Category: Assistive Technology

1. Reflection on the field trip

On Thursday, our team visited the Shanghai Pudong New Area Special School. The first thing I found is that those “special kids” have fantastic talent in some ways, for example, drawing. Here is the video I took showing their paintings.

Therefore, I think kids with disabilities have their specific interests, and they have many potential abilities that haven’t been fully discovered. I think the school does a good job in cultivating children’s interests, such as gardening clubs, painting exhibitions and so on. Maybe the school can design more fundamental standard courses for them to explore their interests and advanced professional courses to further learn about their interests.

Secondly, I found kids in this school can understand music and pictures better than words. In other words, music and photos can assist them in their treatment. When observing the 1-on-1 class for the kid with cerebral palsy, I found a piece of soothing piano music was played during the class. And when giving instructions, the teacher would show the kid pictures as well as use words (but the kid understood images better because he was always watching the photo when the teacher is talking to him). So I think when designing for those kids, music, pictures, and more sensory equipment can be considered to help them better understand.

Thirdly, the last class I observed is an art class about Beijing Opera. The curriculum is almost the same as a normal primary school art curriculum, but the teacher intentionally uses a lot of visualized methods to teach, such as variable slides, acting. Also, she uses repetition to strengthen kids’ memory because they will continuously forget what they learned if it’s not repeated. Similar to the second thought above, I feel visualization can be well applied to the class for the special school. The topic about Beijing Opera reminds me of my final project of the interaction lab, which is a mask-changing project. By shaking a fan, users can change their masks on the screen. When the different colors of masks appear, the corresponding meaning of the colors will appear on the screen as well. This project can be associated with educational purposes.

2. Describe your project idea (individual)

1. Describe your partner as a person (not PwD)

My partner is called Orange. She is an energetic, open-minded, positive woman. She came here with her friend by the metro. She attended Hackability in the summer, and she got the product from that workshop, which is a cup holder. She is easy-going, and the communication between us is smooth.

2. What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

She is clear about what her problem is and what the requirement would be, which helps us define the question we need to solve. On rainy days she finds it very inconvenient to hold an umbrella in one hand and use a wheelchair in the other. So she wants us to help her make an umbrella holder on the wheelchair to support her umbrella when it’s raining.

3. What is your project? 1 paragraph description + Photos + Videos

Our project is an umbrella holder that can be attached to a wheelchair. It’s elastic and can be folded. It is as shown in the picture below:

We drew a rough draft and made the first prototype out of paper.

 

Then we made it with stronger cardboard and tape to test the structure.

There are still many details to consider. So that’s what we’ve done so far.

Reflection of Field Trip:

We visited many of their club activities and one autism therapy class. By taking a look at their club activities, I think the school has already tried the best to maximize their personal capabilities and interests. Art activity leaves me the most impressive impression where some of the students are free drawing, and the others are doing some complex works. The coordinator in the school told us that they design the tasks differently for students with different skills and capabilities. I think it best fulfills different students’ needs by customizing the teaching plan for them. However, we got to know that the school has limited human resources. When we are watching the autism therapy class, even though there were only two children in the class, we still think the difference between the two children makes the class less efficient. It would be better to treat one child at one time. I think the iPad app that the teacher is helpful to different materials for different levels of learners. However, it focuses on how to reduce the burden of the teacher. I think it would better to design a technology that is customized to the learner. Therefore, it can minimize the effect of the recognition gap between peer learners. I think Young has a good idea for designing something to attract students’ intention so that they can stay more focused.

Moreover, while listening to the autism therapy class, I was also observing the classroom settings. I noticed that the school might intend to make a warm and safe room setting for students. However, it is not successful enough. Inevitably, some facilities that are out of line. Then how about change a perspective to design something applicable to students themselves to make them more comfortable in an unfamiliar environment? I do not have a specific idea, but I think such a design will be helpful for students especially with autism.

