Com o aumento da expectativa de vida em quase todos os países do mundo, inclusive no Brasil, o número de pessoas idosas vem crescendo de forma considerável. Consequentemente, as doenças degenerativas comuns às pessoas com idades avançadas também tendem a aumentar correspondentemente, tornando doenças, como o Alzheimer, cada vez mais comuns. O cuidado a esses idosos é de extrema importância. Infelizmente, um dos problemas enfrentados pela sociedade, é que o número de cuidadores nesse contexto não segue um aumento proporcional, resultando então em cuidadores altamente sobrecarregados. Acredita-se que o uso de tecnologia para algumas tarefas dos cuidadores (e.g. registro do dia a dia), possa amenizar essa sobrecarga, mas, o que se tem visto é a carência de ferramentas tecnológicas que possam auxiliar nas atividades de cuidado ao paciente idoso. Apesar da importância de estudos nessa direção, poucas iniciativas de pesquisas abordam questões relacionadas às ferramentas tecnológicas para apoiar cuidadores de idosos, sem que essa os traga uma sobrecarga ainda maior. Uma das tarefas que pode ser feita com o auxílio da tecnologia é o registro de informações diárias do idoso, como por exemplo, alimentação, medicação e higiene. A partir das informações coletadas, é possível gerar visualizações que podem potencializar as análises feitas pelos médicos, e consequentemente, prover colaboração entre os cuidadores e os diferentes profissionais de saúde (e.g. psicólogos, nutricionistas, terapeutas ocupacionais, enfermeiros). Com o objetivo de entender melhor as reais necessidades dos cuidadores na coleta das informações do dia a dia, foram conduzidos alguns estudos que consistiam, basicamente, na realização de entrevistas e aplicação de questionários avaliativos. Diante dos resultados obtidos nesses estudos, foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta nomeada Day2Day que utiliza técnicas de visualização de informação e conceitos colaborativos como solução. A fim de avaliar se o Day2Day atingia os objetivos propostos, foi possível implantar a ferramenta em dois ambientes reais distintos, um lar para idosos e duas residências particulares. No total, sete profissionais de saúde fizeram uso da ferramenta por aproximadamente 25 dias, gerando informações diárias de oito idosos. Os resultados dessa avaliação indicam que o Day2Day atende em conformidade com as expectativas propostas, como por exemplo, a redução do tempo gasto para registro das informação. / Nowadays, the number of elderly people has grown considerably is almost every country in the world, including Brazil. Thus, many degenerative diseases that affect elderly people, such as the Alzheimer, also tend to increase and becomme more common. Taking care of elderly is extremelly important, however one of the problems faced by society is the fact that the number of caregivers does not follow this proportional increase, overloading most of the professionals. A possible solution may be the adoption of technology to help elderly caregivers in their tasks, such as recording day to day activities, and addressing these needs in a context where there is a lack of technological tools. Despite the importance of studies in this area, few research initiatives deal issues related to technological tools in order to support elderly caregivers, and in general they bring an even greater overhead in their tasks. One activity that can be done using technological tools is the record daily information of the elderly, such as feeding, medication and hygiene times. From the information collected, it is possible to generate useful views that can enhance the analysis made by doctors, and consequently provide more collaboration among caregivers and different health professionals (phycologists, nursers and so on). In order to better understand the real needs of caregivers in their day to day tasks, interviews and the application of evaluation questionnaires were conducted. Based on these results a so called Day2Day tool has been developed. It uses information from visualization techniques and collaborative concepts. In purpose of assess Day2Day has reached its goals, the tool was deployed in two real different environments: a home for elderly people and two private homes. A total of seven health professionals used the tool for 25 days, producing daily information of eight elderly. The results of this study have shown that the Day2Day tool meets in accordance with expectation proposals, such as reducing the time spent for recording information.

Early reading literacy is foundational to all other academic learning. It is imperative that elementary students with and without disabilities be provided with evidence-based reading instruction. Elementary students with developmental disabilities (DD) and complex communication needs (CCN) benefit from evidence-based reading instruction that incorporates individualized, explicit instruction and appropriate assistive technology. Research to identify evidence-based practices for students with DD and CCN is necessary to assist teachers to close the gap in overall achievement for this group of learners. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of the early reading program Go Talk Phonics (Ahlgrim-Delzell, Browder, &Wood, 2014) that incorporated evidence-based systematic instruction delivered through assistive technology to teach reading to elementary students ( n = 2 ) with DD and CCN. The two participants in this single-case designed study did not make adequate progress toward the objectives of Lesson One of the intervention in order to continue on to Lessons Two and Three. Although the participants in this study were less successful in the objectives of the lesson than participants in the Ahlgrim-Delzell et al., (2014) study, there were differences in the participants, assistive technology, and design of the experiment. Important considerations were revealed when selecting academic interventions for students with CCN and DD. Assessment of broader aspects of the students' skills and literacy experience, as well as differential reinforcement procedures specific to instructional demands may be necessary to see gains from instruction.

