Alexandra Jamieson, University of Texas at Arlington – Disability Community Needs Better Access to Exercise

Exercise equipment and technology make working out easier, but it’s hard for people with disabilities to access them.

Alexandra Jamieson, research scientist at the University of Texas at Arlington, works to fix this.

Jamieson received her BS in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2018. She has been working as a full-time research staff member with the Biomedical Technologies Division at UTARI since 2018. Her work in silicone actuator designs and molding methods has led to the production of several soft robotic prototypes such as exoskeletons for rehabilitation of the hand, wrist, and elbow. She is also leading research to gamify UTARI technology, including the REHAB glove and Adaptive Exergame Machine. Her major interests are in rehabilitation and assistive technology, adaptive exercise technology, serious games, bio-inspired and soft robotics, and human-computer interaction.

Disability Community Needs Better Access to Exercise

Despite recent advancements in exercise technology, accessibility in designs continues to be an afterthought, leaving the disability community behind; But they may be the ones who need access to exercise the most.

Reports show that people with mobility disabilities are at higher risk of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. A major reason for this is because only 9% of people with mobility disabilities are meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines.

Many people with disabilities report not exercising because they have no access to exercise equipment that is adaptive to their disability, and they fear reinjuring themselves if they do not know much about fitness.

Regardless, efforts have been made to improve fitness for the disability community. My research team performed a literature review to understand what level of progress adaptive exercise technology is at, and if there is room for improvement.

We learned that there is adaptive equipment used for free body exercises, but they are difficult to learn without proper training, and there is a lack of fitness trainers to teach people with disabilities how to use them. Adaptive exercise machines can help in guiding proper movement without a trainer, but they can cost upwards of thousands of dollars. Adaptive fitness apps are a low-cost option that can educate how to exercise with a disability, but there are very few apps available.

Overall, there has been good progress in adaptive exercise technology development, but implementation of these tools in the community is sparse. To reduce costs, developers should make efforts towards designing equipment which are usable by people of all abilities so that more gyms and individuals are inclined to purchase them. This could normalize the inclusion of adaptive equipment in gyms, so that the disability community has better access to exercise.