Development of a wheelchair simulator for children with multiple disabilities
This addresses training and rehabilitation needs for children with multiple disabilities, though it appears incremental as it applies existing VR methods to a specific domain.
The researchers developed a wheelchair simulator using virtual reality to help children with multiple disabilities become familiar with wheelchairs, enabling safe and flexible practice without risks.
Virtual reality allows to create situations which can be experimented under the control of the user, without risks, in a very flexible way. This allows to develop skills and to have confidence to work in real conditions with real equipment. VR is then widely used as a training and learning tool. More recently, VR has also showed its potential in rehabilitation and therapy fields because it provides users with the ability of repeat their actions several times and to progress at their own pace. In this communication, we present our work in the development of a wheelchair simulator designed to allow children with multiple disabilities to familiarize themselves with the wheelchair.