The manual wheelchair (MWC) and power wheelchair (PWC) each present advantages and disadvantages to participation and occupational performance. Consequently, some individuals choose to use both devices, depending upon the activity. A pushrim-activated, power-assisted wheelchair (PPW) may provide an alternative to the PWC for these users. This study utilized a two-phase, mixed methods design, comparing the performance and satisfaction of wheelchair users carrying out self-selected activities with their current PWC and with a PPW. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome measures between the PWC and PPW; however, many participants reported a preference for the PWC. Less accessible environments, particularly when transporting a wheelchair, were identified as opportunities for PPW use. Rather than replacing the PWC for all of their identified activities, participants indicated the PPW improved upon the MWC. As a result, participants expressed a willingness to try more (and new) activities, including some previously performed with the PWC. / October 2006

This mixed methods study examined assistive technology and its role in the world early writers. It investigated the function of word predictive and speech synthesis software in the early primary, mainstream classroom. A technology based writing intervention with 27 first grade students was carried out to assess how the use of Co:writer software affected the content of student writing. It looked at how the length of the writing sample, word use and sentence complexity was affected by this writing intervention. It also investigated how students interacted with the software and how they felt about its effect on their writing. The hypothesis was that the use of assistive technology while writing would aid students in creating more sophisticated, content rich writing samples and give students a positive feeling about their writing. Using a pre-post design, participant writing samples were analyzed for length, word use and sentence complexity. Targeted interviews and field notes revealed how students interacted with the software and how they felt about its effect on their writing. The data shows that within this study participants improved the length, and sentence complexity in their written samples. Qualitatively participants reported that the software helped to improve their vocabulary, length of writing sample, spelling, reading and editing. This study lays groundwork for more research into the use of assistive writing technology in early mainstream participants. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-04-24 02:12:01.196

The number of elderly people around the world is growing rapidly. This has led to an increase in the number of people who are seeking assistance and adequate service either at home or in long-term- care institutions to successfully accomplish their daily activities. Responding to these needs has been a burden to the health care system in terms of labour and associated costs and has motivated research in developing alternative services using new technologies. Various intelligent, and non-intelligent, machines and robots have been developed to meet the needs of elderly and people with upper limb disabilities or dysfunctions in gaining independence in eating, which is one of the most frequent and time-consuming everyday tasks. However, in almost all cases, the proposed systems are designed only for the personal use of one individual and little effort to design a multiple-user feeding robot has been previously made. The feeding requirements of elderly in environments such as senior homes, where many elderly residents dine together at least three times per day, have not been extensively researched before. The aim of this research was to develop a machine to feed multiple elderly people based on their characteristics and feeding needs, as determined through observations at a nursing home. Observations of the elderly during meal times have revealed that almost 40% of the population was totally dependent on nurses or caregivers to be fed. Most of those remaining, suffered from hand tremors, joint pain or lack of hand muscle strength, which made utensil manipulation and coordination very difficult and the eating process both messy and lengthy. In addition, more than 43% of the elderly were very slow in eating because of chewing and swallowing problems and most of the rest were slow in scooping and directing utensils toward their mouths. Consequently, one nurse could only respond to a maximum of two diners simultaneously. In order to manage the needs of all elderly diners, they required the assistance of additional staff members. The limited time allocated for each meal and the daily progression of the seniors??? disabilities also made mealtime very challenging. Based on the caregivers??? opinion, many of the elderly in such environments can benefit from a machine capable of feeding multiple users simultaneously. Since eating is a slow procedure, the idle state of the robot during one user???s chewing and swallowing time can be allotted for feeding another person who is sitting at the same table. The observations and studies have resulted in the design of a food tray, and selection of an appropriate robot and applicable user interface. The proposed system uses a 6-DOF serial articulated robot in the center of a four-seat table along with a specifically designed food tray to feed one to four people. It employs a vision interface for food detection and recognition. Building the dynamic equations of the robotic system and simulation of the system were used to verify its dynamic behaviour before any prototyping and real-time testing.

The manual wheelchair (MWC) and power wheelchair (PWC) each present advantages and disadvantages to participation and occupational performance. Consequently, some individuals choose to use both devices, depending upon the activity. A pushrim-activated, power-assisted wheelchair (PPW) may provide an alternative to the PWC for these users. This study utilized a two-phase, mixed methods design, comparing the performance and satisfaction of wheelchair users carrying out self-selected activities with their current PWC and with a PPW. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome measures between the PWC and PPW; however, many participants reported a preference for the PWC. Less accessible environments, particularly when transporting a wheelchair, were identified as opportunities for PPW use. Rather than replacing the PWC for all of their identified activities, participants indicated the PPW improved upon the MWC. As a result, participants expressed a willingness to try more (and new) activities, including some previously performed with the PWC.

