OT Interview

OT Interview with Usamah

As our chosen theme focuses on people with spinal cord injuries (SCI), part of our research was interviewing an Occupational Therapist (OT) that could provide us with some insights to how they interact with SCI users and what they are looking for when they complete assessments. Basically, as an OT, how do they help or enhance people with spinal cord injuries daily life?

The interview with Usamah provided us with insightful key points:

  • There are so many needs for people with disabilities that is just not getting met at all. 
  • OT's focus on functional engagement; divided into three categories. self-care, work and leisure
  • For comfort he also mentioned pressure cushions such as the one below that help people in wheelchairs to prevent pressure sores on their glutes.
 

  • "there's new technology coming out all the time...there was a wheelchair that allows airflow through it. So, you're not getting so hot and sweaty in your wheelchair."
  • "there's not really a gym that disabled people can access"
  • "...for people that are quadriplegics...they can't actually move in their bed."
  • He goes through the morning routine for people with spinal cord injuries and how after "all this stuff takes a long time and they're exhausted by the end of it."
  • He mentiones a simple thing like tying shoelaces and asks if there is an equipment that can help with that?
  • "Maybe you can design some shoes that are really easy to slip on, they're fashionable. You know, not many slips on shoes are like nice looking to wear."
  • "The best practice method is to do it with the client, like do it in collaboration with them, because in the end, everyone is different" 
  • "Trialing is a way of collaborating"
  • He mentioned the Barthel Index that he uses when he assesses patients and their abilities. This was really important as it presents opportunities for which we can design something that aids them during this process/s.
  • This website is a basic Barthel Index, but highlights the key areas for assessment; https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/about/scn/ahs-scn-bjh-hf-barthel-index-of-adls.pdf
  • When asked for any last considerations, Usamah eneded with "I guess with designing equipment maybe make it look nice, like a lot of disability equipment, especially for kids, like it's not user friendly in that way. You know, a little girl in a wheelchair, like a big wheelchair you know, is there a way you could make that wheelchair really creative and nice for a kid to be in from an aesthetic perspective."


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 13.2 - A3 Finalising Code

Image
 Yikes! lets begin with that. It has been one hell of a ride with this code. For most of the duration of A3 I have been trying to code infrared leds and transmitters...NOT BEAM BREAKERS. It was only until last week Thursday during our tech workshops that I was finally introduced to them. Thank God for that, I was about to pull my hair-that you can't seen under my hijab-out. The Beam breakers are amazing, whoever designed them is honestly my hero. While it has taken me a couple hours to get the code, (and its still not perfect 100%) they have taken my code to not working to everything is working as it should with the expection of the display screen that is clearing at the moment. But the detection is just amazin and how accurate it is and how each stage correlates with each other. It's late and I'm happy.  The video below demonstrates the working interactions, with a couple things missing (such as buttons) for how my design will monitor the bag and inform the user through li...
Read more

Recommended Readings (2)

  DNH603 Recommended Reading  The next reading to be is  The Encyclopaedia of Human-Computer Interaction: interaction design  by Jonas Löwgren ( https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/interaction-design-brief-intro ). Notes from Webpage; needs, desires of the people, products, services pleasure, satisfaction and enjoyment "Interaction design is about shaping digital things for people’s use" shaping - creating, building, designing design is transformation - change interaction design - digital things - implementing a new initiative (?) Its about exploring possible futures - divergent work user studies are used in interaction design processes, fieldwork "Design entails framing the “problem” in parallel with creating possible “solutions” " thinking, sketching - for tangible representations sketching in software and hardware as well as low-fi modelling for interaction design purpose and intention is import...
Read more

First Arduino Experiment

Image
In our first Tech workshop, we were officially introduced to Arduino. What? Open source electronics Why? User interaction to test interactions and receive feedback Allows hands on interaction and be able to give an electric engineer for e.g. an idea down the track About taking more steps to build your product Can do temperature example, take in one input like temperature Project examples on Arduino website like colour detection Another e.g. window painting robot There’s no limit to what you can do with Arduino Exercise encouragement via automated BB gun Can use it for a lot of medical solutions, e.g. fall detection Carls’ project – Rowing Glove, worked with injury prevention and rehabilitation during rowing with mobility tracking James project – CPR Training device – guides users through CPR using basic inputs and outputs Board Basics -  Arduino Setup Power and ground pins (3.3V, 5V GND GND Vin) Important to know which volts your project runs on, majority is 5V Eception3.3V Recomme...
Read more