Assistive/Adaptive Technology

This paper aims to show the possible and actual synergies between social robotics and sociology. The author argues that social robots are one of the best fields of inquiry to provide a bridge between the two cultures – the one represented by the social sciences and the humanities on the one hand, and the one represented by the natural sciences and engineering on the other. To achieve this result, quantitative and qualitative analyses are implemented. By using scientometric tools like Ngram Viewer, search engines such as Google Scholar, and hand calculations, the author detects the emergence of the term-and-concept ‘social robots’ in its current use, the absolute and relative frequencies of this term in the scientific literature in the period 1800-2008, the frequency distribution of publications including this term in the period 2000-2019, and the magnitude of publications in which the term ‘social robots’ is associated to the term ‘sociology’ or 'social work'. Finally, employing qualitative analysis and focusing on exemplary cases, this paper shows different ways of implementing researches that relate sociology to robotics, from a theoretical or instrumental point of view. It is argued that sociologists and engineers could work in a team to observe, analyze, and describe the interaction between humans and social robots, by using research techniques and theoretical frames provided by sociology. In turn, this knowledge can be used to build more effective and humanlike social robots.

Wheelchair users can find accessing digital content on large multi-touch tables particularly difficult and frustrating due to their limited reach. We present work in progress that is exploring the potential of enhancing touch table accessibility through the use of mid-air gesturing technology. An overview of an experimental prototype is provided along with the key findings from an evaluation conducted with fifteen wheelchair users at a public library and heritage centre.

As a proof of concept for anticipation based assisted living we introduce a particular kind of adaptive architecture that integrates intelligent materials within the encompassing IoT. For this purpose, data regarding the anticipatory profile of individuals and the use of machine learning in capturing individual needs, was acquired. The structure presented was tested in partial applications. Feedback from those working in assisted living was integrated in pur suant attempts at modelling adaptive architecture structures.

Background: Children with cerebral palsy may have extensive motor impairments and intellectual disabilities, with negative
outcomes on their academic performance and constructive engagement
Objectives: To assess the effects of assistive technology-based programs on self-determination and independence of children
with cerebral palsy while dealing with academic activities. To evaluate the clinical validity of the implemented treatments. To carry
out the effects of such interventions on positive participation and quality of life of children with cerebral palsy.
Method: A mini review was conducted on the empirical studies published during the last five years (i.e., 2013-2018 range
period) within this framework. Four studies were critically discussed.
Results: Data were widely positive for all the participants. They improved their performance. Positive participation and
constructive engagement as outcome measures of their quality of life increased as well.
Conclusion: Assistive Technology-based programs were helpful for enhancing academic performance of children with cerebral
palsy. Their inclusion in daily settings was favorably fostered.

Trunk exoskeletons are wearable devices that support humans during physically demanding tasks by reducing biomechanical loads on the back. While most trunk exoskeletons are rigid devices, more lightweight soft exoskeletons (exosuits) have recently been developed. One such exosuit is the HeroWear Apex, which achieved promising results in the developers’ own work but has not been independently evaluated. This paper thus presents an evaluation of the Apex with 20 adult participants during multiple brief tasks: standing up from a stool with a symmetric or asymmetric load, lifting a unilateral or bilateral load from the floor to waist level, lifting the same bilateral load with a 90-degree turn to the right, lowering a bilateral load from waist level to floor, and walking while carrying a bilateral load. The tasks were performed in an ABA-style protocol: first with exosuit assistance disengaged, then with it engaged, then disengaged again. Four measurement types were taken: electromyography (of the erector spinae, rectus abdominis, and middle trapezius), trunk kinematics, self-report ratings, and heart rate. The exosuit decreased the erector spinae electromyogram by about 15% during object lifting and lowering tasks; furthermore, participants found the exosuit mildly to moderately helpful. No adverse effects on other muscles or during non-lifting tasks were noted, and a decrease in middle trapezius electromyogram was observed for one task. This confirms that the HeroWear Apex could reduce muscle demand and fatigue. The results may transfer to other exoskeletons with similar design principles, and may inform researchers working with other wearable devices.

