Using assistive technologies to increase social interaction of residents with limited mobility in a care environment

Abstract

Long term residents suffering from limited mobility living within communities or institutions such as homes for the elderly, specialised hospitals and care facilities are subject to lack of social interactions due to their physical state. Such residents often depend on members of staff, family members, guardians and/or other physically able residents to move location and/or interact with other residents. However, these people are not always available and this leaves the immobile residents feeling isolated from the rest of the community.

This project was aimed at reducing social isolation through a social network with a dedicated multimodal user interface and the use of assistive technologies. The chosen interfaces were a voice interface and a touchscreen interface designed to be user friendly specifically to such residents. The core features of the system were designed to assist residents in communicating socially as well as to help set up and manage meetings between each other.

The secondary function of the system was to collect data in the background related to the use of the system. This data was primarily concerned with the interactions occurring as a result of the system. This allows members of staff of the institute in question and guardians of the residents to monitor interaction rates and query this data. Several other functionalities to assist staff members have also been included. A web application along with assistive technologies were used to implement the system. Google’s application programming interfaces (APIs) played key roles in implementing important functionality. The system was designed to be easily integrated with the functionality of an automated transport mechanism which would allow a resident with limited mobility to independently travel around the institution. The solution was tested against a number of criteria to ensure correct functionality with regards to the gathered requirements. The overall evaluation of the system was carried out by workers of a care environment, considered to be knowledgeable in the field, as well as elderly persons suffering from limited mobility.