Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sense, BCI technologies are ATs that aim not to compensate for a deficit but to promote
the user's social participation.
Chapter 17 presents BCI applications for different rehabilitation goals, such as (1) the
use of BCIs as communication tools for individuals with neurodegenerative and motor
diseases, for example, Guillain Barré syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, locked-in
syndrome, and so on (Sections 17.4.1 and 17.4.2); (2) the use of BCIs for motor restoration
in patients with stroke or traumatic brain or spinal cord injury (Sections 17.5.1 and 17.5.2);
and (3) the use of BCIs for treatment of behavioral disorders such as epilepsy and attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (Sections 17.6.1 and 17.6.2).
Chapter 18, “New Rehabilitation Opportunities for Persons with Multiple Disabilities
through the Use of Microswitch Technology,” discusses the role of microswitch
technologies and voice output communication aids (VOCAs) to help persons with profound
and multiple disabilities to learn to control relevant stimuli in their environment and
achieve social contact through simple responses. The chapter presents different studies
on the application of microswitch technology to (1) monitor small (nontypical) responses
of people with minimal motor behavior (Section 18.2); (2) allow the person direct access
to different types of stimulation by using a combination of two or more microswitches
(Section 18.2.1); and (3) allow the person direct access to stimulation as well as the possibility
of calling for social attention and interaction by the use of microswitches combined with
VOCAs (Section 18.3). The results obtained by the experimental applications led the
authors to suggest the possibility of using combinations of ATs as microswitches and
VOCAs in rehabilitation programs that aim to increase people's adaptive responses to
the environment and to allow direct social contact between the person and caregivers
(Sections 18.4 through 18.4.2).
Section III ends with Chapter 19, “Methods and Technologies for Leisure, Recreation and
an Accessible Sport.” The authors of this chapter, aiming to promote programs of adapted
physical activity (APA), discuss the methods and technologies that facilitate accessible
sport via self-efficacy theories for enabling sports participation for all (Sections 19.1.1-
19.2.2). The relation between sports and disability is analyzed from historical, biomedical,
and sociopsychological points of view (Sections 19.3-19.3.3), and, at the same time, the
authors underline the essential role of technical improvement of the ATs (e.g., mobility
devices, wheelchairs, and prostheses) not only to promote sports and social participation
activities but also to extend the “sports for all” idea in both developed and developing
cou nt r ies (Sect ion s 19.4 -19.4.3).
This chapter gives readers the opportunity to think about AT from a historical point
of view, overcoming the medical approach of technical-fix (Roulstone 1998), whereas the
authors clearly underline the role of the equipment not only as a means of “access” or for
“rehabilitation” but also as a right for the promotion of leisure, recreation, and physical
activities.
All of Section III's authors, like those of other sections of this topic, agree with the topic's
editors' set of concepts as stated in the Introduction to
Section I.
Moreover, the authors
directly or indirectly address the following concept definitions:
• Accessibility—Three Deinitions:
1. Accessibility as the means to opportunities and possibilities: “The art of
ensuring that, to as large an extent as possible, facilities are available to people
whether or not they have impairments of one sort or another” (Berners-Lee
and Fischetti 1999).
