Abstract
Wheelchair users experience many situations that affect the stability and associated performance of their wheelchair.
Stability is affected by user characteristics and abilities, environmental features and conditions, and wheelchair modification
and accessories. Wheelchair prescribers need effective tools and methods to provide quantitative evaluation and prediction of
the behavior of the user-wheelchair system in a variety of static and dynamic situations. Such information is very important to
guide efficient management of associated risks and adjust chairs accordingly. This project involves a user-centered approach
for design and evaluation of a load cell based wheelchair stability assessment system (Wheel-SAS). Here, the current methods
for assessing stability are described, and their shortcomings explained. The user-centered design approach being applied to the
development of the associated Wheel-SAS hardware and software is described. Future work including semi-structured interviews
and an online survey with wheelchair prescribers and associated healthcare professionals for deriving user requirements
and a design specification for a load cell system for measuring dynamic wheelchair stability are detailed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Work |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | Supplement 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Bibliographical note
This article was originally a conference paper given at IEA 2012: 18th World congress on Ergonomics - Designing a sustainable future. All the papers from the conference are freely available to view in full text on the publisher website in Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation volume 41, supplement 1 at http://iospress.metapress.com/content/q66420837m77/?p=7787f1b527d747f89d3320c03e40b67c&pi=38Keywords
- wheelchair stability assessment
- wheelchair prescription
- Wheel-SAS