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Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Support Aging-in-Place for People with Long-Term Disabilities
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Support Aging-in-Place for People with Long-Term Disabilities
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ItemUniversally Designed mHealth App for Individuals Aging with Multiple Sclerosis(IARIA, 2018) Ruzic, Ljilja ; Mahajan, Harshal P. ; Sanford, JonMultiple Sclerosis (MS) presents with chronic symptoms that share many of the functional limitations associated with aging. Additionally, following the period of five years post-diagnosis a large number of individuals diagnosed with MS experience a major decline in their abilities due to the progression of MS. Consequently, they need to learn how to cope with the functional limitations caused by the disease and in addition to those caused by aging. These individuals have to manage the effects of the disease on their lives every day. mHealth apps provide potential support for disease self-management. However, the number of mobile apps design specifically for individuals with MS is inadequate. Additionally, there is no evidence that utility and usability of these current consumer mobile apps were tested with their target population. This research paper describes the design of the mHealth app MS Assistant, an evidence-based app that provides the daily support and self-management of the disease to individuals aging with MS. It was developed based on the Universal Design Mobile Interface Guidelines, UDMIG v.2.1 and the results of the two previous studies that assessed the health and wellness self-management needs in individuals with MS and tested the usability of current mHealth apps. The paper presents an app refinement based on the suggestions of the expert reviewers who tested the effectiveness of the implementation of the UDMIG v.2.1 in the app design and provided possible recommendations for its redesign.
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ItemUtility of a Mobile Route Planning App for People Aging with Disability(IARIA, 2018) Sanford, Jon ; Melgen, Sarah ; Guhathakurta, Subhrajit ; Zhang, GeMobility is a key contributor to an individual’s community living and participation. As a result, outdoor environmental barriers, such as uneven sidewalks and no curb cuts, play a crucial role in the development of disability and loss of independence among individuals aging with mobility and vision limitations. To compensate, people with disabilities typically plan routes before going out. However, they often lack the appropriate street-level information about the environment to plan routes that meet their abilities and needs for safety and accessibility (e.g., the location of curb cuts and crosswalks). As a result, the real impediment to outdoor mobility is not the actual barriers, but the lack of information about those barriers for route planning. To provide the street-level information about barriers that would maximize the independent living and community participation of people with mobility disabilities, the project team developed a working prototype of the Application for Locational Intelligence and Geospatial Navigation (ALIGN) based on static graphical information systems (GIS) data (e.g., physical infrastructure, slope, crime rates and land uses). This study details the utility testing of the application with individuals aging with mobility and vision limitations by using direct observation, think-aloud and open-ended questionnaires. Findings indicate that participants found the application to be potentially useful, especially in unfamiliar locations. However, testing also indicated a number of refinements, including multimodal input and outputs that would enhance the utility of the initial prototype. Additional design criteria will inform the next prototype, including use of consistent audio/visual feedback, and simpler directions. These criteria will be applied to create a more usable application for the target population.
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ItemClosing the Capacity-Ability Gap: Using Technology to Support Aging With Disability(Gerontological Society of America, 2018) Mitzner, Tracy L. ; Sanford, Jon ; Rogers, Wendy A.There is a critical need to develop supports for older adults who have a wide range of abilities, including those aging with long-term impairments. Without appropriate support, many individuals will be functioning below optimal levels and will face participation barriers. Technology holds great promise to provide individualized support for a wide range of abilities and for a variety of domains. To ensure technology interventions are designed well and meet research-documented user requirements, we need more specific, actionable models to provide guidance for those developing and designing interventions. In this paper, we present the TechSAge Aging and Disability Model to bridge models from the aging and disability literatures and to disambiguate the population of individuals aging into disability from those aging with disability (i.e., pre-existing impairments). We also present the TechSAge Technology Intervention Model to support aging with pre-existing impairments, which provides direction and touch points for technology interventions. These models reflect the complex and dynamic interaction between age-related changes and an individual’s prior capabilities and limitations. We describe the need for these models with respect to filling a gap in the disability and aging literature by highlighting the importance of differentiating between age-related changes and long-term impairments when designing interventions. We also show the need for quantitative and qualitative data to refine the models given complexities of the current state of the literature and survey data. The TechSAge Technology Intervention Model can be used to drive and inform technology redesign and development.
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ItemSmartBathroom: Developing a smart environment to study bathroom transfers(RESNA, 2017) Jones, Brian D. ; Pandey, Shiva ; Presti, Peter ; Taylor, Russell ; Natarajan, Prasanna ; Mahajan, Shambhavi ; Mahajan, Harshal P. ; Sanford, JonIndividuals’ functional abilities change over time; they increase and then decrease over the lifespan, and in some they may fluctuate over the course of a day. While these fluctuations may not impact one’s ability to engage in daily activities, they can be problematic for people aging with disability or a progressive chronic condition such as arthritis or multiple sclerosis, particularly when performing toilet or shower/bath transfers. Although various assistive technologies (AT) and environmental modifications are designed to facilitate bathroom transfers, they are static solutions, selected to match an individual’s ability at one point in time rather than providing a dynamic environment that can adapt to support changing abilities. The SmartBathroom Laboratory is being developed as part of the RERC TechSAge as a highly sensed, adjustable residential bathroom environment to accommodate a wide variety of research studies on task performance during bathroom transfers. These studies will focus on identifying the problems faced by people with functional limitations as they age as well as on exploring viable solutions to these problems. In this paper, we describe design and engineering requirements, challenges, and choices in the development of the SmartBathroom Laboratory.
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ItemTechSAge Minimum Battery: Overview of Measures(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016) Gonzalez, Elena T. ; Mitzner, Tracy L. ; Sanford, Jon ; Rogers, Wendy A.
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ItemAnalysis Of The Effect Of A Rear Wall Grab Bar Configuration On The Fall Risk Associated With Toilet Transfers In Older Adults With Mobility Impairment(RESNA/NCART, 2016) Sanath, Achyuthkumar A. ; Mahajan, Harshal P. ; Gonzalez, Elena ; Sanford, Jon ; Fain, W. BradTwenty-three older adults were recruited for a two-hour in-home study. As a part of the process, the researchers asked questions regarding their process for toilet transfer, asked to provide ratings about toilet transfer in terms of their levels of confidence, difficulty, and how much more challenging it has become with age and with their permission, took photographs of their toilets. The objective of this project is to conduct a secondary analysis of this photographic and interview data to test our hypothesis that the presence of a grab bar on the rear wall prompted older adults to stretch, in order to reach for it across the toilet, consequently increasing the fall risk. The analysis showed us that the presence of a rear wall grab bar, though perceived to ease transfers, might actually prove more challenging to perform transfers with. The rear wall grab bar might only provide an illusion of safety. The results from this analysis may help guide future research undertakings to understand the relationship between a grab bar’s configuration and the risk of falling.
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ItemThe Smart Bathroom: UD through Integrating Physical and Digital Worlds(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014) Sanford, Jon ; Jones, BrianAlthough the abilities of people with disabilities are diverse, many accessible toilets are fixed. As a result, they can only support some abilities some of the time. The purpose of this project is to develop a smart bathroom capable of assessing an individual’s abilities at any point in time and spontaneously adjusting supportive environmental features to accommodate those abilities. Specifically, the study will: 1) observe simulated toilet and shower/bathtub use in a state-of-the-art bathroom laboratory with embedded sensors and automated adjustment of fixtures and hardware; 2) develop algorithms that predict support needs; 3) integrate algorithms with the smart technologies to control the physical environment; and 4) evaluate the effectiveness of the smart bathroom system.