Informed Consent Form
This form contains detailed information designed to help you decide if you want to participate in this study. Please consider this information carefully.
Eligibility
For this study we are looking for participants who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, who are at least 18 years old, and who use a computer at least a few times a week.
Purpose of the research
We are building tools to adapt user interfaces to people's individual abilities. In this study we want to understand how people with Parkinson's Disease control pointing devices (such as mouse, trackball, trackpad, etc) so that we can understand how to build more inclusive interfaces in the future.
What you will do in this research
You will first be asked to provide your contact information (name, phone number, and email address) and one of our researchers will contact you by phone to ask basic information about you and how you use your computer. The researcher will also answer any detailed questions you might have about the study.
The main part of the study will involve completing a set of simple clicking tasks. We will ask you to do these sets of tasks twice at two different times of the day. Each time you will need between 15 and 30 minutes to complete the tasks.
Time required
Participation will take approximately 10 minutes to answer the researcher's questions over the phone and between 15 and 30 minutes to complete each of the two sets of the clicking tasks.
Risks
There are no anticipated risks associated with participating in this study. The effects of performing the clicking and dragging tasks should be comparable to those you would experience from viewing a computer monitor for 30 minutes and using your usual pointing device.
Benefits
Other than the monetary compensation, you will not directly benefit from participating in this study. If you wish, you can send an email message to prof. Krzysztof Gajos at kgajos@eecs.harvard.edu and he will send you a copy of any manuscripts based on the research (or summaries of our results).
Compensation
You will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate for participating in this study. A valid email address is necessary to receive the compensation.
Confidentiality
Your participation in this study will remain confidential, and your identity will not be stored with your data. Your responses will be assigned a code number, and the list connecting your name with this number will be kept secure and will be destroyed within three months after your payment has been sent.
Participation and withdrawal
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, and you may refuse to participate or withdraw from the study without penalty or loss of benefits to which you may otherwise be entitled.
To contact the researcher
If you have questions about this research, please contact prof. Krzysztof Gajos (33 Oxford St, Rm 251, Cambridge, MA 02139, kgajos@eecs.harvard.edu, tel. 617-496-1876).
Whom to contact about your rights in this research, for questions, concerns, suggestions, or complaints that are not being addressed by the researcher, or research-related harm
Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research at Harvard University, 1414 Massachusetts Avenue, Second Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: 617-496-2847. Email: cuhs@fas.harvard.edu
Agreement
The nature and purpose of this research have been sufficiently explained and I agree to participate in this study. I understand that I am free to withdraw at any time without incurring any penalty.
Please save or print a copy of this page for your records.
I agree and I wish to participate in this study