This dissertation addresses issues related to teaching and learning middle-school mathematical graphing concepts and provides an in-depth analysis on the impact of introducing a new assistive technology in a visually impaired classroom. The motivation, design, implementation, and deployment of the Graph and Number line Input and Exploration (GNIE) software, an auditory graphing tool that enables students with visual impairment to navigate and interact with a coordinate plane or number line graph is presented. Results include a discussion about how a computer-based auditory graphing software can be a beneficial supplement to aiding teachers and students with vision impairment with middle-school based graphing principles. This work also demonstrates that auditory graphing software support collaboration between students of different levels of vision loss and that bone-conduction headphones can be used with software to perform concurrent think aloud protocols without degradation of qualitative data.

The manual wheelchair (MWC) and power wheelchair (PWC) each present advantages and disadvantages to participation and occupational performance. Consequently, some individuals choose to use both devices, depending upon the activity. A pushrim-activated, power-assisted wheelchair (PPW) may provide an alternative to the PWC for these users. This study utilized a two-phase, mixed methods design, comparing the performance and satisfaction of wheelchair users carrying out self-selected activities with their current PWC and with a PPW. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome measures between the PWC and PPW; however, many participants reported a preference for the PWC. Less accessible environments, particularly when transporting a wheelchair, were identified as opportunities for PPW use. Rather than replacing the PWC for all of their identified activities, participants indicated the PPW improved upon the MWC. As a result, participants expressed a willingness to try more (and new) activities, including some previously performed with the PWC.

Hearing loss is a disability that affects thousands of people in the world. It is estimated that there is 400,000 people with hearing difficulties in New Zealand (New Zealand Audiological Society, 2007). People with hearing loss have the right to access to information and communication (United Nations Enable, 2003). Without access to information and communication, the hearing impaired may encounter problems with emotional and social functioning, and consequently suffer with decreased quality of life. Clinical experience and investigations have revealed success with assistive listening devices (ALDs) where use of hearing aids has been unsuccessful. ALDs are devices that improve the communication function for the hearing impaired. ALDs can be used with or without hearing aids to overcome the negative effects of poor room acoustics. Currently, in the literature, little is known about the use and maintenance of ALDs in community organizations. This study investigates the use and maintenance of ALDs in the Christchurch community of New Zealand. A list of community organizations that provide ALDs to the public of Christchurch was also made available to individuals who have hearing impairment. The study found there is a lack of ALDs within the Christchurch community. Also that current ALD technology within the Christchurch community is not necessarily compatible with current hearing aid technology and that most organizations rely too heavily on PA systems. PA systems do not necessarily meet the needs of the hearing impaired and an ALD specifically targeting their hearing loss would improve their speech perception. Community organizations are not advertising enough that they offer ALDs which adds to the lack of awareness in Christchurch. Results found that most ALDs in the Christchurch community are in working order, however, there is a need for organizations to be educated about their use and maintenance. Audiologists and other health professionals have a key role in providing appropriate recommendations in the use and benefits that ALDs have on speech perception. These will directly improve the listening situations that the hearing impaired have throughout their communities, thus improving their quality of life.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Melody Moore, committee chair; Detmar Straub, Veda Storey, Bruce Walker, committee members. Electronic text (166 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 5, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-164).

Body cleansing is an integral part of people's everyday life. Between five and seven percent of people over the age of 65 experience problems when using the bathroom. Some investigators have postulated that disability in older persons can further occur when there is a gap, mismatch, or poor fit between personal capabilities and environmental demands. Current bathing fixtures do not support people with limited ability, and so the current bathing environment perpetuates bathing disability. Furthermore, because assistive bathing technology is meant for one particular user, it can impede other users when they need to bathe. A consequence of this is that the assistive bathing technology could be abandoned. The purpose of this study is to design and evaluate a bathtub for body cleansing regardless of an individual's physical ability and allow for all stakeholders to use the tub within the same space.

Assistive robots have the potential to enable persons with motor disabilities to live more independent lives. Object retrieval has been rated a high-priority task for assistive robots. A key challenge in creating effective assistive robots lies in designing control interfaces that enable the human user to control the robot. This thesis builds on prior work that uses a laser pointer to allow the person to intuitively communicate their goals to a robot by creating a `clickable world'. Specifically, this thesis reduces the infrastructure needed for the robot to recognize the user's goal by augmenting the laser pointer with a small camera, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and a laser rangefinder to estimate the location of the object to be grasped. The robot then drives to the approximate target location given by input from the laser pointer while using an onboard camera to detect an object near the target location. Local autonomy on the robot is used to visually navigate to the detected object to enable object retrieval. Results show a successful proof of concept in demonstrating reasonable detection of user intent on a 1.23 x 1.83 meters squared test grid. Testing of the estimation of object location in the odometry frame fell within range of successful local autonomy object retrieval for an environment with a single object. Future work includes testing on a wide variety of dropped objects and in cluttered environments which is needed to validate the effectiveness of the system for potential end users.