An empathic approach in assistive technology to provide job accommodations for disabilities

Abstract

When the psychologist Abraham Maslow first defined the five levels of human need in 1943, people started to realise how human needs should be fulfilled and many products have since been designed to fulfill these needs. Many researches have shown that the desire to achieve a higher level of need is no different between normal people and disabled people. However, social benefits only support a disabled person with their basic needs. To help them achieve a higher level of need, for them, finding a suitable job is the best way forward.An appropriately designed assistive technology (AT) allows the user to be more efficient at work, prevent them suffering occupational injury and enjoy a safe and comfortable work environment. It could be a good tool to help them reach their psychological needs, but designing an appropriate AT requires a designer with a high level of professional knowledge in AT, an understanding of the subject's abilities and being able to realise the task and environment that the subject needs to work in, all of which involve long term training. Additionally, the majority of designers are healthy people; it is very difficult for a healthy person to have the ability to understand the difficulties of a disabled subject, especially young designers. In this research, the researcher used a spinal injured lottery seller in Taiwan as the subject. The researcher observed and analysed his tasks and environment, collected professional suggestions from experts and, based on the user-centred design theory, compared the physical differences between the subject and healthy designers. Additionally, the results were applied to a design and an empathy tool was produced, when wearing it would allow the designers to empathise with the inconvenience of the physical conditions of the subject. The empathy tool was tested and evaluated by various product designers. The researcher designed a scenarios process and asked his participants to practice with it. The result showed that although the suit could not simulate the psychological conditions of the target user, it was, however, successful in mimicking the physical conditions of the subject and allowed the designers to realise the difficulties and problems of the subject through the simulation process. Thus, these experiences were transformed into design knowledge when designing assistive technology. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.