of 2007–2008, we had eight test subjects with cognitive disabilities who participated in four independent sessions each, resulting in a total of 32 sessions as a whole. Precision of the MLSN system in the worst case was 89% and the recall in the worst case was 94% when users taking public transportation requested assistance from their care providers within 1 km. When the search range was extended to 3 km, both the precision and recall achieved 100%. To the best of our knowledge, the use of MLSN to assist people with various disabilities has not been previously reported in the literature except in the work by Chang et al. (2007, 2008, 2009) and Chou et al. (2008).