Benefits of and barriers to involving users in medical device technology development and evaluation

Objectives: This study investigated the benefits of, and barriers to user involvement in medical device technology development and evaluation. Methods: A structured review of published literature in peer-reviewed journals. Results: This review revealed that the main benefits of user involvement were an increased access to user needs, experiences and ideas; improvements in medical device designs and user interfaces; and an increase in the functionality, usability and quality of the devices. On the other hand, resource issues, particularly those of time and money were found the key impediments to involving users in the development and evaluation of medical device technologies. This study has categorised both the benefits and barriers to user involvement also. Conclusions: The involvement of users in MDTD&E requires resources, which are limited; however, it is essential from both users and manufacturers perspectives

Analysis of Research in Adoption of Assistive Technologies for Aged Care

The main objective of this study is to provide detailed analysis on the research conducted in the area of adoption for assistive technologies in aged care. The article analyses the studies and concludes with avenues, guidelines and gaps for research in this area. This study has conducted a systematic search on eight popular academic databases and identified relevant papers published. The paper identifies potential technologies that have been utilised to address seniors’ daily life difficulties in three areas: independent living, social isolation, dementia and medication taking. The article presents the theoretical lenses used for studying the adoption of these technologies in aged care. In addition to that, the systematic review has come up with interesting demographics on research approaches, and fields of publication for the research in this area. The paper outlines that the Australian research in adoption of assistive technologies for aged care has been over focused on healthcare domain and has largely ignored information system outlets. The possible reasons and potential directions for this issue have been discussed

Technology use in everyday life: Implications for designing for older users

This study examines the experience and attitudes of older adults towards technology and how they compare with younger age groups. Two hundred and thirty seven participants completed an extensive questionnaire exploring their daily lifestyle, use of technology, attitudes towards technology, and perceived difficulty of household devices. The main findings from the study were; (1) there was a strong motivation to learn or to continue learning to use computers by the older group; (2) social connectedness influenced how the older group used or would like to use technology and also why some preferred not to use it; and finally (3) there was an age-related increase in perceived difficulty for many household devices, however some devices maintained intergenerational usability. These finding can be used to inform the design of future intergenerational household technologies

Pedestrian Detection with Wearable Cameras for the Blind: A Two-way Perspective

Blind people have limited access to information about their surroundings, which is important for ensuring one's safety, managing social interactions, and identifying approaching pedestrians. With advances in computer vision, wearable cameras can provide equitable access to such information. However, the always-on nature of these assistive technologies poses privacy concerns for parties that may get recorded. We explore this tension from both perspectives, those of sighted passersby and blind users, taking into account camera visibility, in-person versus remote experience, and extracted visual information. We conduct two studies: an online survey with MTurkers (N=206) and an in-person experience study between pairs of blind (N=10) and sighted (N=40) participants, where blind participants wear a working prototype for pedestrian detection and pass by sighted participants. Our results suggest that both of the perspectives of users and bystanders and the several factors mentioned above need to be carefully considered to mitigate potential social tensions.Comment: The 2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020

How using assistive technologies (AT's) affect the interpretation of the ability-disability construct of people with adult-onset locomotor disabilities

This study focused on how assistive technologies (ATs) affect the ability-disability construct of adult-onset locomotor disabled individuals in the South African city of Johannesburg. Its main aim was to understand the socialized use of assistive technologies in adult-onset locomotor disabilities and to unravel how the socialized use of assistive technologies affect the users’ interpretations of the ability-disability construct; through the perceptions of the participants within a developing world context. Relatively, there have been few ATs studies in South Africa and they have excluded the ‘voice ‘of the disabled people. Ten conveniently sampled adult-onset locomotor disabled individuals participated. An interpretive technique in the form of semi structured one hour interviews was used for data collection. The descriptors of events for the thematic analysis were the patterns or themes in which participants were constructing the narratives of their lives. These patterns were formulated using Braun and Clarke (2006) six stages of identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within the data. Transcribed texts from the ten semi-structured interviews were subjected to thematic analysis based on how the participants perceived their assistive technologies. Four central themes emerged which centred on how people perceived their ability-disability; the social acceptability of ATs, accessibility factors and new trends in assistive technologies. The research findings indicate that most adult onset disabled individuals in a South African context tended to embrace the promises of technology centred on positive attributes such as: improved communication with others, increased mobility, physical safety, personal autonomy, control over one's body and life, independence, competence, confidence, the ability to engage in the workforce and participation in the wider community. Although such positive attributes seemed to reinforce perceived ability as the boundary between disabled bodies, technology was blurred. However, this perceived ability was found to be rather misleading since it was premised in the same medical and social discourse that ‘disabled’ individuals. T he participants’ narratives were constantly constructing and reconstructing the way they perceived themselves as able or disabled. The studies therefore recommend that, disability narratives on the perception of ATs should be viewed as fluid, complex and multi-layered

Leveling the Playing Field: Attracting, Engaging, and Advancing People with Disabilities

People with disabilities experience significant challenges in finding employment. The participation of people with disabilities in the workforce and their median income are both less than half that of the civilian workforce. They work part time 68 percent more frequently than people without disabilities. These disheartening results persist despite the enactment of significant federal legislation aimed at making the workplace more supportive and accessible to people with disabilities. The Conference Board Research Working Group (RWG) on Improving Employment Outcomes for People with Disabilities was convened to address how to overcome these disparities. It was sponsored by the Employment and Disability Institute at Cornell University, under a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education. The RWG members focused on four questions: 1) The business case: Is it advantageous for organizations to employ people with disabilities? 2) Organizational readiness: What should organizations do to create a workplace that enables people with disabilities to thrive and advance? 3) Measurement: How can success for both people with disabilities and the organization itself be determined? 4) Self-disclosure: How can people with disabilities, especially those whose disabilities are not obvious, be encouraged to identify themselves so that resources can be directed toward them and outcomes can be measured

Aging between Participation and Simulation

This publication aims to initiate an interdisciplinary discourse on the ethical, legal, and social implications of socially assistive technologies in healthcare. It combines practically relevant insights and examples from current research and development with ethical analysis to uncover moral pitfalls at the intersection between the promotion of social participation and well-being, and risks that may diminish the achievement of these ends

A Capabilities View of Accessibility in Policy and Practice in Jordan and Peru

We explore the recent evolution of accessibility-related policy in Jordan and Peru, and specifically consider issues around assistive technology access for people with severe vision impairments. We find differences in capacity development and institutions in the two countries over time and how it impacts the ways in which recent policy consultations have taken place, and propose a capabilities framework as a means to examine and contextualize these differences. Narratives of assistive technology use by people in both countries emphasize ways in which the capabilities approach is also a valuable tool in understanding aspirations and how social interactions evolve with access to assistive technology. We argue that the findings from Peru and Jordan, given the diversity of policy environments, infrastructure, and socio-economic attitudes towards people with disabilities, give us an important lens towards understanding the evolution of disability rights and policies in various low and middle-income countries around the world