Assistive Robots and Reasonable Work Assignment Reduce Perceived Stigma toward Persons with Disabilities

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Klein, Stina, Prodinger, Birgit, André, Elisabeth, Mikelsons, Lars, Mandischer, Nils
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Klein, Stina
Prodinger, Birgit
André, Elisabeth
Mikelsons, Lars
Mandischer, Nils
author_facet Klein, Stina
Prodinger, Birgit
André, Elisabeth
Mikelsons, Lars
Mandischer, Nils
contents Robots are becoming more prominent in assisting persons with disabilities (PwD). Whilst there is broad consensus that robots can assist in mitigating physical impairments, the extent to which they can facilitate social inclusion remains equivocal. In fact, the exposed status of assisted workers could likewise lead to reduced or increased perceived stigma by other workers. We present a vignette study on the perceived cognitive and behavioral stigma toward PwD in the workplace. We designed four experimental conditions depicting a coworker with an impairment in work scenarios: overburdened work, suitable work, and robot-assisted work only for the coworker, and an offer of robot-assisted work for everyone. Our results show that cognitive stigma is significantly reduced when the work task is adapted to the person's abilities or augmented by an assistive robot. In addition, offering robot-assisted work for everyone, in the sense of universal design, further reduces perceived cognitive stigma. Thus, we conclude that assistive robots reduce perceived cognitive stigma, thereby supporting the use of collaborative robots in work scenarios involving PwDs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_22689
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assistive Robots and Reasonable Work Assignment Reduce Perceived Stigma toward Persons with Disabilities
Klein, Stina
Prodinger, Birgit
André, Elisabeth
Mikelsons, Lars
Mandischer, Nils
Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
Robots are becoming more prominent in assisting persons with disabilities (PwD). Whilst there is broad consensus that robots can assist in mitigating physical impairments, the extent to which they can facilitate social inclusion remains equivocal. In fact, the exposed status of assisted workers could likewise lead to reduced or increased perceived stigma by other workers. We present a vignette study on the perceived cognitive and behavioral stigma toward PwD in the workplace. We designed four experimental conditions depicting a coworker with an impairment in work scenarios: overburdened work, suitable work, and robot-assisted work only for the coworker, and an offer of robot-assisted work for everyone. Our results show that cognitive stigma is significantly reduced when the work task is adapted to the person's abilities or augmented by an assistive robot. In addition, offering robot-assisted work for everyone, in the sense of universal design, further reduces perceived cognitive stigma. Thus, we conclude that assistive robots reduce perceived cognitive stigma, thereby supporting the use of collaborative robots in work scenarios involving PwDs.
title Assistive Robots and Reasonable Work Assignment Reduce Perceived Stigma toward Persons with Disabilities
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22689