Ergonomics/ Alternative Access/ AAC Flashcards
Ergonomics Environments
- Home
- Learning
- Play and Leisure
- Work
- Designing products for individuals and populations
- Providing strategies for safety, fitness, health, and wellness
- Environment analysis
Interpret risks of poor design and environment
- Reduce medical visits
- Reduce absenteeism
- Improve productivity
- Improve quality & reduce scrap material
- Improve worker comfort on the job
Successful match between AT and person leads to
- ease of use
- functional efficiency
- – productivity
- – task performance
- comfort
- health and safety
- quality of working life
Working the body beyond its capabilities
Force, Repetition, Awkward postures, Static postures, Contact stress, Lack of rest and recovery time
Environmental Factors
Temperature, Humidity, Air Quality, Vibration, Lighting, Noise, Force (weight), Chemical agents, Toxic substance, Non-toxic substances, Biological agents, e.g., infectious agents (blood borne agents; allergic reactions), Violence
Work Organization and Psychosocial Work Factors
Fatigue, Feelings of isolation, Anxiety and inability to cope, Muscle tension and poor posture, Easily distracted by low level noise, Difficulty concentrating, Job control, Social support, Job distress, Task & performance demand, Job security, Responsibility, Complexity
Engineering Controls: Definition
- Changes to the workstation, equipment or tools.
Administrative Controls: Definition
- Decisions made by management intended to reduce the duration, frequency, and severity of exposure to existing hazards. It leaves the hazards at the workplace, but attempts to diminish the effects on the worker.
Engineering Controls: Examples
Eliminates hazards at the source.
- Workstation reconfiguration or redesign
- – work height adjustments
- – reach adjustments
- – location of supplies and equipment
- Tool & handle design or redesign
- Environmental design
Administrative Controls: Examples
- Job Rotation
- – job stays the same, workers go from job to job
- Job Enlargement
- Work Scheduling
- – breaks, flexible hours, job sharing
- Work Method
- – Reduce external pacing
- Protective Equipment
- – Gloves, masks, clothing & footwear, Eye Wear, Vibration Protection, Ear Protection
- Automation
Job Enlargement
- Horizontal or Job Extension: job content is increased by giving the worker a greater number of tasks to perform all within the same level of responsibility
- Vertical or Job Enrichment: job content includes taking over some responsibilities which were previously assigned to a supervisor
Work Practice Controls
- safe and proper work techniques
- fitness and flexibility
Self-Help
- 20-40% of the problems
- Simple or “quick fix”
- lowest cost
- generated by the worker
- 2-4 hours of awareness training
Skilled Help
- 20-40% of the problems
- more complex, multiple changes
- low cost
- problem-solving team
- 2-3 days training
Expert Help
- 5-25% of the problems
- usually complex
- most expensive method
- professional ergonomist
Alt Access: Control Sites
- body sites that can be used to control a device
- include the hand, finger, arm, head, eye, leg, foot, mouth
Alt Access: Direct Selection
- 1 button = 1 action
- all items in the set are available at any time
- more efficient than indirect
- Ex: computer keyboard, ipad app, clicking icon to save Word doc
Alt Access: Indirect Selection
- some buttons = many actions
- scanning items to make a selection
- Ex: DVD menu, loading a program from Windows Start menu, clicking file–>save to save Word doc
Alt Access: Switch
- control interface between client and the device
- can be commercially purchased, modified, or custom developed
Scanning Selection Techniques
- Automatic
- Step scanning/manual Scan
- Inverse Scanning
Automatic Scanning
- items presented continuously
- rate may be adapted by device
- requires attention and patience
- only one switch site needed
Step Scanning/Manual Scan
- user in control of scan
- requires ability for multiple consecutive switch activations
- requires at least two switch sites (one to scan, one to click)
Inverse Scanning
- device scans when switch depressed, device selects when switch is released
Scanning Formats
- Linear
- Rotary
- Linear: items presented in a row, simple but time consuming
- Rotary: items presented in a circle, repeats, simple but time consuming
Scanning Formats
3. Matrix
- targets are grouped together, more complex, more efficient
- group-item, row-column, halving, quartering, frequency of use
Importance of Positioning for Access
- Minimize effects of abnormal muscle tone & movement
- Optimize visual-motor & sensory-motor interaction with target device
- Proximal stability provides distal mobility
Long term goals of a switch
- mobility during adl/iadl
- communication with caregivers or educators
Short term goals of a switch
- how will the client use the switch
- will the client need to use >1 switch site
- will the client need to scan
- how are these goals?
Importance of Positioning for Access
- Minimize effects of abnormal muscle tone & movement
- Optimize visual-motor & sensory-motor interaction with target device
- Proximal stability provides distal mobility
- long/short term goals of the switch
- context for use
- control site - which body part will the client use, are movements reproducible, controlled, maintain and release on command
- secondary effects of control site
Secondary effects of using a control site
- repetitive stress, musculoskeletal concerns, skin
- stability of equipment, will it shift if w/c hits a bump
- is equipment protected, body fluid? personal care? wires?