Special education (SPED) service providers in the military are often underprepared to use the needed assistive technology (AT) in the classroom. This concurrent mixed-method study sought to explore the attitudes, skills, and quality indicators of assistive technology (QIAT) among 19 currently employed military SPED certified multidisciplinary team members. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the professional learning community model, which holds that the team members work collaboratively to educate the families it serves. All team members completed a quantitative QIAT survey and open-ended questionnaire, and individual qualitative interviews were conducted with a subsample of 8 volunteer staff. QIAT survey data were descriptively analyzed, while questionnaire data were transcribed, open coded, and thematically analyzed. All data were triangulated and member checking and peer debriefing were used to strengthen validity and credibility of the findings. Survey data revealed teachers' willingness to utilize AT in the classroom, although qualitative data suggested that the multidisciplinary team lacked the knowledge to consistently and confidently utilize AT within their classes daily. Additional emergent themes included collaboration, viable resources, unifying guidelines, AT support, training, and guidance. Administrators at the local site can use these findings as guidance in the development of in-service and district AT trainings and support. Through consistent usage of these interventions, the military community can impact positive change in the lived experiences of SPED service providers and the families that it serves.

The Institute of Medicine's report in 2000, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, highlighted the seriousness of medical errors in the U.S. health care system. The unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients is one of those errors. At the time of this study, there was no standardized counting policy and process across operating rooms in the United States. The purpose of this project was to develop a best practice educational counting program to help prevent the unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients. The Logic Model was used to guide the design of the educational program and expected learning outcomes. A draft of the educational program was distributed to 10 perioperative stakeholders for an initial formative review. Changes were incorporated into the program and it was distributed to 6 perioperative experts for an additional summative assessment and content validation utilizing the AGREE II Instrument. The overall quality evaluation of the educational program was 85%, indicating that it was of high quality. Four of the respondents recommended the educational program for implementation without any changes and 2 recommended it for implementation with some minor modifications related to rewording of one question in the pretest-posttest. There were no recommended modifications in the content of the educational program. As a result, the project was recommended for adoption as a best practices-based educational program to prevent the unintentional retention of foreign objects in surgical patients. The study promotes positive social change by providing suggestions to improve the provision of safe care to surgical patients and decrease health care costs.

Dans certaines circonstances, une personne peut être privée de ces capacités à des degrés divers, peut-être en raison de l'amputation des membres, lésions de la moelle épinière ou de maladies dégénératives. Dans ces cas, les appareils fonctionnels sont des outils pertinents pour aider les personnes à améliorer leurs capacités fonctionnelles. Particulièrement adapté dans le cas des personnes atteintes de déficience motrice grave, biosignaux électriques ont été utilisées avec succès pour faire fonctionner les appareils de communication alternatifs. Depuis plus d'un demi-siècle, l'information extraite du signal électromyographique pour operer un dispositif n'a pas examiné les informations fournies par l'unité de base du muscle: l'unité motrice. L'objectif de cette étude est d'examiner comment accéder à l'information au niveau de l'unité motrice permettrait d'améliorer les performances de l'opérateur au cours de la tâche de contrôle du curseur. L'objectif de cette étude est de déterminer si l'accès aux informations au niveau de l'unité motrice permettrait d'améliorer les performances de l'opérateur au cours de la tâche de contrôle du curseur. L'hypothèse est que la méthodologie proposée permettrait de générer des commandes de contrôle plus précises, par rapport aux approches traditionnelles en s'appuyant sur l'information globale obtenue par l'acquisition du signal sEMG conventionnel. Un système pour détecter les potentiels d'action d'unités motrices à partir du signal électromyographique a été conçu, y compris la conception de l'électrode, et la performance évaluée en mesurant le temps pris pour effectuer plusieurs tâches de contrôle du curseur. Les spécifications des tâches ont été extraites d'une étude précédente, qui a utilisé la méthode traditionnelle de traitement du signal électromyographique. La comparaison, basée sur la difficulté de la tâche estimée par la loi de Fitts, a indiqué que le signal de commande généré par la nouvelle méthode a fourni une meilleure précision que celle générée par l'approche traditionnelle, étant 27% plus rapide dans la tâche plus difficile / In some circumstances, a person may be deprived of natural abilities, such as walking and speaking, perhaps due to limb amputation, spinal cord injuries (SCI), or degenerative diseases. Assistive technology devices allows motor-impaired people to overcome their limitations promoting greater independence. Particularly suitable in the case of people with severe motor impairment, electrical biosignals have been successfully utilised to operate alternative communication devices. For over half a century, information extracted from the electromyographic signal for the purpose of operating a given device has not considered the information provided by the basic unit of the muscle: the motor unit. The objective of this study is to investigate how accessing information at motor unit level would improve the operator's performance during a given task. The hypothesis is that the proposed methodology would allow generating more precise control commands, when compared to traditional approaches relying on global information obtained by conventional electromyographic signal acquisition and processing. A system to detect motor unit action potentials from the electromyographic signal was devised, including the electrode design, and the performance evaluated by measuring the time taken to perform several cursor control tasks. The specifications of the cursor control task were extracted from a different study, which used the traditional electromyographic signal-processing approach. Comparing the results from both studies proved that the novel approach provides better control than the traditional one, being 27\% faster in the most difficult task

