Desenvolvimento de dispositivo assistivo para higiene oral baseado em metodologia de projeto participativo

Assistive Technology has a positive impact on the occupational performance of people with disabilities, including children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, with evidence of improved independence and social inclusion, in contexts of education, work, leisure and home. Many challenges accompany the development and implementation of assistive products, and user participation is important to minimize abandonment and improve usability and functionality. This work aimed to develop an assistive device for oral hygiene and test the resulting functional prototypes with the end user, to assess their satisfaction and propose improvements based on their opinion. A participatory project methodology called Projet8-TA was adopted, which presents three macro steps, in which there is a set of tasks supported by design techniques. For its application, there was a partnership between engineering and healthcare professionals, and a teenager with neuromotor disorders resulting from cerebral palsy was selected, who actively participated in the developing and testing prototypes. Participant’s satisfaction was assessed through the Brazilian version of the standardized instrument Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (B-QUEST - 2.0). The results showed the potential of the methodology used in relation to: reduced project time, greater interaction between team and user and greater assertiveness in the technical solution of the assistive device. Furthermore, the participation of the end user was fundamental for the project's progress and for the development of the final version of the assistive device.