Non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands: a non-issue?

PURPOSE: To obtain insight into the prevalence of the non-use of assistive technology in The Netherlands. Relationships between non-use and possible determinants were also investigated. The results of the study might lead to improvement of products and of the service delivery system for assistive technology. METHOD: A study was performed into user satisfaction and the non-use of 14 categories of assistive technology provided by health care insurers. The design was a survey among a stratified sample of users who had received an assistive device, recruited through a sample of health insurance companies. Two independent samples were selected: one in 2001 and one in 2003. Three aspects of non-use were measured. The total number of respondents was 2272. RESULTS: Ninety-two percent of the respondents used the assistive device at the time of the survey. Less than 1% of the respondents never used the device. A majority of the respondents used the assistive device (about) as much as expected and 6% used the assistive device less than expected. Relationships between non-use and other investigated aspects were found. CONCLUSIONS: The average level of non-use of assistive technology found in this study is less than often reported in the literature and varies between the various categories of assistive technology. Improving the quality of the assistive technology and the services, and providing assistive technology that solves the users' problem as much as possible, could enhance the use of assistive technology provided.

Rehabilitation technology or the ergonomics of ergonomics.

This paper describes some of the problems in rehabilitation technology. It is emphasized that design for people with impairments will become more and more 'less special'. A good design procedure involves a very good knowledge of the target group. Target groups cannot be described by the usual statistics as seen in ergonomics.

New possibilities for enhanced keyboard input for the handicapped.

Motor- and speech-impaired people can have severe problems with communication. If speech is hampered, the use of computerized communication devices can be a solution. Key entry limitations due to motor impairments may result in very low communication speeds--less than three words a minute is not unusual. The research described here deals with speed enhancement on the basis of redundancy in language. Two uses are explored: prediction and automatic decoding in the case of keyboards with a small number of keys. Prediction means that characters, words and (parts of) sentences are predicted on the basis of text which is already typed in. A prototype system is being designed which combines the features of the PAL prediction system from Dundee and the WRITE-keyboard from Boston. Decoding refers to two-step selection systems with a small number of keys in which the second selection is done automatically by a computer program. Keystroke savings of 40 to 50% are possible.