Pros and Cons Technologies That Aid Manipulation and Control of Environment

List Functional Manipulative Tasks that Can be Aided by Assistive Technologies

Students with learning disabilities most often have difficulty with functional capabilities such as writing, reading, studying, listening, accessing the curriculum and organizing. While this is a fairly long list of very important skills, the list includes tasks for which most of us already use some kind of technology. The assistive technology devices that might help a student with learning disabilities are often not specialized devices designed for people with disabilities, but are simply readily available technology that might not be commonly used in classrooms or technology that might not be introduced as early as it is needed by a student with learning disabilities. Because the legal definition of assistive technology is very broad, there is sometimes confusion about what is assistive technology as opposed to what is instructional technology. Assistive technology is not technology that helps students practice new skills they are learning. It is not software to practice spelling words or math facts. However, if the child’s problem is handwriting, assistive technology might be technology that allows him to keyboard to produce more legible spelling tests or math problems.

When technology is used as assistive technology, it helps a child to do a task that he either cannot perform without it or cannot perform as well without it. Assistive technology often can be used in a variety of environments and can help a child with a task that might be done at school, at home or out in the community. Technology that can be used by students with learning disabilities to compensate for their skill deficits is the most rapidly developing area of assistive technology today. There are literally hundreds of products available. In addition, more products are coming out of the general technology realm with built in accessibility features. Products with voice output or voice recognition such as Microsoft Word and Dragon Dictate are being purchased for general use in school districts and can become assistive technology for a child with a learning disability. The inclusion of these accessibility features is called "universal design". Any product with universal design features

• Provides multiple representations of the information being presented.
• Provides multiple or modifiable means of expression and control.
• Provides multiple or modifiable means of motivating and engaging students.

Describe the Operation of Electrically Powered Feeding Aids

People suffering from neuromuscular diseases have trouble lifting their arms against gravity although a large number of them maintain sensitivity and residual strengths in their hands. Therefore a device is desired that enables them to assist their feeding movements. There are commercially available feeders that are useful for people who have controlled movements of the head and neck and can take food off of a feeding utensil that is brought close to the mouth. Most feeders consist of an articulated, electrically powered arm with a spoon at its end, a plate on a rotating turntable and an auxiliary arm that may be used to push food on to the spoon. The user controls, through the use of switches, the movement of the different components. Although such feeding aids can be used effectively, there are several reasons why their use is not as widespread as one would expect. The control switches may initiate a movement of a certain component, for example, a rotation of the plate.

List the Features and Design Properties of Electronic Page Turners

Individuals with diagnoses such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke, and acquired brain injury often experience difficulties with fine motor tasks due to poor hand functioning, which may be a result of spasticity, contractures, joint subluxation, or structural deformities in the hand. Reading is an example of a meaningful activity that may be difficult for these people due to the requirement of fine motor skill to turn a page. Reading books, magazines, or newspapers is important in various domains of daily living, such as work, school, and leisure.

There are some limited commercially available options available to address this problem, such as electronic book readers, and using a rubber-tipped rod in a universal cuff. Though, electronic reader is portable, feedback from users indicate that eye strain is a problematic issue. Although using a rubber-tipped rod in a universal cuff attached to the palm of one’s hand is an inexpensive and portable option, feedback from users and occupational therapists note its inefficiency, as it often takes multiple tries to turn one page.

List the Functions Carried Out by Environmental Control Systems

Environmental Control allows people with disabilities to control functions in their own living space. This could include opening doors and windows for instance, or functions such as controlling a door intercom system, lights, a telephone, bed functions, TV, DVD player, cable TV boxes, and the stereo. In addition to consumer products such as TVs, DVD players, cable TV boxes, and stereos, users also need to be able to control other functions in their homes. Some manufactures provide users with an all-in-one solution that uses one transmitter to control everything.

• Doors. IR-controlled door-openers allow users to come and go from their own homes independently.
• Windows. Electric window-openers let you open and close the windows in your home.
• Lights/Devices. Lights and other devices can be easily switched on or off using a wireless relay unit. It is easy to set up the relay unit, to move it, and change it for new functions.
• Beds. A bed receiver allows the user to independently adjust the sleeping position of an electronically controlled bed.
• External doors. A door intercom allows the user to speak to people calling at the external door and let them in from anywhere in the home – even from bed.
• Telephone. A remote-controlled GewaTel 200 speaker telephone provides safety, security and greater independence by providing access to emergency services, answering the phone, and making phone calls to stored numbers.