This comparative review discusses three publications which critically reflect on the history and design of objects by looking through the lens of disability. One of the things that emerges most clearly is a critique of the assumptions made when the world is designed according to notions of what is average or normal. These volumes give clear examples of the ‘social model of disability’, popularised by Mike Oliver, which proposes that disability becomes apparent when there is an interaction between a person and the objects, services and spaces they encounter. Taken together they reveal a new subsection of design history that gives emphasis to considering diversity of experience and how bodies meet the designed world. These books offer a new way of writing the history of objects, but also propose a future pathway where design can contribute to a new model of disability experience.
What Can a Body do? How We Meet the Built World. Sara Hendren, Penguin Random House, 2020
Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design. Bess Williamson, New York University Press, 2020
Making Disability Modern: Design Histories. Bess Williamson and Elizabeth Guffey, (eds.) Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.

With the increasing use of Education Assistant Special Needs (EASN) to support students with special needs in regular settings, it is important to consider the tools and knowledge that they bring to the role. The use of assistive technology (AT) as a support for students with special needs in Australia and globally is becoming more prevalent as the technology becomes increasingly affordable and more widely available. Consequently, it is important that the staff who are most likely to be working closely with these students are competent and confident in the use of AT.

Japan faces a large and rapidly growing care labor shortage. A common assumption is that the government has a choice between alternatives that will shape the future of its institutional elderly care provision: increase the number of migrant caregivers, or use robots and other emergent technologies to substitute for human carers. This article, based on data from seven months’ ethnographic fieldwork at an elderly care home in Japan that was introducing three different types of care robot, challenges this binary framing. The introduction of these robots served to reconfigure care – increasing the amount of work tasks for human caregivers, deskilling aspects of care labor, and raising overall costs. The robots displaced rather than replaced human labor, recalibrating the distance between carers and recipients of care. While such devices may have been intended by politicians and engineers to solve Japan’s care crisis by replacing human carers, the reality of robot use makes this unlikely in the foreseeable future. Yet by reconfiguring care and helping overcome linguistic and cultural barriers – rendering it “culturally odorless” – robots may facilitate the introduction of migrant caregivers at the cost of the further precaritization, commodification, and devaluation of care work.

From the articles, dedicated to stability in biological systems and to determining differences between living and non-alive (physical-chemical) systems that is ensured via neurophysiological control over living creature control over its goal-determined behavior or from Contingent Choice of Causation to the stress-release reaction as evolutionary factor to sustain the dynamic nature of life Adaptability of living systems to the surrounding conditions in their environment is ensured by particular kind of stability for these environment-adaptive stages-dynamic kinetic stability (DKS)-which is not usually observed in regular chemistry.-writes system chemists Addy Pross in his article Addy Pross How can a chemical system act purposefully? Bridging between life and non-life (ref1.4) "Despite the considerable advances in our understanding of biological processes, the physicochemical relationship between living and nonliving systems remains uncertain and a continuing source of controversy. In this review, we describe a kinetic model based on the concept of dynamic kinetic stability that attempts to incorporate living systems within a conventional physicochemical framework. Its essence: all replicating systems, both animate and inanimate, represent elements of a replicator space. However, in contrast to the world of non-replicating systems (all inanimate), where selection is fundamentally thermodynamic, selection within replicator space is effectively kinetic. As a consequence, the nature of stability within the two spaces is of a distinctly different kind, which, in turn, leads to different physicochemical patterns of aggregation. Our kinetic approach suggests: (a) that all living systems may be thought of as manifesting a kinetic state of matter (as apposed to the traditional thermodynamic states associated with inanimate systems), and (b) that key Darwinian concepts, such as fitness and natural selection, are particular expressions of more fundamental physicochemical concepts, such as kinetic stability and kinetic selection". In the article Extending the concept of kinetic stability: toward a paradigm for life (ref 1.5) he supposes that since all living systems may be thought of as manifesting a kinetic state of matter (as opposed to the traditional thermodynamic states),tat approach may allow the translation of key Darwinian concepts, such as fitness and natural selection, into other levels of adaptive evolution-or causal difference-making, in other words-from the chemical to social one. (1.5) Introduction of this new peculiarity helps explaining obviously teleometric nature of adaptive dynamics in ecology, the phenomena of emergence and Great Exterminations in evolution of biosphere on Earth.

