Hello to all, My name is Chad and I and a small team of two other students are designing a system for wheelchairs. We are looking to make an interface for a computer system that will revolutionize the assistance of mobility in wheelchair technology. We would like to know what the most difficult areas in struggling are for everyday wheelchair users. Please, with an opened heart, share these struggles with us to help us better understand how we can design this system. Thank you all in advance for taking part in this discussion with us.

Can you elaborate a bit on this? I honestly don't have a clue as to what you plan to design.

My main problem as a wheel chair user, is walking.

Chad, might I suggest just a bit more research about "wheelchair" users. System/interface you say...kinda vague given the various levels of SCI. Every injury is different, even those at the same level have differing abilities...this is not a trivial task you seek to accomplish.

We have folks paralyzed from the neck down, with only head movement. Folks with partial arm movement, some with finger movement some without; C level quads/tetras. Paras with differing upper body movement/strength; T, L, S. Some can't walk, some can, some cant feel below their injuries, some can. Some of us are complete, some incomplete...some of us are older; I won't name names tho...lots to learn.

Guys, I've been a designer/developer since the early 80s. Do a bit more research, think a bit more. Who is your target audience/customer, what business problem, personal struggle, of ours are you trying to solve. Get on board, do a bit more homework, read this site's home page and general information pages.

--- Time for an exercise in problem solving...

Sit in front of your computer...now, how are you going to design, code, test and troubleshoot this best-in-class system/interface??? Put your thinking caps on, here are three problems to solve, all with different systems/interfaces to design...now go

1 - you have no movement below your neck; yep just your head, sometimes only your eyes can move; oh yea, sometimes you can't speak
2 - you can kind of use your arms, but your fingers are paralyzed; so no grip, oh yea no leg movement, no/little balance
3 - your legs don't move, you have little to okay balance, your upper body kinda works, you have grip...

Now, your c++, uml and/or scrum books just fell over, you lost your balance reaching for them, knocking the keyboard/mouse and your wacom digital tablet off your desk, everything including you are on the floor...what do you do next no, think...

--- Exercise over, btw it wasn't timed, how did you do?

And you want to design the next revolutionary mobility device...the latest kool speshul wheelchair/crutch/brace...backpack...homework time.

I'm in no way trying to discourage you from your quest, but damn, this is some complex system/interface you be thinking bout. Narrow your scope a bit, understand your domain, one vague paragraph ain't gonna cut it. And it's kinda insulting to be honest...I mean not even a questionnaire to fill out man, I've got some fava beans and a nice chianti waitin for me...

Feel free to message me. Hang in there and have fun doing your project. There are lots of good folks here, leverage them, just research a bit more and hellp us help you focus a bit on a target goal, audience/client. I'm sure you will get more responses....

Stay cool and geeky,

Jerry

PS. Supper Unbelievably Cool Kickass System, Design 101, just started and it's a bitch...but it's damn fun and rewarding solving puzzles this complex.

Chad, came across this posted question on the Yahoo Answers website, found it via a Google search, thought it might help shed some light on your query. BTW, my Google search criteria was - biggest problems for the disabled - kinda vague like your request, but it offered up some interesting results, give it a try.

What problems do physicaly disabled student have at school?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...30123431AAstMpU

**AFFORDABILITY**

oh wow, actually I had just found these replies but I and the team pretty much had given up a while back once we had noticed no one was replying. We decided to go ahead and just proceed.
Still Fingers,
you definitely went into FAR too much about this whole topic. We only were wanting to get a feel for what people go through each day. We have in fact been doing our homework on the subject. We were merely trying to ask around because we had to explain to our professor about various sources of interviews that we had with people which was one big reason why we came here. We were having too much trouble finding people that would speak to us in person. The coding is actually not needed for this class. But thanks though, we'll be sure and strap those thinking caps on extra tight just for you.
Thanks anyway everyone, but we've already been proceeding and won't need any further assistance especially since we're already well underway in the design phase.

AMEN TO THAT