Angela Dosis

A Framework for Designing Inclusive Online Communities The Role of Inclusive Design for Salutogenesis in Chronic Disease Online Communities

Online health communities are often designed for clinical purposes. The user needs within a chronic care community such as cancer are as diverse and complex as their symptom and treatment for latent and long-term effects. While these communities provide the functional needs such as synchronous and asynchronous communication features, they often fail to deliver a functional design that is inclusive of all user needs. The ability to inclusively design online health communities is critical to the overall goal of user satisfaction and in turn the salutogenesis of the participants. The proactive approach to health and wellness can be supported and influenced through online communities however; to ensure the broadest reach is possible to these communities they must be designed to be inclusive. This paper will define a tool by which online health communities can be designed and evaluated for access and participation while ensuring the wide range of human diversity. The Framework for Inclusive Design of Online Communities [FIDOC] will propose the key elements that are necessary to support the notion of well-being in these chronic care communities. FIDOC addresses the process by which designers can iteratively work to achieve inclusion when designing online health communities and offers recommendations for future research. http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/148/