Describe your project idea

Describe your partner as a person

My partner is very quiet. When I first took a glimpse at him, I did not identify anything abnormal about him. He walks a little unbalanced, but that does not make him look strange. We started to ask questions and introduces ourselves to him. He seemed to have understood our words but only replies in limited voice and hand gestures. None of us understood it. Therefore, we found a pen and a piece of paper writing down our conversation. He writes comparatively slow, but the characters are clear to understand. After that, we had a long conversation with his mother. While we are chatting with his mother, I noticed that he is quietly listening and paying attention to our conversation. Later, his mother posted some questions on the paper, and he started writing the response. He even actively started writing a sentence to us while he is a little ignored by us. Therefore, I believed that he has a strong desire to join our conversation. However, the way to communicate is a big challenge for him.

What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?

He has many challenges. Throughout our conversation with his mother, we noticed that he never goes out by himself but also with his mother because of the potential dangers on the road. Since he lacks a certain degree of the ability to control the left side of his body, it is very hard for him to keep the balance. Also, he expressed his desire to have a romantic relationship with his mother two years ago, but his situation is not socially accepted. Furthermore, his mother is also concerned about his safety at home since he might open the room door for strangers. However, after all, we nearly forget that our target audience should be himself instead of his mother. We were chatting with his mother all the time instead of him. We then realized the most significant difficulty for him is the inconvenient environment of his communication with others. We could hardly communicate with him until his mother came.

What is your project?

We spent some time finding a pen and paper to write down words in communication. Also, we did not aware that he is unable to hear and speak at first. Therefore, we came up with an idea to address this problem. So, the purpose of the device should enable him to communicate with others without any barriers in any situation. We still think writing and reading is the most effective, stable, and safe way for his daily communication. We find the existing writing pad online. It is convenient to carry, write, and swipe the previous writing. However, it is not initially designed for disabled people. Therefore, we want to build a device that makes the writing pad accessible to him. We need to figure out the following details in design by prototype and test.

1. Notify others about his lack of ability in hearing and speaking. We may use the sound notification.
2. Attached the writing pad to his body but should not block his daily movement and make him uncomfortable. We may design a special bracket for him.
3. Avoid two people writing in opposite directions or make their writing readable to each other. We may want to make the device rotatable.
4. Make sure the pen will not be lost while walking. We may attach the pen to the device with wires.

1. Reflection of field trip

The field trip to the Shanghai Pudong New Area Special School was very insightful as it provided me with a closer look on the difficulties faced by children with intellectual disabilities. We were able to observe children in different classes, personal development, and extracurricular activities such as performing arts, African music dance, and interacting with plants and nature. It was interesting to see how through the simplest of activities such as molding shapes with clay, playing with legos, and color coding drawings with small sparkles, kids learned the most. However, not only hands-on activities were used in the school, but actually technologies were employed to make children’s learning more efficient. Such case was seen in the personal development section of the school, where the teachers used an application in an iPad, to help kids learn and recognize basic everyday shapes like fruits and vegetables. These technologies went in hand with physical objects that also allowed children to touch the figures that were being displayed in technologies. In the end, the most beneficial factor of the field trip was allowing me to understand how there can be many ways of helping people with disabilities, even if it is through the slightest of change in an object. I am hoping this will help me improve in further ideation processes in Assistive Technology, since even though last week’s session went pretty well with my partner, there is always room for improvement in asking the correct questions in order to obtain the best results for the final project. 

1. Project idea

a. Describe your partner as a person

My partner is a very happy, energetic, and passionate woman. She has worked before in assistive technology workshops, therefore she already knows the dynamic in us trying to make a product that will help her overcome her difficulties.

b. What were their desires/challenges/difficulties?

Since my partner uses a wheelchair, her main difficulty is carrying an umbrella when she is outside and its raining, as the umbrella is too heavy for her to hold onto the whole time. Therefore, her desire is for something that will help her facilitate that process; an object that will keep her umbrella in place under any circumstance that she may need it. 

c. What is your project? 1 paragraph description + Photos + Videos

Our project idea is an umbrella holder that will be fixed onto the left side of her wheelchair in such a way that it will be accessible to put an umbrella there at any time. The holder inside will have a structure similar to valves, in order to prevent the back flow, and allow the umbrella to stay in place under any weather conditions. I have attached photos of the development of the first prototype in cardboard and paper. 

