UTech designing prototype device to aid disabled kids

Anastasia Cunningham, Senior Gleaner Writer

With statistics revealing that some three children per thousand are born in Jamaica each year with a physical disability and that there is an urgent need to provide them with cost effective, suitable means of mobility, the engineering department of the University of Technology (UTech) is spearheading a project to create the perfect assistive device to aid these needy youth.

Headed by world-renowned Jamaican engineer Alwyn Johnson, the plans for the prototype were unveiled during a symposium held at the University of Technology's St Andrew campus on Monday.

So far, the project has received a grant from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica in the sum of $4 million, of the $8 million needed to complete phase one. It is hoped that the project will receive the balance of the funding needed to complete the first phase of the prototype by next September, propelling it to the next step.

Physical challenges

The research revealed that many of the disabled children would be unable to ambulate throughout their lives. And for children with physical challenges, standing and locomotion was often not achieved because they were unable to access the appropriate therapeutic support necessary to acquire fundamental motor skills.

"In order to empower children with disabilities we have to enable them; in order to enable them we have to give them the appropriate assistive devices," said Andrea Cameron, physical therapy coordinator at the School for Therapy Education and Parenting (STEP), who specialises in working with children with cerebral palsy.

Cameron noted that 25 to 30 per cent of children with cerebral palsy are non-ambulatory, 25 per cent walk independently with no functional limitation, while 50 per cent were moderately impaired and complete independence was unlikely.

Improve quality of life

The prototype was mainly aimed at the latter 50 per cent, with the hope to improve their quality of life. However, she noted, "if the prototype device becomes extremely successful, there is a possibility that we might be able to take some of that 25 to 30 per cent who are non-ambulatory and give them a chance at ambulation, even for a short window in their lifetime."

Johnson, who is the lead consultant on the project, told the gathering that "helping young people to ambulate is helping them to do what we all want to do - walk, run, dance, play, move around - so when we are designing a device we have to think about what it is that young people want to do."

He added: "But before we can run, sing, dance, play, you have to be able to stand and walk. And so what we are trying to do is incorporate standing, walking and some degree of play in this device."

Noting that three of the key factors to creating the perfect assistive device were suitability, durability and affordability, he said one of the materials that they will be incorporating in the prototype is Jamaican bamboo.

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com