Academic labour is often considered to be abstract and disembodied in the popular imagination, and its recent transformation by digital technologies might make this seem even more the case. But the advent of the digital also makes all with digits, physically standardising scholarly activity into the same few motions required to interact with a keyboard, mouse or screen. Academic work has a real, and for some, a lasting, corporeal impact.

Academic labour after repetitive strain injury (RSI) often demands establishing a radically different relationship to the digital, including operating a computer with speech in what is largely a silent, open plan work culture; (re)learning alternative methods of composition; and intellectually unwelcome and financially unsustainable rest breaks from what for many is a vocation in addition to a precarious livelihood.

How do we as scholars with RSI interact differently with or defer the digital in our labour, and what might it mean to have a ‘differigital’ working practice in a digital age? What present and possible forms might ‘differigital’ academic work take? And how might we use them to begin creating a more RSI-positive work environment in the academy?

This participant-driven meeting will be an opportunity to network with others affected by or interested in the causes, impacts and context of RSI, share research, political and personal insights and ways of working.

Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to arrive with a small stimulus to contribute to the discussion, which can take any form, but might include:
• A verbal account of an experience or idea for change;
• A 250 word abstract style summary of prospective, in progress, or published research relevant to the topic;
• An artefact to introduce.

Those experiencing or researching RSI in HEIs are particularly invited to attend, in addition to – but not limited to – equality activists and campaigners; developers of assistive technologies; health and wellbeing practitioners; scholars in digital humanities, medical humanities, critical management studies and disability studies.

It is hoped that the event will be the catalyst for the formation of an alliance that will produce research, offer mutual support and provide advocacy for an extensive but underserved community.

Difference and Repetition: Academic Labour after RSI
Thursday 25th May 2017, 6-7:30 PM
Room 106, School of Arts 43-46 Gordon Square Birkbeck, University of London WC1H

Convenors: Natalie Joelle (Birkbeck) and Chris Till (Leeds Beckett)

Optional RSVP via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/difference-and-repetition-academic-labour-after-rsi-tickets-33547817425

The study is based on the Inclusive Education Resource Center at the Balasaheb Khardekar Connaught Resource Center at Shivaji University. This study reviews the services provided to students with disabilities through the Inclusive Education Resource Center. It provides information on the equipment available at the center for the disabled and its use for services. Also, information about various programs and activities conducted by the center for students with disabilities.

This paper describes an RFID and GPS integrated navigation system, Smart-Robot (SR) for the visually impaired. The SR uses RFID and GPS based localization while operating indoor and outdoor respectively. The portable terminal unit is an embedded system equipped with an RFID reader, GPS, and analog compass as input devices to obtain location and orientation. The SR can guide the user to a predefined destination, or create a new route on-the-fly for later use. While in navigation mode, the SR reaches the destination by avoiding obstacles using ultrasonic and infrared sensor inputs. The SR also provides user feedback through a speaker, and vibrating motors on the glove. The SR prototype has been successfully implemented and is operational.

This paper presents a soft, tendon-driven, robotic glove designed to augment grasp capability and provide rehabilitation assistance for postspinal cord injury patients. The basis of the design is an underactuation approach utilizing postural synergies of the hand to support a large variety of grasps with a single actuator. The glove is lightweight, easy to don, and generates sufficient hand closing force to assist with activities of daily living. Device efficiency was examined through a characterization of the power transmission elements, and output force production was observed to be linear in both cylindrical and pinch grasp configurations. We further show that, as a result of the synergy-inspired actuation strategy, the glove only slightly alters the distribution of forces across the fingers, compared to a natural, unassisted grasping pattern. Finally, a preliminary case study was conducted using a participant suffering from an incomplete spinal cord injury (C7). It was found that through the use of the glove, the participant was able to achieve a 50% performance improvement (from four to six blocks) in a standard Box and Block test.