Initial Prototype Sketch with partner

TaoBao inspiration design of

Second inspiration design “Paraplis Umbrella Holder”

First Prototype Idea made with paper

First Prototype Idea, storage function in wheelchair (Paper)

Prototype Iteration made with tube and cardboard, tested to support umbrella.

Reflection of the field trip

        This field trip made me feel that these kids are not different from normal people, and even more cute. Their school just looks the same as my primary school, which is not far away from the special school that we visited and gave me a familiar feeling. Through all the facilities, installations, classrooms, and many other details, I can feel the society and teachers’ concern for them. For example, the subway model donated by the Shanghai subway company, the Haibei Supermarket in which the kids can buy toys with Haibei coins that they earned by themselves, etc. These all help those special kids to grow up better. When observing the physical therapy class of a cerebral palsy kid, I felt that the teacher was extremely patient and I can feel her love for the kid. Although they are always repeating several simple movement therapies, they didn’t express any boredom or impatience. The kid’s enthusiasm for playing football made me felt he is so cute since although he failed a lot of times when kicking by his left foot, he never gave up and tried again and again. The music class with the seventh-grade students also made me feel that there are almost no differences between them and normal kids, and they are even more positive and innocent. They talked about the Peking Opera in class, which is not an easy content and surprised me a lot. Just like other seventh-grade students, they also raise their hands actively in class to answer the teacher’s question. I can feel that they pay attention to the teacher and their enthusiasm for the class. I also saw that the students had very different personalities in one class and the teacher always tried to help those who are introverted to speak more and is very fair to every student. Through this field trip, I became more respectful to the teachers working at the special school who are extremely patient to these kids. I also felt these kids are so lovely that I have more motivation to try my best to design some assistive technology to help their life.

Project Idea

1. Describe your partner as a person (not PwD)

My partner Lamb is a seventeen-year-old girl. She lives in the Putuo district in Shanghai, where is far away from our school. She just graduated from the special school in Putuo last year. She has a disability of controlling her body well because of hypoxia at birth, but her intelligence is no different from others. She participated in the Hackability in NYUSH before and is enthusiastic about this kind of activity. She told me that she posted a video of the Hackability on his Weibo. She is an optimistic and outgoing girl. Although she can’t control her hands well, she still tried to write her name down on the paper in last Tuesday’s workshop. Although she can’t speak fluently, she is very willing to talk to other people. When we asked some questions about what difficulties or problems they met in daily life, she interrupted her mother and told us that there is a gap between the subway and the ground so that it’s hard for the wheelchair to get on the subway.

2. What are their desires/challenges/difficulties?       

Their main difficulty is transportation. Lamb’s mother told us that their home is far away from the subway station so that she has to push the wheelchair to walk for more than ten minutes to get to the station. Although there are passages for the disables in the station, they still get trouble in getting on the subway because of the gap between the subway and the platform and the wheel of the wheelchair will sometimes be stuck in the gap. Her mother told us that in this regard, the subway stations in Hangzhou even did a better job then Shanghai. When the staff at the station see people in a wheelchair, they will provide a board and put it above the gap to enable the wheelchair to pass easily. Another problem is that the buses are almost inaccessible to them because of two reasons. Firstly, it’s hard for the wheelchair-user to get on to the bus because of the stairs. Secondly, in most buses, there is no space for a wheelchair, not to mention facilities that help to fix the wheelchair. They said that if they could take buses, life would be much easier because there are bus stations just near their home. The third problem is that Lamb wants to go out by herself alone with her electronic wheelchair, but she can’t if it’s the rainy day because only her right hand has force so that if she holds an umbrella, she can’t control the electronic wheelchair. 

3. What is your project?

 We plan to help them to solve the issue of holding an umbrella since there are lots of rainy days in Shanghai. The umbrella can also be used to shade the sun. Since it’s difficult for Lamb to open the umbrella by herself, we plan to use an automatic opening and closing umbrella so that she can use the umbrella by simply press the button. When not in usage, the umbrella will be clinging to the handle of the wheelchair. When Lamb needs to use it, she just needs to pull it up and press the button. We will use an umbrella like this in case she will get wet when closing the umbrella. Our challenge would be how to fix the umbrella in that position after she pulled it up tightly and to make sure its safety.