Chapter 3

Motivation and Problem Statement

Disability:
Disability is impairment that may be physical, developmental, cognitive, mental, sensory,
emotional or some combination of these.
"Disability" broadly describes an impairment in a person's ability to function, because of
changes in various subsystems of the body.The degree of disability may range from mild to
moderate, severe, or profound. A person may also have multiple disabilities.

Types of Disability:
Types Of disability may be categorized in following ways.

Physical Disability:
[1] Any disability which effects the physical function of limbs, gross motor ability or
fine bones is a physical impairment, not necessarily a physical disability.

Sensory Disability:
Sensory disability is disability of one of the senses. Sensory disability primarily refers to vision
and hearing impairment, but other senses can be disabled.

Vision Impairment:

Vision impairment is vision loss of a person to such extent as to qualify as an

additional support need through a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from either
disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by
conventional means, such as refractive correction, medication, or surgery.

Hearing Impairment:

Hearing impairment is related to deafness in which person is unable to perceive some

frequencies of sound which can be easily heard by normal people. Mild hearing loss is not
considered as disability.

Olfactory Impairment:
Olfactory Impairment is related to sensory impairment in which person loses the
sense of smell and taste.

 Somatosensory Impairment:
Somatosensory Impairment is related to Insensitivity to stimuli such as touch, heat,
cold, and pain. It is commonly associated with paralysis.

Balance Disorder:

A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, for

example when standing or walking.

Disability Rate in World:

Disability bounds a person's ability to function in everyday life.The estimate recorded by
government agencies in some countries is given below:
Around 15 % of the world's population, or estimated 1 billion people, live with
disabilities. They are the world's largest minority. (WHO)
80% persons with disabilities live in developing countries, according to the UN
Development Programme.
1991, Brazilian census reported only a 1-2% disability rate, but the 2001 census recorded
a 14.5% disability rates.
In 2012, the prevalence of disability among persons of all ages of Hispanic or Latino
origin in the US was 8.5%.
United States, 19.3% of the population (US Census Bureau, 2000).
European Union, across the 15 EU countries in 2001, 19.3% of the population was
hampered by physical or mental health problem, illness or disability, with 9.3% severely
hampered.

Disability Rate according to types:

[2]In 2012, the prevalence of the six disability types among persons of all ages in the
US was:
2.2% reported a Visual Disability

3.4% reported a Hearing Disability

6.9% reported an Ambulatory Disability

4.9% reported a Cognitive Disability

2.7% reported a Self-Care Disability

5.6% reported an Independent Living Disability.

Disability Rate in Pakistan

Pakistan is a large country with an estimated population of 180.7 million making it the sixth
most populous country in the world. Pakistan suffers from poor health status (reflected by poor

key health indicators like 350/100,000 maternal mortality ratio, 70/1,000 infant mortality ratio)
and facing polio as a major public health problem). The country suffered several natural disasters
following the massive earthquake of 2005, while militancy in its northern belt is also causing a
lot of disabilities.
In Pakistan, disable people face difficulities in education, skills development and daily life. Also
there are limited employment opportunities for such persons and so they become financial
burden on their families.

Problem Statement
In a country like Pakistan, where the percentage of persons with disabilities (PWD)
burgeons on a yearly basis, the development and utilization of equipment to aid these people on a
daily basis is paramount. Their disabilities not only prevents them from being an active and
equal part of the society but also proves to be an impediment in their paths to performing the
simplest of activities. According to a survey done by the Helping Hand for Relief and
Development (HHRD) in 2012, the current annual growth rate of disabilities is going
unchecked at 2.65% per annum as compared to the annual growth rate of 2.03% of the total
population in Pakistan. Surely these statistics herald the evolvement of a catastrophic outbreak
that needs to be combated in an appropriate and efficacious manner.
From the gamut of various forms of disabilities that circumscribe these people,
disabilities that subsume mobility, communication and control can be ameliorated by the
implementation of appropriate technology. If we take immobility under consideration, this
disability can either be an anomaly from birth or something developed later on. Apart from this,
victims of various accidents, for example, also have to go through a similar trauma where their
movement is confined to a single wheelchair. Old age brings about a similar story where the
person is left enervated from all forms of strength and energy. They have to live a life that is
defined by dependency on others even for the minutest of tasks. The problem under
consideration is to present a solution to their problems and lessen the dependency that they have
on others. That is to make their lives closer to what it would have been if they were normal.

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability
2. http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/StatusReports/2012-PDF/2012-StatusReport_US.pdf