AT Makers: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Co-Designing Assistive Technologies by Co-Optimizing Expert Knowledge

Do‐it‐yourself as a means for making assistive technology accessible to elderly people: Evidence from the ICARE project

“…The third phase, which is the main focus of this paper, was dedicated to exploring if our AT products are not only usable but also 'producible' by older people. In fall 2018, we, therefore, organised a so-called 'maker workshop' (Aflatoony & Lee, 2020;Slegers et al, 2020) for testing whether our target user group is capable of assembling and setting up our designed AT solutions autonomously by simply following the building plans which we documented in a handbook and captured in short, step-by-step video clips. In this sense, the nature of DIY was rather an assembly than creative activity.…”

“…In the context of AT, the motivation to carry out such activities may differ largely and be driven by economic necessity (Aflatoony & Lee, 2020;Alharbi et al, 2020) or individual desire, such as for better controlling the aesthetics or programmability of devices (Hurst & Tobias, 2011;Woo & Lim, 2015). The extent to which creativity is required in DIY may also differ and range from being a highly creative process to simple assembly according to a predefined plan.…”

“…Aflatoony and Lee (2020) expand on this idea and add that, if DIY is organised as a collaborative learning workshop between users, designers, and health experts, it may generate knowledge about situations, user needs, lifestyles, and priorities unknown or unanticipated by the AT developers and, as a result, reduce task-technology misfit. For sure, not all users will be able to perform DIY activities or participate in 'maker workshops' (Aflatoony & Lee, 2020). In such a case, Slegers et al (2020) suggest adopting 'do-it-for-others' (DFO) instead and involve informal caregivers, volunteers, or family members to create the AT product for the person in need.…”

“…Volunteers that support the elderly person are invaluable. However, we know relatively little about the will and conditions under which health professionals (Alharbi et al, 2020) and informal caregivers (Aflatoony & Lee, 2020) would be open to being engaged in producing AT for a patient or relative in need. For sure, utilitarian factors may overweigh the hedonic motives of DIY in a professional care setting.…”

ProAesthetics: Changing How We View Prosthetic Function

“…Other projects have shown how online communities create and share customized ATs [4,9] and also identifed the challenges of balancing practical, aesthetic and political considerations when creating customized ATs [7]. Other eforts have focused on developing co-design methods where people with disabilities, AT experts, and designers come together to create customized and personalized designs (e.g., [1,6]). Finally, Bekrater-Bodmann et al developed a Prosthesis Embodiment Scale [2,3] used to describe how prosthesis-users connect with their prosthetic limb and how to evaluate that connection.…”