Category: Assistive Technology

1. Reflection on the field trip
   1. A campus behind Meng Cafe & Vocational school
      1. Describe your observations on their classes
         1. The most memorable thing for me is that the autism kids were really diversified in terms of their behavior towards other people. Some kids were really happy and excited when seeing other people(especially we visitors), but some kids are quiet.
         2. Some autism kids are always immersed in their own mood and own feeling, it’s hard for them to stay focus sometimes.
      2. What technologies can improve their learning?
         1. Maybe some technologies to help them to stay focus more? For example, a watch displays the specific task they should do. Like when they need to do the paper cutting, the teacher send a signal to their watch, and the watch will constantly remind the kids that their task right now is paper cutting and kids should stay focus on it.
      3. Overall experience and observation
         1. Maybe just coincidence, but my first impression is that students on this campus are more mature than students in the previous campus.
         2. The design of the 1-to-1 class where the teacher taught the class surrounding the same topic in a consistent and interesting way was impressive.

My partner is a deaf Chinese male who also suffers from a left-side-slight paralysis. Indeed, he has troubles using his left hand and has a balance problem which is bettered by special shoes. He knows how to read and write in pinyin and in characters; although he sometimes has troubles with complicated characters. His vocabulary is also very simple and basic. But he can still communicate with his limited vocabulary. He prefers to communicate through his mother though (with sign language).
He loves his computer so much and enjoys using it to watch movies, tv shows and video games. He knows how to use the computer well and he also knows how to navigate a dictionary (which he uses to look up characters he doesn’t get).
We thought of getting him a drawing pad which he can use to write down what he wants to say to people since he can’t talk and most people can’t sign. Since he has troubles with his left hand, to make using the pad easy, we thought of sticking it to a belt around his waist so that he doesn’t have to pull it out every time (and doesn’t have to use his left hand). We wanted to attach to the tablet a recorder in which we record in Chinese “I am deaf please write down what you want to tell me” for when he wants to let people know of his deafness when speaking to them.
Unfortunately, he’d much rather communicate through his mom and he is not very open to any other technology that can help him communicate with others. He is more comfortable with his mom doing everything for him.
We then switched our focus from his deafness to his left hand. Since he enjoys playing games in his computer, we thought about making the experience easier for him. Sometimes, in computer games you need to use the arrows and the AWDS keynotes; which is a thing he cannot do because of his inability to use his left hand while playing. We thus thought of creating a foot keyboard where he can use his right foot to control. We put together pads that by clicking at them with his foot can enable him to control the left side of the keyboard he can’t access while using his right hand to play with the right side of the keyboard.

I went to a special vocational school where we got to see kids learning how to cook, bake and prepare food. They were also playing all kinds of sports and learning how to make and serve coffee to people. In this school, teachers were really invested in the way they taught their kids as they often meet up to come up with new ideas and ways to teach the students. There are also many activities the students may partake in as in pottery and paintings for example. 

I think incorporating more technology into their daily lives might be helpful to them for example teaching them how to use the computer, cellphones, how wechat and alipay works … etc. They can also have maybe easy video games to play and movies they watch to immerse themselves in today’s world.

1. Project development 

a. Describe your partner 

My partner is a very happy, and energetic woman. She has worked before in assistive technology workshops, therefore she already knows the dynamic regarding us trying to make a product that will help her overcome her difficulties. She is very eager to collaborate with the questions we ask her, and expresses her concerns freely. Every week she has been very participative in attempting to improve the prototypes we bring in for her to try on. She is very eager about the progress we have made with her umbrella holder, and her enthusiasm inspires my other partner and me to make the best of her experience. I am very excited to see her using this product in her daily life to improve commodities while going out in the street. 

b. What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

Since my partner uses a wheelchair, her main difficulty is carrying an umbrella when she is outside and it’s raining. This is due to the umbrella being too heavy for her to hold onto the whole time, and troublesome when it comes to controlling the wheelchair. Therefore, she desires something that will help her facilitate that process; an object that will keep her umbrella in place under any circumstance she may need. Further into details of the umbrella holder, my partner wants it to be situated in the middle of the wheelchair, that way it could cover the most area possible around her body. As well as, she wants to be able to store it in a convenient, accessible area, while it is not at use or necessary to take out.

c. What is your project? Redefine if needed 

Our project idea has been redefined from the first concept that was introduced. It is a collapsable, stable umbrella holder that will be fixed onto the left side of our partner’s wheelchair. This holder contains is made out of steel and plastic, and contains many rotating areas so just as it provides support for the umbrella, it also adjusts according to my partner’s needs. This product will be secured with a velcro strap when not in use. When in need of use, the umbrella holder will be able to be detached from the velcro and moved towards the center of the users body, to protect as much area as possible of my partner’s body from the rain. This project is aimed to help our partner feel more comfortable when having to go out on rainy days, since she can use her hands freely, while being under her secured umbrella. 

d. Development process. Include photos and video(s)

Our prototype has developed through different phases based on different materials. We initiated creating a model in paper, in order to see where it has to be placed, around what size, and how the rotations will actually occur. Later on, we used the paper prototype to create a basis of how strong the tube should be, by using as an example a water pipe. This design was tested on our partner’s wheelchair, and later iterated with materials bought on TaoBao for a steel holder.

 

After user testing two prototypes of steel holders, we noticed that both needed to be accommodated for our partner’s needs. Therefore, we created an iteration of the original idea, with different parts of both prototypes.

For this, we deconstructed the tubes, and placed them in such a way that the longer tube was aimed towards helping my partner have a more suitable umbrella height; whereas the smaller tube was used to fix the length of the product (the distance towards the middle that the umbrella would cover above my partner’s legs). We secured these new adaptations to the holder and the wheelchair through screws and hot glue. 

Later on, my partner mentioned that she would also like the holder to be collapsable in a convenient way for her to access it at any times, as well as store it whenever not in use. For this reason we decided to situate a velcro strap on the side of the holder and chair, so she can find it more comfortable to carry around the product at all times.

Final Product up to now