This paper examines the ways in which dance is re-imagining traditional binaries of able and disabled bodies and foregrounds the ways in which assistive devices utilized in dance prompt new embodied approaches to assistive device design. At present, AD design is often prioritized with functional goals (e.g. safety, efficiency, durability) but dance suggests other priorities be considered in terms of form, motion, and intimate interactivity between bodies. This paper asserts the value in bringing multiple disciplinary perspectives together in terms of device design, and in particular, incorporating dance/arts perspectives as a meaningful way of viewing and envisioning human-device interaction.
Drawing upon the work of current dance practitioners working in the genre of mixed ability/integrated dance, and self-reflexively including my own work in mixed ability dance and assistive device development, I explore the ways in which bodies of difference intersect in and through assistive devices. In this process, what the assistive device is and how it is "supposed" to function is completely altered in a dance context. The device moves from its construct as medical aid and static symbol of lack, to become a creative, transformative instrument outside the realm of "rehabilitation." Additionally, the corporeal interdependence suggested by the ways in which various types of bodies move together with and through these devices counters the priority on "independence-only" and/or the perception of "dependence-only" for people with disabilities and the design focus for devices. Dance can evoke understandings of mutual support and exchange amongst all bodies. ADs in many current dance venues are not used in inert, static ways separate from the body, but rather used in dynamic ways, suggesting, if not prompting new design transformations for the device both in and outside of dance. Dance, in pushing the limits of both disability representation and device representations, suggests a radical advocacy for disability rights.

Tunadaksa merupakan merupakan keadaan rusak atau terganggunya tulang, otot, sendi maupun
persarafan dalam fungsi yang normal, sehingga mengalam hambatan dalam hal mobilitasnya. Hambatan
tersebut membutuhkan suatu alat atau teknologi asisitif untuk mengakomodasi kebutuhan tersebut.
PLB IKIP PGRI Jember mempunyai tiga mahasiswa tunadaksa yang membutuhkan suatu teknologi
untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mobilitas selama perkuliahan. Teknologi asisitif yang dibuat yaitu motor
modifikasi roda empat yang mengakomodir kebutuhan mahasiswa tunadaksa. Tujuan dari penelitian ini
untuk mengatasi hambatan mobilitas tunadaksa dan mendeskripsikan manfaat motor modifikasi roda
empat. Metode penelitian menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan
bahwa motor modifikasi mampu membantu mobilitasnya. Subyek mengungkapkan bahwa motor
modifikasi dapat digunakan di jalan lurus maupun berkelok, bisa mundur secara otomatis dan
body motor bisa berdiri tegak sehingga memberikan rasa aman.

This chapter is informed by the work of researchers that report research outcomes and case studies regarding the adoption of AT solutions in educational environments.
The aim is to provide school staff and other professionals in the field of education an insight of state of art research and related practice innovation including different examples of technologies for the empowerment of learners with disabilities are presented.
A detailed description of six case studies is provided by their respective authors, each of whom has highlighted specific aspects of the AT practices and experiences implemented.
The common feature of these case studies consists of enabling learners to achieve a major sense of autonomy, independence, belonging to the community as well as to overcome some cultural and social barriers through the use of innovative solutions.
In detail, case studies are structured in a way that captures the general description of the setting, the persons involved, the main barriers, needs and opportunities identified.
Also, case studies reported in this chapter highlight how technology was made helpful and effective in addressing the needs and opportunities, what were the outcomes of the use of technology, and what conditions have to be met in order to make a similar experience possible and replicable on the base of lessons learned and authors’ recommendations.

