Study into the Equipment Needs of People with Restricted Growth

Abstract

This article describes a recent study into the unmet equipment needs of people with restricted growth, carried out by the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering. The study involved selecting a group of people to work with, followed by an exploration of their problems in all areas of daily life. A combination of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to achieve the objective. Information gathered from both the questionnaires and the interviews was collated to form a list of equipment needs and general problem areas experienced by the volunteers. This list was circulated as widely as possible to people with restricted growth with a request to assign a priority rating to each item. The results identified six items of high priority which will be designed at the institute over the next 3 years.