Assistive Mechanical Interface for Tactile Displays for Persons with Diminished Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are affected by a large number of neurological pathologies (Parkinson’s disease, ataxia, stroke, essential tremor, among others), as well as by normal aging. Persons who suffer from these conditions find their abilities to perform a wide range of daily tasks hindered. Furthermore, they might even be unable to articulate language. Among the affected daily tasks with a strongest impact on quality of life, the use of tactile displays predominates. In the current sociocultural scenario, tactile displays are the main technology used for a variety of functions, such as learning, entertainment, communication and social interaction. In public situations there are also a lot of uses for tactile displays, e.g. at educational institutions, banks and governmental organizations. This technological dependence ultimately introduces disabilities in our society, since there are persons who are otherwise autonomous but simply cannot employ tactile displays. We worked with persons who have this difficulty, co-designing an alternative solution to access and manage generic tactile displays. In close dialogue with users and their families, considering their different movement restrictions and the contexts in which the device will be used, we developed an assistive mechanical interface that consists of six independent modular buttons connected through WiFi and an Android application. The buttons can be activated by pushing them or simply by dropping the arm on them. They provide basic displacement functions across the screen and a menu that enables additional functions to allow full access to any device. This interface gives final users control over devices that have become of everyday use, impacting positively in their quality of life.