Multidisciplinary design of suitable assistive technologies for motor disabilities in Colombia

raumatic or pathological brain lesions often result in motor disabilities that have strong personal and social effects. Assistive technologies can support this population, potentially improving their autonomy and promoting their participation in society. However, most existing research does not explicitly consider socio-cultural aspects, which differ between developing and developed countries. In this paper, we describe a multidisciplinary research line on technology-based assistive solutions for motor disabilities involving institutions in Colombia and Switzerland. The key aspect of our approach is the involvement of engineers, therapists, designers and end-users from early stages of the design process. This allowed us to characterize the local population with motor disabilities, highlighting a large incidence of violence- related injuries, reduced accessibility to assistive technologies and a perception of social exclusion. In the quest for context- suited solutions, we have developed a mechanical wheelchair and a sensorized facility for motor rehabilitation. The prototypes of these devices will be tested in the upcoming months. Importantly, we established a training program that uniquely covers both clinical and technical aspects of motor rehabilitation; providing experts from different domains with a common knowledge that facilitates the multidisciplinary work, enabling us to initiate experiments on clinical research; thus strengthening the links between academic, clinical and rehabilitation institutions

Development and implementation of technologies for physical telerehabilitation in Latin America:

La telerehabilitation ha surgido debido a la inclusión de tecnologías emergentes para la captura, transmisión, análisis y visualización de patrones de movimiento asociados a pacientes con trastornos músculo-esqueléticos. Esta estrategia permite llevar a cabo procesos de diagnóstico y tratamientos de rehabilitación a distancia. Este artículo presenta una revisión sistemática del desarrollo e implementación actual de las tecnologías de telerehabilitación en la región latinoamericana. El objetivo principal es explorar, a partir de la literatura científica reportada y fuentes divulgativas, si las tecnologías de telerehabilitación han logrado ser introducidas en esta región. Asimismo, este trabajo revela los prototipos actuales o sistemas que están en desarrollo o que ya están siendo usados. Se llevó a cabo una revisión sistemática, mediante dos búsquedas diferentes. La primera implicó una búsqueda bibliográfica rigurosa en los repositorios digitales científicos más relevantes en el área y la segunda incluyó proyectos y programas de telerehabilitación implementados en la región, encontrados a partir de una búsqueda avanzada en Google. Se encontró un total de 53 documentos de seis países (Colombia, Brasil, México, Ecuador, Chile y Argentina); la mayoría de ellos estaban enfocados en iniciativas académicas y de investigación para el desarrollo de prototipos tecnológicos para telerehabilitación de pacientes pediátricos y adultos mayores, afectados por deficiencias motoras o funcionales, parálisis cerebral, enfermedades neurocognitivas y accidente cerebrovascular. El análisis de estos documentos reveló la necesidad de un extenso enfoque integrado de salud y sistema social para aumentar la disponibilidad actual de iniciativas de telerehabilitación en la región latinoamericana.Telerehabilitation has arised by the inclusion of emerging technologies for capturing, transmitting, analyzing and visualizing movement patterns associated to musculoskeletal disorders. This therapeutic strategy enables to carry out diagnosis processes and provide rehabilitation treatments. This paper presents a systematic review of the current development and implementation of telerehabilitation technologies in Latin America. The main goal is to explore the scientific literature and dissemination sources to establish if such technologies have been introduced in this region. Likewise, this work highlights existing prototypes or systems that are to being used or that are still under development. A systematic search strategy was conducted by two different searches: the first one involves a rigorous literature search from the most relevant scientific digital repositories; the second one included telerehabilitation projects and programs retrieved by an advanced Google search. A total of 53 documents from six countries (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina) were found. Most of them were focused on academic and research initiatives to develop in-home telerehabilitation technologies for pediatric and elderly populations affected by motor and functional impairment, cerebral palsy, neurocognitive disorders and stroke. The analysis of the findings revealed the need for a comprehensive approach that integrates health care and the social system to increase the current availability of telerehabilitation initiatives in Latin America

Putting medical devices in context: a systematic review of evidence on design targeting low-resource settings

Most medical devices are inaccessible to healthcare facilities in low-resource settings (LRSs), severely limiting medical care for a vast proportion of the world's population. This article characterises the process used for designing medical devices for LRSs and investigate how the context-of-use is integrated into the process. A systematic review of 64 papers was conducted to identify peer-reviewed studies of devices intended for LRSs. Using the biodesign process as an analytic framework, a qualitative meta-analysis was conducted. Findings show the studies predominantly describe the later stages of medical device design, whilst largely neglecting how knowledge of the context is considered. To support engineers and improve outcomes, it is imperative that an understanding of the context is integrated throughout the design and product development process. This article highlights this gap and hopes to stimulate research into how context can be better incorporated into the design process for medical devices targeting those populations most in need.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Inderscience Publishers via http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJDE.2015.07637

Making the case for inclusive design.