Computer usage today is predominantly based on graphical interaction, where the visual presentation of information is essential both for input (hand-eye coordination when using a computer mouse), and output (seeing the information on a computer screen). This can create difficulties for blind computer users, both at an individual level when interacting with a computer, and also when collaborating with other computer users. The work presented in this thesis has investigated interaction for blind computer users in three stages. First investigating access to information by making studies on an interactive audio-only game, drawing conclusions about auditory direct manipulation and auditory interface design. Second studying collaboration between blind and sighted computer users in two different contexts, leading to questioning of commonly expressed design principles regarding access to collaboration. Finally studying accessibility in a working environment, finding out how technology, the assistive device used by the blind person, communication with others and professional knowledge interplayed to create an accessible work environment. Based on these empirical studies, the main conclusion from this work is a proposal of a research perspective, Assistive interfaces as cooperative interfaces. Here, the context where the interface is going to be used is in focus, and cooperative and social dimensions of interaction are acknowledged and highlighted. The design and analysis of assistive devices should be highly sensitive to the socio-interactional environment, and not just focusing on the single individual using an assistive device. / QC 20100921

The ability to differentiate between colours varies from individual to individual. This variation is attributed to factors such as the presence of colour blindness. Colour is used to encode information in information visualizations. An example of such an encoding is categorization using colour (e.g., green for land, blue for water).<p> As a result of the variation in colour differentiation ability among individuals, many people experience difficulties when using colour-encoded information visualizations. These difficulties result from the inability to adequately differentiate between two colours, resulting in confusion, errors, frustration, and dissatisfaction.<p> If a user-specific model of colour differentiation was available, these difficulties could be predicted and corrected. Prediction and correction of these difficulties would reduce the amount of confusion, errors, frustration, and dissatisfaction experienced by users. This thesis presents a model of colour differentiation that is tuned to the abilities of a particular user. To construct this model, a series of judgement tasks are performed by the user. The data from these judgement tasks is used to calibrate a general colour differentiation model to the user. This calibrated model is used to construct a predictor. This predictor can then be used to make predictions about the user's ability to differentiate between two colours.<p> Two participant-based studies were used to evaluate this solution. The first study evaluated the basic approach used to model colour differentiation. The second study evaluated the accuracy of the predictor by comparing its performance to the performance of human participants. It was found that the predictor was as accurate as the human participants 86.3% of the time. Using such a predictor, the colour differentiation abilities of particular users can be accurately modeled.

The ability to differentiate between colours varies from individual to individual. This variation is attributed to factors such as the presence of colour blindness. Colour is used to encode information in information visualizations. An example of such an encoding is categorization using colour (e.g., green for land, blue for water).<p> As a result of the variation in colour differentiation ability among individuals, many people experience difficulties when using colour-encoded information visualizations. These difficulties result from the inability to adequately differentiate between two colours, resulting in confusion, errors, frustration, and dissatisfaction.<p> If a user-specific model of colour differentiation was available, these difficulties could be predicted and corrected. Prediction and correction of these difficulties would reduce the amount of confusion, errors, frustration, and dissatisfaction experienced by users. This thesis presents a model of colour differentiation that is tuned to the abilities of a particular user. To construct this model, a series of judgement tasks are performed by the user. The data from these judgement tasks is used to calibrate a general colour differentiation model to the user. This calibrated model is used to construct a predictor. This predictor can then be used to make predictions about the user's ability to differentiate between two colours.<p> Two participant-based studies were used to evaluate this solution. The first study evaluated the basic approach used to model colour differentiation. The second study evaluated the accuracy of the predictor by comparing its performance to the performance of human participants. It was found that the predictor was as accurate as the human participants 86.3% of the time. Using such a predictor, the colour differentiation abilities of particular users can be accurately modeled.

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The design of Assistive Technology (AT) products that are highly functional as well satisfactory is presents many challenges. Various types of input are used in design of AT products to help overcome them. A study was conducted to gather data on the impact that different types of input (from simulation tools, a professional therapist, and end users) during the design of an AT product has on the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of the final design. The results show that input from stakeholders (end users or a therapist) can be very effective. However, effectiveness of the input is influenced by many factors and its impact on the design can be highly variable. Input from simulation tools was also found to be equally effective. Implications of these findings for the process of designing AT products are discussed.