This creative, experimental contribution blends written words and sketches depicting our crip bodies engaging with various mobility technologies, including crutches, walkers, prosthetic limbs, and manual and power wheelchairs. By picturing and describing our crip bodies with varieties of technologies that we use, we use these pictures and corresponding narratives about disabled bodies in technology to tell a larger story about the constitution of disability with technologies, as well as the modes of mobility available to disabled bodies. Our visual and narrative elements serve to argue that disabled bodies have a wider array of mobilities and ways of being than are afforded to non-disabled bodies. We resist super-crippery and insist on cripborgery. Crip bodies are taken as sites of possibility, adaptation, and creative reflection.

This paper is focused on the problems and limitations that children with special needs have while playing. These problems can be mental or physical, and both types cause several barriers in the moment of play. The objective of this paper is the development of an educational game, using a microcontroller and some derived components. This solution can transmit to the player different sensations and levels of playability keeping the child focused and interested in the game. Also, all plays made by the child will be registered and presented to the therapist/parents on a computer or smartphone, making the toy a useful tool to analyze child's evolution. The game will be controlled by an Arduino microchip and the communication to the device will be performed by an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. Playing the game, children will be able to exercise specially their arms and hands muscles and to stimulate their mind.

Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) locates, retrieves and displays images alike to one given as a query, using a set of features. It demands accessible data in medical archives and from medical equipment, to infer meaning after some processing. A problem similar in some sense to the target image can aid clinicians. CBIR complements text-based retrieval and improves evidence-based diagnosis, administration, teaching, and research in healthcare. It facilitates visual/automatic diagnosis and decision-making in real-time remote consultation/screening, store-and-forward tests, home care assistance and overall patient surveillance. Metrics help comparing visual data and improve diagnostic. Specially designed architectures can benefit from the application scenario. CBIR use calls for file storage standardization, querying procedures, efficient image transmission, realistic databases, global availability, access simplicity, and Internet-based structures. This chapter recommends important and complex aspects required to handle visual content in healthcare.

This systematic review of research on adaptive learning used a strategic search process to synthesize research on adaptive learning based on publication trends, instructional context, research methodology components, research focus, adaptive strategies, and technologies. A total of 61 articles on adaptive learning were analyzed to describe the current state of research and identify gaps in the literature. Descriptive characteristics were recorded, including publication patterns, instructional context, and research methodology components. The count of adaptive learning articles published fluctuated across the decade and peaked in 2015. During this time, the largest concentration of adaptive learning articles appeared in Computers and Education. The majority of the studies occurred in higher education in Taiwan and the United States, with the highest concentration in the computer science discipline. The research focus, adaptive strategies, and adaptive technologies used in these studies were also reviewed. The research was aligned with various instructional design phases, with more studies examining

After almost four years in special education (occupational therapy, speech therapy, and inclusive
education), beginning a research study on the strategic use of assistive technology in inclusive
education presented a new challenge. The topic was selected as a result of my experiences
working with organizations such as JOY Child Development Center and LTC's NINJA kids club,
and my Bachelor's degree in Special Education. When I picked the subject, I was ignorant of the
conceptual and technological challenges faced by a small percentage of users of assistive
technology for inclusive education. That is why I conducted some studies and discovered that
one of the primary issues in the arrangement of school instruction for kids with disabilities is
assistive technology. Because assistive technology may significantly contribute to developing a
barrier-free educational environment. Assistive technologies used for unique educational and
rehabilitative objectives provide a distinct range of activities that guarantee the best execution of
state educational programs and requirements. Assistive technologies are developing a system of
measures aimed at eradicating or compensating for the constraints of life to the greatest extent
feasible. The utilization of these resources in the learning process of such students adds to their
familiarity with the world of information and education and their ability to acquire knowledge
tailored to their unique requirements.

A Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile hosts that form a temporary network
without a centralized administration or wired infrastructure. Due to the high mobility of nodes, the network
topology of MANETs changes very fast, making it more difficult to find the routes that message packets use.
Network control with Quality of Service (QoS) support is a key issue for multimedia applications in MANET.
Most of the real time applications have stringent requirements on bandwidth, delay, delay-jitter, packet loss
ratio, cost and other QoS metrics. This paper proposes a Multi-constrained QoS routing with mobility
prediction protocol. If the node has enough resources to transmit data packets, it uses the Global
Positioning System (GPS) to get the location information of the mobile nodes and selects the routing path
with the maximum Route Expiration Time (RET). A set of static and mobile agents are used to find the
multicast routes and transmit the packets. Extensive simulations have been conducted to evaluate the
performance of MC_MAODV using Network Simulator (NS-2). The simulation results show that the
proposed protocol achieves good performance in terms of improving packet delivery ratio and minimizing
end-to-end delay.

Last summer was inaugurated an autism-friendly sensory room in the Emergency Department of Careggi Hospital in Florence. It is the first example of a sensory waiting room in Italy and one of the few examples in Europe. It has been one of most important strategies to improve the accessibility of people with disabilities in the Emergency Department. Design concept of the healthcare environment aimed at reducing distress in hospital and answering to particular needs of people with mental disabilities.
People with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and an Intellectual Disability who need to attend a Hospital Emergency Waiting Room frequently present high levels of discomfort and challenging behaviors due to stress-related hyperarousal, sensory sensitivity, novelty-anxiety, communication and self-regulation difficulties. Increased agitation and acting out also disturb the diagnostic and therapeutic processes, and the emergency room climate.
A growing number of researches in the field of environmental psychology has evaluated the perceived quality of care from the point of view of patients, out-patients and health professionals. Many studies has also presented the impact of the right environment on health and wellbeing for people with autism. There are some experimentations in the living and educational environment, but autism-friendly healthcare design can represent a new field of research.
Careggi’s Emergency Waiting Room is the result of a project of research that comes from a collaboration between the technical staff of Careggi Hospital, the Center for autism PAMAPI, the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence and an innovative startup, DU IT, expert in sensory environment. The methodology of focus group involved architects, psychologists and professionals through a transdisciplinary research, centered on the links between the spatial characteristics and clinical state of people with ASD. The relationship between architectural space and quality of life is studied to pay maximum attention to users’ needs and to support the medical staff in their work by a specific program of training.
The multisensory environment aimes at helping sensory integration and relaxation. Visual communication through Ipad allows an anticipated understanding of medical procedures and gives to people with ASD an alternative way to relate with professionals. A specific technological system supports requests, choices and self-determination in order to fit sensory stimulation to personal preferences and to self-build the entire environment, that represents an incredible resource for hypo and hypersensitive people. All these characteristics should ensure a better regulation of the arousal, less behaviour problems, improving treatment accessibility, safety and effectiveness.
Even if the waiting room was first designed for people with autism, during these months it has also represented a unique support for women who have been the victims of violence or abuse. In fact, this protected room, with a clear and space design and a technological system that integrates colours, lights, videos and music, recreates a comfortable and safe environment for these women and their child. Finally, the sensory room is becoming a calming environment for professionals, that can improve their psychological comfort and reduce high level of stress caused by an intensive work in the Emergency Department.
This case study has been observed during these first months, presenting a lot of interesting points to go in depth by the research. Questionnaires for parents/caregivers and structured interviews for health professionals produced the first results in terms of patient-satisfaction levels. They will be presented to validate this first experimentation.

The influence of Islam in West African education systems was significant. The transformation from traditional Quranic schools to more modern Islamic education was slow but evident. However, there was a lack of empirical study on the implementation of Islamic pedagogy in West African countries. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the development of Islamic teaching and learning in West African. Data was collected through depth interview and observation. This study highlighted the role of the traditional of Islamic learning in West Africa, such as Timbuktu, Gene, Kanim and Burnon. On the other hand, some schools implemented technology in education. However, only a small number of educators truly understood its implications and were aware of the importance and function of technology as a tool in education. The research discovered that educational technology has a greater and deeper meaning than just a mere use of media.