This paper describes the University of Cambridge, Engineering Design Centre's (EDC) case for inclusive design, based on 10 years of research, promotion and knowledge transfer. In summary, inclusive design applies an understanding of customer diversity to inform decisions throughout the development process, in order to better satisfy the needs of more people. Products that are more inclusive can reach a wider market, improve customer satisfaction and drive business success. The rapidly ageing population increases the importance of this approach. The case presented here has helped to convince BT, Nestlé and others to adopt an inclusive approach.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.03.01

MAKING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION A REALITY: THE ROLE OF TEACHERS, PARENTS AND ADMINISTRATORS

The study used basically a survey design which employed the quantitative approach to investigate how children with special learning needs (SENs) are supported to learn together in the inclusive classroom with the focus on finding the level of support for children in five (5) inclusive schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana. The sample size involved 86 teachers, 6 administrators (Head teachers) and 40 parents. In all, a total of 132 participants were involved in the study. Questionnaire was designed in close-ended format for the teachers, administrators and parents. The basic structure of the instrument was based on four Point Likert-type scales. The Likert-scale items questionnaire was analysed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. A tally sheet was used to generate frequency counts out of which percentages were calculated based on the scores assigned to each rating. These data were then analysed using the SPSS computer system. It was found from the study that, there are low levels of material or human support for pupils with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms. On material support, the parents indicated that their children do not receive any material support from Ghana Education Service to support their children and they do not get any financial support from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s). It is recommended that teachers, parents and administrators should come together to provide the needed support for pupils with special education needs to ensure the success of the inclusive agenda.  Article visualizations

And inclusion became necessary: educational experiences in teaching-learning English as a foreign language for students with intellectual disabilities in Colombia (2015-2020)

Representaciones gráficas de conceptos, tablas de organización de datos, matriz de análisis de contenidoLa discapacidad intelectual tiene muchas explicaciones y niveles para comprender el complejo funcionamiento del cerebro para desarrollar algunos problemas de aprendizaje en muchas situaciones, especialmente con razonamiento matemático y comprensión del lenguaje. Colombia tiene una gran discusión sobre la inclusión en la educación desde el preescolar hasta los programas universitarios, pero la ley tiene muchos vacíos. En este contexto, la monografía buscó experiencias y publicaciones significativas sobre el proceso educativo para desarrollar una inclusión integral de estudiantes con discapacidad intelectual desde 2015 hasta 2020 en Colombia, pero el punto focal es comprender el proceso de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera porque este es un requisito importante para la mayoría de las profesiones en el contexto global. Por eso, es importante identificar, describir y generar estrategias en diferentes publicaciones para hacer un análisis general, porque de esta manera el futuro docente conocerá algunos elementos importantes en la práctica pedagógica y ayudará en el proceso de inclusión de los estudiantes. La monografía quiere abrir otros entornos de investigación para la sistematización y generación de nuevas propuestas para hacer de la inclusión una realidad en el sistema educativo.Intellectual disability has many explanations and levels for understanding the brain complex for developing some learning problems in many situations, especially with mathematics reasons and language comprehension. Colombia has a big discussion about inclusion in education from preschool until university programs but the law has many black points already. In this context, the monography searches significant experiences and publications about the educative process for developing an integral inclusion to students with intellectual disabilities from 2015 until 2020 in Colombia, but the focus point is to understand the process of learning a foreign language because this is an important requirement for most professions in Colombia context. For that reason, is important to identify, describe, and generate strategies in different publications for doing a general analysis because in this way the future teacher will know some important elements in the pedagogical practice and will help in the inclusion process of students. The monography wants to open other research environments for systematization and generation of new proposes to do inclusion a reality in the educational system