Envisioning the Future Trends of Smart Assistive Devices to Support Activities of Daily Living for Older Adults with Disabilities

The elderly care industry will face significant pressure, especially the disabled older adults will be the crucial object of service and support. Older adults with a disability who have lost the ability to live independently due to congenital or disease will prioritize living at home. Subsequently, many manufacturers and institutions have developed a kind of home-based assistive device for older adults with disabilities, such as portable toilets, turn-over nursing devices, and so on. Most products aim to support activities of daily living (ADL). The others concentrate on caring support. However, such products do not consider the user experience of the elderly themselves and caregivers and even harm the elderly's self-efficacy and emotion. Therefore, based on interviews and product analysis, this study proposes four core needs of older adults with disability, including self-care ability enhancement, information transmission, reception, daily activities support, and comfort improvement. The study guides designers and developers who design smart assistive devices in the future.