Individual Abstract within a Delegate Designed Symposium 2025 Joint Meeting of the COSA ASM and IPOS Congress

Accessibility lessons from the Brain Cancer Rehabilitation Assessment Interventions for Survivorship Needs (BRAINs) program for digital supportive care tools (126394)

Rachel Campbell 1 , Mona Faris 1 , Joanne Shaw 1 , Thomas Carlick 1 , Hannah Banks 1 , Sharon He 1 , Jill Chen 1 , Megan Jeon 1 , Haryana Dhillon 1
  1. Psycho-oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG), School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Background
The BRAINs program aimed to improve the survivorship outcomes of people with a brain tumour (BT) by implementing routine assessment of supportive care needs and developing tailored supportive care interventions for this population. We developed several digital tools designed to assess unmet supportive care needs and provide support for cancer-related fatigue. Given the unique cognitive and visual processing deficits prevalent in this population, across BRAINs we adopted a co-design approach to identify modifications required to digital tools to improve their usability.

Methods
People with a BT, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) who care for them were recruited via professional networks, community-based organisations and social media. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain feedback on the acceptability and usability of digital tools.

Results
In total 38 people with a BT, 9 caregivers and 18 HCPs were interviewed across research streams. Overall, participants indicated digital tools were acceptable and desirable but required modification. Participants recommended reducing text, simplifying language by using short, simple sentences, and using audio or video-content as an alternative where possible. Accessibility features that allow users to modify elements such as font size and colour contrast in our digital tools were reported as helpful but needed to be clearly located to overcome impairments in visual scanning. Participants wanted access to digital tools on both web-based platforms and mobile device-enabled apps. However, most stated assistance from a support person would be required for at least some people with BT to use these tools effectively.

Conclusion
By using a co-design approach with key stakeholders we identified adaptions required to digital tools to increase engagement and make them accessible to people with BT. Participants emphasised the importance of tailoring intervention content and format to meet the unique cognitive and visual processing challenges common in this population.