Conference report for "Assistance, Assistants, and Assistive Media. Barriers and Interfaces of Digital Cultures", July 1st-3rd, 2021, Lüneburg (online)

First published on H-Soz-Kult - Communication and information services for historical research, January 18, 2022

https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-9261?title=assistance-assistants-and-assistive-media-barriers-and-interfaces-of-digital-cultures&recno=1&q=&sort=&fq=&total=8947

A B S T R AC T Deafblind readers are heterogeneous in reading skill acquisition. This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews and protocol analyses and queries the three deafblind adult participants in describing their metacomprehension, metacognitive and metalinguistic strategies used when reading different types of text. Using retrospective analysis, the three adults describe and reflect on how they learned language and how they learned to read as children. The participants also describe the technology that assists them in reading print. Data suggest that deafblind adults use a variety of auditory, visual and tactilekinesthetic strategies (i.e. braille, large print, and raised print) in decoding English. Some also use ASL, Signed English and tactile ASL and tactile Signed English.

This paper discusses two major challenges that AT teachers and students face as Philippines grapple with COVID-19. It asserts that proper learners' analysis need to be implemented before moving the entire education system into a new learning method and to prioritize the learners' psychosocial well-being over academic standards.

Influência da tecnologia assistiva no desempenho funcional e na qualidade de vida de idosos comunitários frágeis: uma revisão bibliográfica Influence of assistive technology on the functional performance and quality of life of community-dwelling frail elderly people: a bibliographic review Resumo Dispositivos de tecnologia assistiva têm sido utilizados como forma de incrementar capacidade funcional, autonomia e qualidade de vida dos ido-sos fragilizados que vivem em seu domicílio. A fim de averiguar tal item, foi realizada revisão bibliográfica através de busca em bancos de dados, capítu-los de livros, referências citadas nos artigos obtidos e artigos recebidos auto-res via internet ou correio. Os resultados obtidos indicaram diminuição da dependência dos idosos durante o cuidado pessoal, melhoria de sua sociali-zação, incremento da tranquilidade e segurança dos cuidadores quanto à realização das tarefas funcionais pelos idosos e diminuição de episódios de reinternação e de gastos relacionados à saúde. Concluiu-se que os dispositi-vos de tecnologia assistiva são de grande valia para os idosos, aumentando sua capacidade funcional, autonomia e a qualidade de vida. Abstract Assistive technology devices have been used to improve functional capability, autonomy, and quality of life of community-dwelling frail elderly people. In order to evaluate it, a bibliographic review was conducted through articles in databank, book chapters, other articles and by their authors who directly

Influência da tecnologia assistiva 113 Resumo Dispositivos de tecnologia assistiva têm sido utilizados como forma de incrementar capacidade funcional, autonomia e qualidade de vida dos idosos fragilizados que vivem em seu domicílio. A fim de averiguar tal item, foi realizada revisão bibliográfica através de busca em bancos de dados, capítulos de livros, referências citadas nos artigos obtidos e artigos recebidos autores via internet ou correio. Os resultados obtidos indicaram diminuição da dependência dos idosos durante o cuidado pessoal, melhoria de sua socialização, incremento da tranquilidade e segurança dos cuidadores quanto à realização das tarefas funcionais pelos idosos e diminuição de episódios de reinternação e de gastos relacionados à saúde. Concluiu-se que os dispositivos de tecnologia assistiva são de grande valia para os idosos, aumentando sua capacidade funcional, autonomia e a qualidade de vida.

The research aims at exploring the status of communication and interactivity among employees and users visually impaired in the library of University of Santiago de Compostela. The study reflects the characteristics of qualitative-quantitative research described by Dey (1993), Goodwin (1996), Patton (1990) and Creswell (2003). In the current study the Sequential Explanatory strategy is adapted, which is characterized by gathering and analyzing the quantitative data followed by process of collecting and analyzing of qualitative data. Data collection procedures included the distribution of the benchmark questionnaire, derived from SERVQUAL model, and the use of interviews method. It is recommended that employees should be trained on how to deploy social applications in their work, because little use of social applications is explored in the study. The neglecting of social applications in providing services is a problem that restricts the library from acclimating rapid technological changes. Moreover, the researcher recommends that there should be training sessions to raise the employees' awareness towards challenges facing visually impaired when they patronize the library, and to enrich their knowledge with skills on how to get these patrons engaged in the library environment with taking into consideration the importance of marketing training session for administrators to make them more aware of its relevancy and importance to their work.

