Ricard Barberà

PDA software aimed at improving workplace adaptation for people with cognitive disabilities

This article presents the objectives, methodology and results of a project aimed at improving personal autonomy and adaptation to the workplace of people with cognitive disabilities. These people may have difficulties to be independent in various areas of life, especially at the workplace. Many of these problems are related to issues such as time control, independence in performing tasks, work habits, interpersonal communication, etc. To promote autonomy in these areas, the tool GTT (Time and Task Manager) has been developed. This is a software application running on a mobile device (a mobile phone or PDA) aiming to ease the adaptation to the workplace of people with cognitive disabilities through tutoring tasks, major event management and strengthening of key aspects of work.

Biomechanical Constraints in the Design of Robotic Systems for Tremor Suppression

defines tremor as an involuntary rythmical oscillation of a body part (Deuschl et al. 1998). This definition excludes other movement disorders with a less cyclic character such as chorea or ataxia. Tremor is the most frequent movement disorder in clinical practice with an estimated prevalence between 3-4% of the population over 50 (Manto et al. 2004). Everybody has some tremor component, usually invisible for the naked eye, called

Analysis and Adaptation of Workplaces for People with Cognitive Disabilities Using Software Tools

This paper describes the results of a study in which software tools were used to analyse and adapt workplaces occupied by people with cognitive disabilities. To do this, the work and the workers were evaluated in order to identify the most relevant problems, using the ErgoDis/IBV method. This is a computer software intended for fitting workplaces to people with disabilities. Once evaluated the workplaces, some adaptations were proposed and implemented. One of the main measures adopted was the use of PDAs to help workers in performing their tasks. After the adaptation of the workplaces, an assessment process was carried out to evaluate the adequacy of the executed measures. The results of the study were implemented in a web page in order to provide information about real cases to professionals and users.