Page 241 - Demo

Experience sampling methods for mental health research in intellectual disability2397Adapting the questionnaire response scales to the needs of users. This sub-theme describes participants’ views on how the response scales of questionnaires could be adapted to the needs of users, including the use of emoticons and other visuals. Participants were divided about the use of emoticons to reflect positive and negative affect. Emoticons were not included in the current questionnaires but participants were asked if this would aid understanding of the questions. Four participants indicated that it would be useful for them, or others, to support the questions with emoticons. For one participant, this would be distracting: “Emoticons would distract me too much from the questions. […] That would be too complicated for me, to read the questions and also try to understand the meaning of the emoticons.” [P2]Another participant did prefer the use of pictograms over written text: “Picto’s are better for me. Even though I can read and write well, I am intelligent, and I have studied […]. But visual material just works better for me.” [P6]Participants agreed that the preference or need for including emoticons would differ between people. Three participants indicated that it would be important to include visuals for people with literacy problems. As one participant indicated:“For some clients, emoticons may be useful. And for clients who cannot read, pictograms could be used. But for me, I can read, so emoticons or pictograms are not necessary.” [P1]One participant mentioned that experience sampling applications should be inclusive to both people with and without literacy problems:“If you would design one app… Well… It depends on the user. If this is someone who cannot read, then they should be able to adjust the settings and use pictograms instead of written text.” [P2]Annelieke Muller sHL.indd 239 14-11-2023 09:07