Purpose: In this paper, the authors explore the use of mobile devices as assistive technology for students with visual impairments in resource-limited environments. This paper provides initial data and analysis from an ongoing project in Kenya using tablet devices to provide access to education and independence for university students with visual impairments in Kenya. Method: The project is a design-based research project in which we have developed and are refining a theoretically grounded intervention-a model for developing communities of practice to support the use of mobile technology as an assistive technology. We are collecting data to assess the efficacy and improve the model as well as inform the literature that has guided the design of the intervention. Results: In examining the impact of the use of mobile devices for the students with visual impairments, we found that the devices provide the students with (a) access to education, (b) the means to participate in everyday life and (c) the opportunity to create a community of practice. Conclusions: Findings from this project suggest that communities of practice are both a viable and a valuable approach for facilitating the diffusion and support of mobile devices as assistive technology for students with visual impairments in resource-limited environments. ä Implications for Rehabilitation The use of mobile devices as assistive technology in resource-limited environments provides students with visual impairments access to education and enhanced means to participate in everyday life. Communities of practice are both a viable and a valuable approach for facilitating the diffusion and support of mobile devices as assistive technology for students with visual impairments in resource-limited environments. Providing access to assistive technology early and consistently throughout students' schooling builds both their skill and confidence and also demonstrates the capabilities of people with visual impairments to the larger society.

What must happen so that people like me, who are visually impaired, can work more efficiently is a standardization of the website layout with each category, e.g. citation should always be in the upper left corner and have an orange button, the Download button must be in the center and of light green color with black letters in it, etc.


I find it challenging to gather all information from research articles because every provider of online scientific publications has its own layout, its own functionalities, its own format, etc. But instead of me having to remember the location of each functionality for each provider, it would be much better if all providers would use the same general layout, color coding and a minimum set of function to which each provider is welcome to add whatever deemed beneficial.


E.g. here in ResearchGate it is hard for me to find the "Message" button with my Zoomtext because it is of the same color as the background and the only way to recognize it is by the thin blue letters spelling the word "Message". Even though Academia.edu and ResearchGate.net serve the same purpose, there are a lot of differences in navigating through their sites. Therefore, providers of similar content and functions should be required to offer a user interface option that follows the same standards regarding layout, coloring, contrast enhancing, screen-reader accessibility and other accessibility functions because that way sensory impaired people must only learn once, e.g. how to access scientific journals, figures, citations, supplementary material, PDF files, etc.


Knowledge-exchange and online employment websites must provide an interface for its users to interact. All providers of such kind of interaction interfaces should be required to provide a disability communication mode, which must adhere to strict standards pertaining to accessibility, layout, color coding, use of functions like "Search", "Submit", "Download", "Message Exchange", "User Lookup", etc. Each provider should be free to choose its own communication interface features, which don't need to be standardized to maintain options for commercial innovations, but that must be in addition but never instead a clutter-free interface that allows accessing the same kind of information always the same way across all provider platforms.


Each provider of any kind of web-based functions or services must provide the option to chose any older legacy version of its software, cloud or browser-based functions so that in 20 years I can still use the same method to accomplish the same things as today.

Streszczenie: W artykule opisano wsparcie teleinformatyczne aktywizacji edukacyjnej i zawodowej osób niepełnosprawnych na przykładzie opracowanej przez autorów koncepcji zintegrowanego teleinformatycznego środowiska osoby niepełnosprawnej. Zaproponowane rozwiązania mogą przyczynić się do zwiększenia zatrudnienia w tej grupie pracowników oraz stopniowo przełożyć się na zmniejszenie obciążenia budżetu świadczeniami dla osób niepełnosprawnych.