University of Victoria

Purpose

Assistive technology (AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. Millions of individuals use assistive technologies to perform everyday tasks. The Project involves developing user interfaces that will enable the collaborative design of personalized ATs such as glucose monitors. The team envisions a future in which end-users, health professionals and product designers can work together to create ATs that meet the personal and functional needs of specific end-users. The research effort will include 1) studies that shed light on how collaboration can enable the design of personalized glucose monitors, 2) development of a high-fidelity functional software system that facilitates collaborative design of glucose monitors, and 3) analysis of the evaluation results that detail the benefits and limitations of the developed prototype system and sheds light on future research directions.