HK Associate Professor Laura Rice (right) joined WCIA 3 News for University Updates, to share her research on the risks of falls for wheelchair users. (WCIA 3 News)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older. People in wheelchairs are at an even higher risk. That’s a primary focus for Health and Kinesiology Associate Professor Laura Rice and her research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Rice spoke with WCIA 3 News on the University Updates segment, to shed light on fall statistics and how users of wheelchair and scooters can manage the risks of falling.
“A lot of times, the wheelchair isn’t fit for the person very well, maybe they got a hand-me-down that wasn’t set up for them, people don’t have training on transfers when they’re moving the person from one place to another. Those are all very common reasons for falls,” she explained.
Mobility disabilities, defined as a “serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs,” affect approximately 21 percent of adults 65 years of age and older
Saul Morse credits assistive technology for helping save his wife’s life (Photo provided)
Saul Morse believes his wife might not have survived a recent health episode without assistive technology.
“Had it not been for our voice-activated digital home assistant, we would not have been able to get my wife the urgent care she needed when she was having a stroke,” said Morse, a College of Applied Health Sciences alumnus and wheelchair user who has post-polio syndrome and is among the growing population of older adults who are aging in place with mobility disabilities.
At the time of his wife’s stroke, Morse—the 2023 Harold Scharper Award recipient—was a participant in a study led by Health and Kinesiology Professor Wendy Rogers, whose research team equipped Morse with the smart home devices that became life-saving tools for him and his wife. Rogers’ study is but one pillar of her storied research career, during which she has worked closely with older adults aging in place to understand their unique challenges and accelerate innovations to improve their quality of life.
Mobility disabilities, defined as a “serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs,” affect approximately 21 percent of adults 65 years of age and older, and this population of older adults only continues to increase, according to a paper from Rogers and her colleagues published in the Gerontechnology journal. Despite the challenges of mobility impairments, a majority of older adults choose to age in place to maintain autonomy and connection to their community. More than 75 percent of Americans 50 years of age and older choose this path.
With the rise in the availability of smart home technology, Rogers identified the potential role of this technology to provide a significant boon to the growing population of older adults with mobility disabilities. Rogers initiated an investigation into smart home technology for older adults in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic’s stay-at-home orders only further highlighted the critical role that smart home technology can play to boost independence and reduce isolation for many older adults aging in place.
“It is important to offer older adults with long-term mobility disabilities suitable strategies to maintain and postpone significant declines in functional independence,” said Rogers, who, along with Kim Graber, is one of two Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professors of Applied Health Sciences.
In this strategic research project, Rogers’ preliminary study, funded in part by the Illinois Department of Aging, investigated ways of reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness and increasing support for older adults. Since then, Rogers has developed a robust portfolio documenting her lab’s study of the role of smart home technology for older adults aging in place.
In January 2020, Rogers and her team published the first paper of this study detailing perceptions of digital assistant devices by early technology adopting older adults. From there, they introduced a group of older adults to two different Amazon digital home assistants, the Echo Show and Echo Speaker, to investigate how older adults interact with those devices and what activities the devices supported. A 2023 paper reported Rogers’ study of specific technology-training needs shared by older adults who do not have experience with such devices.
Those findings informed the next stage of Rogers’ multi-year research project funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research: the creation of a technology suite to equip and empower older adults with all the tools necessary to overcome the obstacles to technology adoption and proper usage. To that end, Rogers’ team developed the Digital Assistance in a Box, or DAB, for the study’s 24 participants, who used the at-home technologies for five weeks.
The DAB included an Amazon Echo Show 8, Philips Hue Smart Lightbulb, an Amazon Smart Plug and a custom-designed instructional manual.
It is important to offer older adults with long-term mobility disabilities suitable strategies to maintain and postpone significant declines in functional independence.
Wendy Rogers
HK Professor
“I never intended to use this kind of technology, because I was concerned about what would be recorded on the manufacturer’s servers,” Morse said. “But as a participant in the study, we installed a digital voice assistant and smart bulbs and plugs in my office and in our living room and bedroom. Being in a wheelchair, I saw the utility of these technologies right away. What most impressed me, though, were the custom user manuals—even a technophobe could use and appreciate them.”
Where previous studies looked at the viability of smart home technology for older adults, considering the range of activities they can support and how they might remedy loneliness, Rogers’ latest investigation zeroed in on a deeper exploration of older adults’ attitudes specifically regarding DHAs. Rogers’ team identified a few primary threats that might prevent older adults from adopting DHAs. In addition to the common barrier of learning to use a new technology, only a few older adults reported a lack of trust for manufacturers and a concern for their privacy.
