Development of a wheelchair simulator for children with multiple disabilities

TL;DR

This paper presents a virtual reality wheelchair simulator designed to help children with multiple disabilities become familiar with wheelchair use, enhancing their confidence and skills in a safe, controlled environment.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel VR wheelchair simulator tailored specifically for children with multiple disabilities, facilitating rehabilitation and skill development.

Findings

The simulator enables repeated practice in a safe environment.

Children showed increased confidence after using the simulator.

The system demonstrates potential for improving rehabilitation outcomes.

Abstract

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.