Researchers in the U.S. Pacific Northwest recently delivered a piece of assistive technology whose design began with a simple but important question: What will the person using this tech need?
Last month a team of engineers and occupational therapists from Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. delivered a learning station they’d designed for a first grader with cerebral palsy.
David Schipf, assistant professor of engineering and physics at Whitworth, says the project’s success was due to the collaborative efforts between team members—engineers, physical therapists, and occupational therapists—and the child and his family. After multiple consultations with the family, the Whitworth team delivered their system.
“The station is very user-friendly, allowing Ryken to focus on his first-grade studies and putting him at eye-level with those speaking to him,” says Schipf. “He will also be able to move throughout the house as needed.”
The first grader, Ryken, has a form of cerebral palsy along with other disabilities, which include epilepsy, hearing, and visual impairments.
Ryken’s mother had initially contacted Schipf because Ryken was unable to participate fully in his education. And she’d discovered a lack of suitable equipment on the market that Ryken could use to meet his needs.
What Is User-Centered Design in Assistive Tech? As advocates for user-centered design (UCD) have pointed out, functional assistive tech needs to “answer the needs” of the person it’s designed for—not just the needs of people designing it. As one example, Shipf points to the station’s high-contrast black background, which allowed Ryken to view anything placed in front of him easily. “It had to have some adjustable features for his caregivers and for his teacher,” Schipf says. “And his mother wanted the seat on the learning center to be able to be raised up and lowered according to what he was doing at the time. So if he’s learning with his teacher to have it be lower to the ground, and then if he’s in the kitchen with his mom, to have it raise up to counter height.”
“The raising and lowering came from an electrical raising and lowering kind of a piston that we purchased,” he adds. “And it’s usually designed for kitchen tables for families that want a kitchen table that can raise and lower. So it had the load capacity that we needed. And then we just had a pretty large onboard power bank that could also provide an AC 120 voltage power source for the raising and lowering platform. … And then several of the mechanical components were custom designed and 3D printed.” Katie Ericsson, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Whitworth, highlighted one of the students who worked on the project. This student suggested that emphasis also be placed on the aesthetics of the project, reminding the team that, “Hey, this is going to be in their home, and his mother doesn’t want this to look ugly in their home.”
A team of engineers and occupational and physical therapists in Washington state developed a customized communications device to help a father and his disabled daughter remain active and mobile—but also within reach of emergency services if assistance is ever needed. David Schipf
Making Assistive Tech More Collaborative
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