Overall, study participants reported using DHAs for a wide variety of everyday activities and shared that the benefits of DHAs outweigh the risks. Participants reported using DHAs for leisure, hobby, entertainment, and health monitoring and maintenance endeavors. In fact, the results emphasize that DHAs specifically are particularly useful for older adults with mobility disabilities because of the voice-activated nature of such technologies.
“There’s a misperception that older adults don’t want to use technology,” Rogers said. “I’m an advocate for providing them with the support they need to use technology innovations. The benefits of reduced loneliness and isolation are a significant incentive. This latest study suggests that with increased education and training about privacy risks and protective strategies, older adults can experience the benefits of this assistant technology.”
In addition to this study, Rogers is working on multiple projects to benefit older adults aging in place. In partnership with researchers at TechSAge, she is investigating solutions for older adults with long-term vision or hearing impairments. Laura Rice, an associate professor in HK, and director of TechSAge, is leading a project to develop a fall-detection device for those in wheelchairs. At the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, Rogers is working with Girish Krishan, associate professor Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Ian Rice, associate professor in HK, to develop a fall-prevention robotic shower. And there’s also a project with Katie Driggs-Campbell in Electrical and Computer Engineering to develop a wayfinding robot for adults with vision disabilities.
“We are studying the actual needs for aging in place for older adults and then coming back to our lab to work with engineers on how we can implement creative solutions that will improve the quality of life for older adults who are aging in place,” Rogers said. “Our study of DHAs, specifically, is a premier example of what makes Applied Health Sciences a special place, as we are doing the systematic interdisciplinary research necessary to produce responsive and supportive innovations to support people in our community.”
The research of TechSAge is pressing forward after Rice received a $4.6 million grant
Laura Rice
A “smart” bathroom optimized for safety and mobility disabilities. A tai chi telewellness program. Fall detection devices for wheelchair users.
All are projects associated with the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Support Aging Among People with Long-Term Disabilities, also known as “TechSAge.”
The research of TechSAge is pressing forward after Kinesiology and Community Health Associate Professor Laura Rice received a $4.6 million grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) to support another five years of work.
“We want to make sure people with disabilities are able to live life to their fullest,” Rice said. “We want to make sure as people with disabilities get older, they continue to enjoy the things that they like to do.”
The goal of TechSAge is to meet the needs of people aging with long-term disabilities where they live, work, and play by conducting advanced engineering research and developing innovative technologies.
Recent surveys suggest the needs are pressing: According to current estimates, about 42.5 million Americans report living with a disability, making up roughly 13 percent of the population. That percentage jumps among older adults ages 75 or older, of whom 46 percent report having a disability.
TechSAge started at Georgia Tech 11 years ago, with then-GT faculty Jon Sanford directing the project with co-directors Wendy Rogers and Tracy Mitzner. Rogers, now a professor in KCH and director of the McKechnie Family LIFE Home research center, moved to the University of Illinois in 2017, and the project’s presence has continued to grow on the Urbana-Champaign campus while the cross-country partnership continued.
Rogers, Sanford—who is now at Georgia State University—and Mitzner, who is now at Person in Design, will continue as key members of the Leadership Team, along with longtime Project Coordinator, Elena Remillard, now site PI at Georgia Tech. The TechSAge team will continue to engage their vast network of industry partners and community-based stakeholders. The projects also engage students at all levels, including undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs.
In TechSAge’s third iteration, Rice is the principal investigator, with Rogers continuing as a co-investigator. The Illinois interdisciplinary collaborators include Harshal Mahajan, assistant director of research at the McKechnie Family LIFE Home; Ian Rice, a teaching associate professor in KCH; Katie Driggs-Campbell, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Grainger College of Engineering; Girish Krishnan, an associate professor in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering in the Grainger College of Engineering; and Deana McDonagh, a professor of Graphic Design in the School of Art + Design.
“I definitely appreciate that they see something in me, and that I can be a part of leading the next several years of this center,” Rice said. “We have a very collaborative process.”
Rice arrived in year six of the project, after her colleagues spent five years “laying the foundation” of the Center. One of the initial projects, led by Illinois Professor Wendy Rogers, involves performing a needs assessment to understand the needs of adults aging with long-term disabilities. These findings have helped to provide design guidance for the rest of the projects associated with the Center.
In the last five years, the team has focused on ramping up their interventions and technology solutions to assist the aging of people with long-term disabilities. Jon Sanford and Georgia Tech researcher Brian Jones have spearheaded the “SmartBathroom” at the university’s Aware Home to meet the needs of people with mobility disabilities, for example.
