New portable voice guidance device for the manual wheelchair transfer: a pilot study in patients with hemiplegia.

Purpose: Older and/or cognitively impaired patients require verbal guidance to prevent accidents during wheelchair operation, thus increasing the burden on caregivers. This study aimed to develop a new portable voice guidance device for manual wheelchairs and examine its clinical usefulness.

Method: We developed a portable voice guidance device to monitor the statuses of wheelchair brakes and footrests and automatically provide voice guidance for operation.