Geospatial assistive technologies: potential usability criteria identified from manual wheelchair users.

Conclusion: The results obtained using a user-centric approach yielded useful data to improve GATs and broaden the concept of compatibility among users and specific-use situations to ensure usability. Implications for rehabilitation  For manual wheelchair users paired with a geospatial assistance technology: • The smart phone is preferred (compared to the smart watch, augmented reality glasses or virtual reality helmet) for both plan and navigation tasks. Actual use, comfort, ease of use, familiarity, features and informative content are important criteria and the smart phone as mobile device for GATs is perceived favourably to meet the requirements coming up with these criteria. • Especially suitable for guidance and manual wheelchair navigation (double-task), two emergent criteria emerge regarding the usability of GATs: hands-free and Bluetooth. Hands-free is associated with potential usability issues regarding smart phone transportability and to the relevance of augmented reality glasses or smart watches as mobile device for GATs. The Bluetooth connexion appears as being part of the solution for increasing the transportability of any of these mobile devices. • Appearance and dimension of GATs, their efficiency for planning and navigating, and the quality of the delivered information are other important usability criteria. • Since information content and transportability are targeted as the two most important criteria, we should pay special attention in th...
Source: Disability and Rehabilitation. Assistive Technology. - Category: Rehabilitation Authors: Tags: Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol Source Type: research