Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence the perceived stigma of two assistive devices for visual impairment, namely the white cane and smart glasses. Method: Face-to-face semi-structured interviews with eight European students were conducted to probe their experiences and knowledge related to disability, assistive technology, visual impairment, as well as handheld and wearable devices. Results: Close relationships with disabled people seems to have a positive influence on participants perceptions about stigma, disability, and assistive technology. Academic background seems to not have any influence. The aesthetics of assistive devices was observed as an important factor that influences the adoption or abandonment of the device. Conclusion: Device without negative symbolism but with modern aesthetics (smart glasses) were positively accepted by the participants than the device with traditional aesthetics and symbolisms of visual impairment (white cane). Designers should, therefore, consider aesthetics in addition to functionality in order to avoid the perceived stigma, thereby reducing the chances of device abandonment. ä IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONUnderstanding the factors that influence the perceived stigma associated with assistive technology can help designers and developers to reduce assistive technology abandonment and perceived stigma. Designers need to consider both functionality and aesthetics. While functionality is crucial for the users' adaptation, aesthetics is important for the users' positive perceptions.

This paper reports a preliminary study evaluating accessibility and usability of a Brazilian government website-the national digital catalogue of assistive technology (CNPTA). Although since 2004 e-government information should be broadly accessible, several studies indicate that web accessibility has not been accomplished in many government websites. This study is part of a research project that analyses whether this negative outcome replicates on government websites intended for people with disabilities. The website was assessed by automated testing and the results were compared to the outcomes from user testing. The paper discusses the findings compared with past studies and not only proposes specific aspects to enhance the website, but also it outlines several points to be considered in the next steps of the research project, as well as in other research that considers web accessibility and usability for blind people.

Introduction: Many upper limb injuries have work-related causes such as continued use of computers with typing activities and mouse manipulation.. This study evaluated the performance of wrist-hand orthoses in manual tasks and in transmission of torque measurement during canned glass opening.Material and Methods: Thirty healthy participants performed donning, typing and handwriting tasks and transmission of manual torque. The procedures were performed in four conditions: with three different orthoses and with no orthosis as a control. Results: The results showed a significant difference in the time of manual writing (p < .001) and in the number of words per minute (p < .001) in the typing task with and without orthoses. The perceived difficulty in performing typing (p < .001) and manual writing (p < .001) was lower with no orthoses and higher for canvas orthosis and the two neoprene orthoses. Transmission of manual torque also decreased with the orthoses compared using no orthosis (p < .001). Among the orthoses, the canvas fabric orthosis yielded a lower performance compared to the two different neoprene fabric orthoses for all the tasks. Conclusions: There are effects of the materials used and the orthosis design when performing handwriting typing tasks and twisting tasks (transmission of manual torque), as well as the correctness of how users donning the orthosis.

Accessing physical prototypes is possible to test an idea quickly with models that look like the final product. Rapid Prototyping (RP) based on additive or subtractive technology permit to conduct trial tests of usability in order to avoid errors and failures before the final product production. Those technologies are increasingly in orthosis's production. Ergonomics field involved in the design process with RP can facilitate usability tests providing comfort, safety, and performance in the development of orthoses. The objective of this study is to review, accessing the specialized literature, the use of RP for prototypes' production for user's evaluation of orthoses. The results showed that the most common technique used was FDM. Half of the studies involved user's participation or evaluation in the design processes, although, only three out of thirty-eight studies used RP to proof of concept's production, indicating little use of proof-of-concepts models.