Designing Assistive Technology For Less-Resourced Environments: An Online Method to Gauge Accessibility Barriers and Collect Design Advice
By Pearlman, Jon, MS; Jefferds, Alexandra; Nagai, Ila, BS; Chhabra, H.S., MD; Cooper, Rory, PhD; Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) 2007 Conference,Publication Date: 2007
Study conducted to address these difficulties in the design of an electric power wheelchair (EPW) for India. The researchers gathered over 500 photos from people who used wheelchairs, who photographed accessibility barriers around their homes in India. A wide range of EPW experts then reviewed a random subset of the photos via an online survey, and identified the accessibility barriers portrayed in the photos, the severity of those barriers, and provided design ideas for an EPW in terms of those barriers. The authors contend that when designing devices for developing countries, the designers may be unfamiliar with the remote environment, and stakeholder involvement can be complicated by the stakeholders’ remote locations. This type of study could represent a step in the right direction in terms of remote EPW design. This paper was presented at the 2007 Annual Conference of the Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America in Phoenix, Arizona.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
