Recommendations on Standards for the Design of Medical Diagnostic Equipment for Adults with Disabilities, Advisory Committee Final Report

3.3.1 Research Data

MDE Advisory Committee members worked with U.S. Access Board staff to find as many studies as possible that were relevant to various accessibility standards. They relied most heavily upon the work of the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA) at the State University of New York at Buffalo, which had conducted the Anthropometry of Wheeled Mobility (AWM) Project. This anthropometric study of 500 persons who use wheeled mobility devices (WMD) involved collection of demographic data, information on WMD characteristics, and structural and functional anthropometry measures. To inform the MDE Advisory Committee, U.S. Access Board staff asked Clive D’Souza and Edward Steinfeld to reanalyze the AWM Project data to examine the adequacy of proposed transfer surface dimensions (30” x 15”) as a static seating surface. Dr. Steinfeld presented their findings at the Committee’s second meeting, and he made himself available to answer Committee and Subcommittee (Examination Tables and Chairs) questions over subsequent months. As mentioned in descriptions of the rationale for various standard recommendations, the Committee found the IDeA data to be very helpful. However, as noted by Dr. Steinfeld, a limitation for the Committee’s purpose was that the AWM Project evaluated only static measures (i.e., persons seated in WMD) rather than examining the active process of transferring from a WMD to another surface, the focus of the Committee’s recommendations.

The Committee also considered findings from University of Pittsburgh study that looked at transfers, specifically at how different conditions affected the abilities of WMD users to transfer from their WMD to another surface. (This study, “The Impact of Transfer Setup on the Performance of Independent Transfers: Final Report,” from the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, University of Pittsburgh, had been presented at the US Access Board meeting in Washington, DC on July 11, 2011.) University of Pittsburgh investigators have strong collaborations with Department of Veterans Affairs health care providers and groups affiliated with paralyzed veterans’ organizations, so not surprisingly 88 study subjects were men and 24 were women; 54 had spinal cord injuries (another 4 had spinal cord injury plus another condition). Thus, the study subjects do not reflect the general population of persons who use WMD. Nevertheless, the research provided useful insights about how various features of the transfer setting, including gaps between the transfer surface and the WMD, differences in height, and availability and positioning of supports, affect the ability of WMD users to transfer.

For additional guidance, some Committee members referred occasionally to: The Measure of Man and Woman: Human Factors in Design, Revised Edition, Alvin R. Tilley (Henry Dreyfuss Associates), Wiley (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) 2001; and The Rules of Work: A Practical Engineering Guide to Ergonomics, Second Edition, Dan MacLeod, CRC Press, 2002.