Much of the lab-based research at Illinois has taken place at the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, the research center dedicated to technological innovations in the home environment. One on-site project led by Katie Driggs-Campbell is focused on developing an assistive robot to help older adults who are blind or low-vision navigate through their space. Another robotics project co-led by Girish Krishnan and Ian Rice will develop a robot shower to enable safe and independent bathing for older wheelchair users. The LIFE Home will be used for preliminary testing in both robot projects.
“Research can be a hard process, we do have to go slow—especially with technology, we need to make sure that we’re developing things properly so that it will be useful and usable to individuals who are beneficiaries of it,” Rice said. Projects emphasize user-centered design and the inclusion of people aging with disabilities in all stages of the R&D process.
That said, some projects are nearing their release to the public, Rice said. TechSAge researchers at Person in Design and Georgia Tech, Tracy Mitzner and Elena Remillard, have adapted a tai chi intervention to support the needs of adults aging with long-term disabilities, using a telewellness protocol to deliver a physical activity and social engagement opportunity in a safe and supportive manner.
“In these next five years, we have the ability to take these projects to the next level,” Rice said.
The students collaborated on a grant application to make protective masks for people with spinal cord injuries
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to pause plans, change directions and pivot to new careers. For two Illinois students, it means becoming inventors and distributors.
Joey Peters, a Ph.D. candidate in Kinesiology and Community Health, and Gies College of Business alum Arielle Rausin collaborated on a grant application to make protective masks for people with spinal cord injuries, and found out this week that the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation—which focuses on funding projects for people with an SCI—awarded them a $10,000 grant.
The funding is provided through the Neilsen Emergency grants, which are intended to directly support the provision of services to those living with SCI and their caretakers to relieve the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. People with SCI have above-average risk in the COVID-19 pandemic due to the prevalence of comorbidities that could complicate any SARS-CoV-2 infection. Also, obtaining effective masks for people with SCI has proven challenging.
Peters and Rausin will help make 750 masks, using 3D printers located at Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES), and the company Rausin started, Ingenium Manufacturing.
It’s fitting that DRES is involved since that is where Peters and Rausin met. Peters was a renowned gymnast when he got to Urbana-Champaign in 2013, as a two-year American junior national team member. He quickly established himself as a star athlete on campus, however, he sustained a left rotator cuff injury before his senior year and could not compete that season.
The time away from competing allowed him to reflect on what was next and he decided to pursue a master’s degree in Kinesiology. His advisor, Laura Rice, is married to Ian Rice, another member of the KCH faculty and a former gymnast himself.
“Dr. Ian Rice had a research project looking at pressure, like preventing pressure ulcers and adapted sport equipment,” Peters said. “And so it seemed kind of interesting. So I wanted to get involved in it, so I got involved in that project and did my masters with that. And with that, I kind of got involved with the racing team here, doing research on them. And then, next thing you know, I’m volunteering, going out on the road with them, and kind of fell in love with the sport. And that was about four years ago, four or five years ago, and I’m still here.”
Peters became the grad assistant for the wheelchair track team, and that’s how he met Rausin, one of the athletes. Rausin herself has a spinal cord injury.
Since Peters plans to focus on SCI research and preventing secondary complications with SCI, working with Rausin made perfect sense.
“Arielle has an amazing 3D printing company, and it just seemed like a really good fit for the whole sort of COVID relief kind of plan to action,” Peters said. “We thought it could be a really cool idea to help people in need in the SCI community.”
This grant won’t be the first time Rausin has put her skill to good use for a good cause.
In a class during her junior year, she was tasked with creating a prototype of a useable product. Thanks to her passion for wheelchair racing, and a challenge from her coach, she decided to make wheelchair racing gloves. A good pair of wheelchair racing gloves is as important as good shoes for a marathon runner, but they’re very costly, going for as much as $250 a pair. Rausin decided to create a more durable, more affordable solution.
From that idea was born her company, Ingenium Manufacturing, in 2016, currently the only business in the country which offers wheelchair racing products using 3D scanning and printing technology.
In the grant application, Peters and Rausin said they could begin production on the masks within a week of securing funding. Rausin said logistics of distribution haven’t been worked out yet, but they’ll be working with DRES partners, and they plan to mail some to Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA), a youth organization in Chicago that promotes physical activities for people with a physical or visual disability.
The masks have been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but they’re not taking supplies from N95 masks that are meant for first responders and hospitals, Rausin said.
“The 3D printed mask that we’re going to be distributing, it’s meant for community use,” she said. “It’s going to protect people better than the cloth masks or bandannas or whatever that they have around their home. And so this is just an opportunity for us to give them a free mask that’s going to be better than their own, but still not taking away from the need that doctors and hospitals have.
“This was a perfect opportunity for us to be able to donate the use of the printers towards a good cause, and use them to help people.”
