Assistive robots are emerging as technologies that enable older adults to perform activities of daily living with autonomy. Exoskeletons are a subset of assistive robots that can support mobility. Perceptions and acceptance of these technologies require understanding in a user-centred design context to ensure optimum experience and adoption by as broad a spectrum of older adults as possible. Th...

BACKGROUND Many older adults with mobility limitations use assistive technology to help them perform daily activities. However, little attention has been paid to the impact on their family caregivers. This neglect produces an incomplete portrayal of the outcomes of assistive technology provision. This paper describes the protocol for a study that examines the impact of a tailored assistive tech...

Assistive technology was once a specialised field of practice, involving products designed for populations with specific impairments or functional goals. In Australia, occupational therapists have, at times, functioned as gatekeepers to public funding, prescribing products from a predefined list. An expanding range of accessible mainstream products available via international and online markets...

Recently brain-computer interface (BCI) control was integrated into the commercial assistive technology product QualiWORLD (QualiLife Inc., Paradiso-Lugano, CH). Usability of the first prototype was evaluated in terms of effectiveness (accuracy), efficiency (information transfer rate and subjective workload/NASA Task Load Index) and user satisfaction (Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with...

The purpose of this study was to conduct a cross-validation of the bidimensional structure of a satisfaction measure with assistive technology. Data were drawn from a follow-up study of 243 subjects who had been administered the Dutch version of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST). Ratings related to 12 satisfaction items were analysed. Factor analysis r...

The eyes play an important role both in perception and communication. Technical interfaces that make use of their versatility can bring significant improvements to those, who are unable to speak or to handle selection tasks elsewise, e.g. with their hands, feet, noses or tools handled with the mouth. Using the eyes to enter texts into a computer system, which is called gaze-typing, is the most ...

A requirements capture carried out with thirty blind and visually impaired participants has outlined many issues visually impaired people face when accessing the Web using current assistive technology. One key finding was that spatial information is not conveyed to users. An assistive multimodal interface has been developed that conveys spatial information to users via speech, audio and haptics...

Web accessibility and usability problems can make evaluation difficult for non-experts who may be unfamiliar with assistive technology. Developers often (i) lack easy access to the diversity of assistive technology employed by users, and (ii) are unaware of the different access patterns and browsing strategies that people familiar with a specific assistive technology tool might use. One way to ...