  Despite the potential benefits of assistive technologies (ATs) for people
with various disabilities, only around 7% of Chinese with disabilities have had
an opportunity to use ATs. Even for those who have used ATs, the abandonment
rate was high. Although China has the world's largest population with
disabilities, prior research exploring how ATs are used and perceived, and why
ATs are abandoned have been conducted primarily in North America and Europe. In
this paper, we present an interview study conducted in China with 26 people
with various disabilities to understand their practices, challenges,
perceptions, and misperceptions of using ATs. From the study, we learned about
factors that influence AT adoption practices (e.g., misuse of accessible
infrastructure, issues with replicating existing commercial ATs), challenges
using ATs in social interactions (e.g., Chinese stigma), and misperceptions
about ATs (e.g., ATs should overcome inaccessible social infrastructures).
Informed by the findings, we derive a set of design considerations to bridge
the existing gaps in AT design (e.g., manual vs. electronic ATs) and to improve
ATs' social acceptability in China.
