From patient to maker - a case study of co-designing an assistive device using 3D printing.

Commercially available assistive devices (AD) may not always match the individual needs of the patient. Sometimes substantial customizations or a new design is needed. New ideas, arising by involving the patient, could help many, but product development and marketing is hard.

Are mainstream mobile technologies bringing about new opportunities for people with disabilities? Insights from three case studies.

The market of mobile technologies has considerably increased in the past few years and the costs have consequently decreased. This rapid technological evolution can be seen in two different ways from the perspective of people with disability: on the one side it represents a great opportunity to create new solutions for improving independence; on the other it may represent a source of social exclusion if appropriate assistive solutions are not available to make technology usable by people with disability. This paper describe three case studies of persons with disabilities that have undergone an Assistive Technology assessment at the DAT service of Fondazione Don Gnocchi (Milan, Italy) involving the use of mobile ICT based Assistive Technologies.

Light on! Real world evaluation of a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) for environment control in a smart home.

Unlabelled: Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems aim to enable interaction with other people and the environment without muscular activation by the exploitation of changes in brain signals due to the execution of cognitive tasks. In this context, the visual P300 potential appears suited to control smart homes through BCI spellers. The aim of this work is to evaluate whether the widely used character-speller is more sustainable than an icon-based one, designed to operate smart home environment or to communicate moods and needs.

Analysing the cost of individual assistive technology programmes.

The state-of-the-art in cost-outcome analysis of assistive technology (AT) is first reviewed, and then the article focuses particularly on the cost aspects of such technology. It elaborates on the concept of 'social cost' as the main indicator of AT economic impact, and proposes methods to compare alternative AT solutions in terms of social cost. A specific instrument for social cost analysis--Siva Cost Assessment Instrument (SCAI)--was designed to help clinicians estimate the economic aspects of providing individual users with AT solutions.