Disabled Individuals’ Negative Perceptions of Mobile Health Applications: Design Guidance for HFE Practitioners

Disabled individuals experience significant inequities in healthcare access, healthcare quality, social determinants of health, and health outcomes compared to non-disabled individuals. By including people with disabilities in the co-design of mobile health (MHealth) applications, we gain valuable insights to improve alignment between users’ needs and MHealth technologies. Through a secondary analysis of mixed-methods data, this paper investigates negative perceptions of disabled individuals regarding MHealth applications to inform MHealth application design guidance for human factors practitioners. Fifty participants with physical, cognitive, sensory, and/or mental health-related disabilities interacted with three MHealth applications during task analysis sessions, revealing concerns about data security, data privacy, and unnecessary patient work. Recommendations include clear articulation of security measures, clarifications that patient profiles are not publicly available, and simplified data entry processes. Implementing these recommendations may enhance the accessibility and usefulness of MHealth applications, promoting healthcare access for a broader range of individuals.