Localizing and Designing Computer-Based Safety Training Solutions for Hispanic Construction Workers

Abstract

Despite the construction industry’s generally positive reaction to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in many of its functions, some of the profession’s key players reside in a digital divide and do not benefit from advances in technology. Hispanic construction workers, an at-risk population with high rates of workplace accidents, are affected by that divide because they rarely take advantage of available ICTs at work. One application of ICTs that can help Hispanic/Latino workers is computer-based training (CBT) for occupational safety. However, the design of CBT materials for Spanish-speaking workers needs to go beyond basic localization of existing products in English. A radical localization approach that uses participatory design sessions with construction workers and their supervisors is proposed in this paper. This case study reports that Latino workers reacted positively and retained knowledge from CBT materials, including videos with elements of humor and without graphic representations of accidents, modeled after the genre of a television situation comedy.

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