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. 2020 Oct 29;17(21):7942.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217942.

Ciranda-An Inclusive Floor Seating Positioning System and Social Enterprise

Tulio Maximo  1 , Erika Foureaux  2 , Xiao Lu Wang  3 , Kenneth N K Fong  4
Affiliations

Ciranda-An Inclusive Floor Seating Positioning System and Social Enterprise

Tulio Maximo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

One of the first challenges for many children with physical disabilities is to sit independently. A floor seating positioning system enables this milestone, helping a child to maintain eye level with other children, play and learn on the floor, rectify his or her posture, and, therefore, helps to include the child within his or her social spectrum. Ciranda is the first comprehensive floor seat solution in Brazil to attend to those needs. The project collected anthropometric data from 370 children who were unable to sit without support. A sample of 37 families of these children was visited, observed, and interviewed. A project requirement compiled key insights from the field data to support a multidisciplinary team of collaborators to co-design solutions. The project resulted in two floor seating positioning systems to attend to different needs. One is a social enterprise where the children's parents and the community build the seat while the child in need and his or her friends engage in entertainment. The other is a salable seat that helps to raise funds for the social enterprise. The model also unravels other challenges common to assistive technologies, such as access to a device and training for the use and maintenance of the device.

Keywords: assistive technology; children with disabilities; co-design; developmental milestones; floor seating positioning system; social enterprise.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Salable Ciranda parts: (a) front of Ciranda seat, indicating the safety loop, user-manual, hip support, front support, and suction cup; (b) back of Ciranda seat, indicating the safety loop lock, back seat, carry handle, back seat lock, and seat.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Salable Ciranda: (a) Ciranda seat with a child sitting and drinking a bottle independently; (b) Ciranda seat with the backrest disassembled and placed over the seat with parts assembled; (c) Ciranda seat backpack.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Ciranda Workshop concluded seat and the items used to reproduce the seat.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Concluded Ciranda seats during the second day of the Ciranda Workshop.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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