Borkovec, Seth Noah Baxter, Ethan Donnelly, Courtney Richmond

Title:
AT@Home: An Automated Advisor for Assistive Technologies

Abstract:
There are over 65 million Americans aged 60+, of which 23 million of them have at least one disability. Thousands of assistive technologies (AT) exist to help people with disabilities but they can be difficult to find. What is needed is a system to recommend AT on a convenient mobile platform so that these people can discover AT that allow them to live comfortably in their own homes. In this project, we have developed a mobile app to recommend AT based on criteria such as the user's physical limitations and the area in a room in which they experience difficulty. The other part of the project is a website to provide a central inventory of AT for the mobile app to use. Our mobile app works on both Android and on iOS to provide this service to as many people as possible. An example user may be having difficulty opening jars of food. In the AT@Home app, this user first specifies the difficulty in using their hand or wrist. Then, the user navigates to the pantry area of the kitchen and selects "difficulty with opening food containers." The AT@Home smart advisor app would be able to recommend a one-touch jar opener for this user. Upon successful development of the prototype, our client can use this project to help connect more people with AT solutions, resulting in more people who can continue living comfortably in their own homes.

If you have comments about this submission, email us here!