I Don’t Want to Sound Rude, but It’s None of Their Business: Exploring Security and Privacy Concerns around Assistive Technology Use in Educational Settings

Abstract

Students with disabilities often use assistive technology to gain equal access to educational content. However, using this technology can lead to security and privacy concerns, including the possibility of disclosing a disability. In this work, we explore that and other privacy risks happening through the use of assistive technology in educational settings. We conducted interviews with eight students who use assistive technology, exploring the risks around in-person and online classes and how they changed as students moved to remote courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that students were aware of in-person risks but generally had not thought of the potential risks of online disclosure. Students were concerned about their disability being disclosed, especially without their explicit consent, but they considered tradeoffs, including increased accessibility for themselves and others, that might make them more accepting of disclosure. Building on the interviews, we did an analysis of the privacy policies of the assistive technology that the students used, examining how potential privacy and security vulnerabilities were communicated. We found that, although there are identified vulnerabilities for many of the assistive technologies, the policies varied widely in whether or how much information they gave the user about the risks.