Types of Alternative Access
- Hand/Finger/Body (foot switch, joystick)
- Wireless
- Touchless (eyeblink)
- Theme Switched
- Tactile
SCATIR Switch With Sensor
- Touchless
- Momentary - contact optical switch with auditory feedback
- can be controlled with an eyeblink, eyebrow, finger, head, or facial muscle movement
- sip/puff switches
- EMG powered wireless switch
AAC
- Augmentative/Alternative Communication
- a compilation of methods and technology designed to aid people whose speech cannot meet the full range of their communicative needs
Augmentative (in AAC)
implies the methods are used to enhance what is already available to the user
Alternative (in AAC)
implies that it is replacing what is already available to the user
Unaided AAC
- found on the body
- speech
- body movements, gestures
- facial expressions
- manual signs (ASL)
Aided AAC
requires some type of external device for production
- pictures, PECS book, devices
No Tech AAC
- unaided techniques, pictures, communication books, choice boards
- eye gaze boards
- Pic Exchange Communication System (PECS)
- Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Displays (PODD)
PECS
- behaviorally based
- systematically teaches communication using reinforcement strategies
- lack of verbal prompts to avoid cue dependency
- move through six levels
Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Displays (PODD)
- designed to promote conversation
- organized by topic and language use
- gives people with complex communication needs access to greater vocabulary
- immersion system - available all the time
- smart partner operating system
- can also be presented on SGDs
Low Tech AAC
- requires a power source, but is easy to program
- Go Talk
- simple voice output devices
- may be single or multiple level
Low Tech AAC - single level
- only offer one message
- may be one message at a time in a sequence
Low Tech AAC - multiple levels
- displays are changed manually
- boardmaker includes templates
- can only see one level at a time
High Tech AAC
- internet access, environmental control, play music
- multiple pages/levels with user seeing only a portion of symbols at a time
- – user has to navigate the pages
- Dedicated just for communication or non-dedicated for a range of uses
- integrated computer systems, tablets
Methods of Access for Comm Device
- alternative mouse
- headtracking
- eye gaze
Methods of Access for Comm Device
- alternative mouse
- headtracking
- eye gaze
Alternative Mouse
- direct selection with external device
- mouse, trackball, joystick
- requires different visuomotor skills than touchscreen
- dwell (leaving cursor for a few sec) reduces motor requirement
- manual selection can help with timing (if slow, won’t select by accidental dwelling)
Headtracking
- direct selection
- infrared sensing
- dwell or manual for more directive selection
- hiding keys can help early learning
- can accommodate for gross or fine head control
- – field of view
- – avg visual feedback options
- – horizontal and vertical speed
- Ex: the dot on the sunglasses that the program tracked to form a sentence
SGD stands for
speech generating device
Eye Pointing/Eye Gaze
- oculography or video oculography
- point of regard method (how the system estimates where the person is looking, has to do with how light is reflected in the pupil, this software works better with lighter eyes because there is more contrast between the pupil and iris)
- light source reflects in pupil, allows camera to follow pupil
Multimodal Communication
- more natural way
- allows child to work on more than one mode at a time
- increases efficiency, effectiveness, and speed
- decreases reliance on a single system
- allows for more vocabulary across systems
- ex: teaching Will sign language and speech at the same time
Things people do to unintentionally discourage use of AAC
- no modeling or aided language simulation
- focus on “testing” and asking lots of questions
- jumping in too quickly to prompt
- “No, say it with your talker”
Role of OT in AAC assessment and use
- part of assessment team
- consider cognitive abilities/developmental level (new learning/memory)
- expressive and receptive language
- motor abilities (interact with device)
- sensory abilities (see, hear, touch)
- communication partners
- environments
- behavior
- Feature matching
Feature Matching AAC to person
- requires familiarity with AAC systems, devices, features
- take info gathered from eval to create profile of communication needs/abilities
- matches profile to AAC system
Methods of Activation: Momentary
Direct - hit button it turns on, take your hand off the button and it turns off
Methods of Activation: Latch
- turns on when you hit the button, stays on until you hit the button again
- touch to turn on, touch to turn off
- like the stupid singing frog toy we adapted
Methods of Activation: Timed
- hit the button and it is timed to turn off on its own
- stupid chicken toy becca adapted in class: it started singing when you hit the button, it would restart singing if you hit the button again and wouldn’t stop until it finished its song
Augment language supports the development of
- Expressive language development
- Receptive language development
- Comprehension of language
- Understanding of expectations
- Positive behaviors
Visual Supports are things like schedules, classroom rules that help to clarify directions and expectations –> this confuses me because i don’t think of it as augmented communication
I think the idea is that visual supports can be used to make the ideas (such as directions/ expectations) clear to someone
- not really about language
- comprehension
Headtracking vs Eye tracking
- eye tracking is more expensive
- need more lighting for eye tracking
- head tracking requires less calibration, just the dot
- need head control for head tracking
- will the user continue to be able to able to use their head or will they fatigue/progressive disease