Describe the Basic Components of Environmental Control Systems and How they are Implemented

Environmental Control Units (ECUs), also known as Electronic Aids to Daily Living (EADL), are the equipment that persons with disabilities use to interact with and control their environments. ECUs can control a wide range of electronic devices including garage doors, thermostats, windows, doors, beds, “call nurse” buttons, telephones or audio recording devices, lights, televisions, and radios, just to name a few.  There are three main parts to environmental control systems: input devices (the user interface that accepts inputs from the user), the processor (the unit that sends signals to control the electronic devices), and outputs (the devices to be controlled). The input device is the part of the ECU that the user interacts with to effect a change. The signal from the input device travels to the processor which determines what action the user wanted to perform on the output devices and then sends the corresponding signal to that device. Other than regular TV remote control style input devices, there are alternative input devices that are called switches. These alternative input devices are used by persons with disabilities where the users are unable to use typical multi-button controllers.

There are two types of switches, single switches and dual switches. A single switch is a switch that only has a single action or button. A dual switch has two input actions, or two buttons. For instance, in a sip-and-puff switch the user has two types (dual-switch) of inputs that can be chosen, sipping and puffing on a straw which could correlate to moving a menu up or down. A single switch, by contrast in the same menu example, like a button would only be able to advance a menu in one direction. A switch or controller can be used to either directly interact with an electronic device or it can be used to communicate with the processor, which will then communicate with the specified electronic device. Similarly, a switch can be installed on a device that will allow a user to turn it on or off with the installed single or dual switch.

Discuss the Uses of Robotic Devices in Aiding Manipulation by Person with Disabilities

People might be surprised to learn that about 50 million people in the world use, or could benefit from the use of, a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are one of the most commonly used assistive devices for mobility, and they provide people with mobility within their homes and communities. While wheelchairs were once a symbol of inability and stigmatizing, they have evolved to be highly mobile forms of self-expression that are often fitted to each individual user. One may wonder what science and engineering can do to improve the wheelchair, and be surprised by the answer that much has been and remains to be done. One of the areas in which science and engineering are making the breakthroughs of tomorrow is in applying computer modeling, rapid-prototyping and robotics to create electric powered mobility and manipulation devices. Such devices provide people with very severe disabilities — those that affect both the use of their arms and legs — the ability to perform tasks with minimal assistance or even independently.

            Computer modeling allows engineers to design and simulate such systems within a virtual space. Simulations range from the mechanical and circuit design to the complex control and coordination systems needed to make all of the components work together. One of our greatest challenges is ensuring that the powered mobility and manipulation device actually meets the user’s needs, and that the science is guided by problems facing people with disabilities. In our work, we collaborate closely with people with disabilities and incorporate them into our research and development team. These collaborators highlight some of the hurdles that they face, and other potential uses of powered mobility and manipulation devices, such as driving on rough terrain like snow, ice, grass, sand and gravel.

             For people who have limited or no use of their arms, it is equally as challenging to complete such tasks as making a sandwich, putting away clothes, and shopping. Many people would like to drive the powered mobility device in parks, on winter days or across gravel roads, which is difficult and sometimes impossible with the technology of today. Likewise, people with some severe disabilities require a person to help them perform tasks, such as adjusting their jacket, which many of us take for granted. Rapid-prototyping and robotics provide some promising solutions to at least some of the challenges faced by people with severe mobility and manipulation, and offer hope for greater independence.  Rapid-prototyping helps engineers to make models and even one-off devices in a cost effective and timely manner. This allows computer models to become physical models within days, and real systems within months rather than years. This accelerates the research and design process, and affords people with disabilities more opportunities to participate in the scientific process.

           Robotics has traditionally focused on replacing humans in the performance of tasks to achieve greater efficiencies or to reduce human exposure to risk. In our work, the person and robot must work together in what we call cooperative control. In our cooperative control model, we have a pilot who is the actual person with a disability, a remote human assistant, and the robotic system.
With cooperative control these three core units work in unison to achieve the actions desired by the pilot in natural environments. This approach speeds deployment from the laboratory into the real-world, and allows scientists and people with disabilities to learn from each other throughout the process, to work towards achieving practical robotic mobility systems that safely, effectively, and efficiently help people with disabilities perform the activities that they desire.