Work

User personas and home participation among children with physical mobility impairments: Data-driven behavioral typologies for home adaptation

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The home environment is a key context for understanding the everyday participation of children with physical mobility impairments as a form of disability, but conventional assessments do not adequately capture heterogeneity in home space use. This study focuses on children aged 3 to 12 and examines behavioral heterogeneity in home space use, addressing a key limitation of conventional assessment systems based primarily on ability classification. Based on 480 valid questionnaire responses jointly completed by children and caregivers, cluster analysis was applied to examine multiple dimensions of home participation, including spatial engagement, task independence, companionship dependency, emotional experience, and device operation. The results identified three user personas with interpretable profiles: low spatial-use, high spatial-engagement, and high companionship-dependency. The personas showed an association with age stage, reflecting a progression from high dependency in the preschool years to intensive exploration in early school age, followed by more strategic adaptation in later school age. Although the personas were related to children's Comprehensive Action Ability Index, the correspondence was not one-to-one, suggesting that children at similar ability levels may still adopt differentiated participation strategies due to individual characteristics or differences in environmental support. In addition, the personas were associated with differentiated tendencies in selected furniture-related needs and reported home-space modification preferences. The study operationalizes the person–environment interaction model of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in a home context, advances a behavioral typology perspective for understanding everyday participation, and provides a persona-based reference framework for differentiated home-environment adaptation.

Source: Building and Environment

DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2026.114646

Authors: Zhouyan He, Luca Guardigli, Tianhao Lu

Institution: University of Bologna

Language: English

Topic: Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility

Subfield: Occupational Therapy

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,280