Patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) are likely to face many challenges in completing activities of daily living (ADLs) as the injury affects the functioning of the limbs, trunks, bladders and the bowels (Kumar & Gupta, 2016). Hence, inability to engage in simple ADLs can increase stress for such patients. One of the challenges for the patient for this type of injury includes inability to drive safely because of loss of hand control (Mtetwa, Classen & Van Niekerk, 2016). While driving, one hand is involved in completing the starting and stopping and the other hand is involved in doing the steerings. However, an individual has limited hand strength, SCI patients will require additional aids to operate the brake controls properly. Hence, one of the adaptive equipment or technology that can assist such patients in driving safely includes equipment that helps the patient to drive steer efficiently with one hand only (Pazzaglia & Molinari, 2016). This discussion will give more details about this adaptive technology or prototype which has the potential to address the problem of safe driving for SCI patients.
The prototype has been name spinning wheel and this device has been visualized to ensure that people with SCI can steer wheels with one hand only. This device will be a very useful adaptive aid for those SCI people who are particularly challenged by limited hand strength. Such wheel spinner can be placed in a car in either left or right hand side based on the arm or hand which is the strongest. While manufacturing such device, spinner knob can be developed which can be attached to the steering wheel for promotion of one hand steering. Hence, the spinner can be placed on either side of the steering wheel and it can help the driver to steer efficiently with one hand only. The SCI client will not have to use additional force during steering and they will have to just rotate the wheel that will require little efforts. Hence, the main challenge that this device is likely to address is that it will supporting the SCI client to achieve proper hand control for steering. Thus, driving will be possible for such individuals despite limited hand and arm functions. There is minimum possible of any challenge in using the device and it is most suitable for patients with poor hand movement and muscle strength of the arms. The below diagram gives a rough idea of how such spinner devices can help people in driving:
Figure 1: A rough prototype of a steering spinner device to support driving
Apart from the benefits of the spinner device in SCI in supporting people with SCI to ensure constant hand contact with the wheel, the use and application of this device may be challenged because of the need to modify the structure of vehicle. It may not be possible to simply apply the device in any vehicles. Instead, attaching such devices in vehicles will require additional modifications for the car. The person wanting to use this device will have to incur additional cost too. Hence, before such devices are used in real setting, it will be necessary to assess whether the chosen car or vehicle can accommodate the device or not. Thus, there might be additional cost related barriers as getting the appropriate care modified with adaptive equipment can cost from $20,000 to $80,000 (Pazzaglia & Molinari, 2016). Thus, the challenge will be to make the cost minimum as far as possible.
References:
Kumar, N., & Gupta, B. (2016). Effect of Spinal Cord Injury on Quality of Life of Affected Soldiers in India: A Cross-Sectional Study. Asian spine journal, 10(2), 267–275. doi:10.4184/asj.2016.10.2.267
Mtetwa, L., Classen, S., & Van Niekerk, L. (2016). The lived experience of drivers with a spinal cord injury: A qualitative inquiry. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy, 46(3), 55-62.
Pazzaglia, M., & Molinari, M. (2016). The embodiment of assistive devices—from wheelchair to exoskeleton. Physics of life reviews, 16, 163-175.
