Tiffany McLaughlin, Anne Mills, Tanya O’Brien, and Anastasia Diamond
Abstract
Employees in a supportive work environment were struggling to understand addition and subtraction math concepts necessary for weighing products, an essential job ask. After several prototypes, a visual aid was created to help the employees problem solve through the weighing task, ultimately facilitating independence and allowing for decreased supervision.
Client Background
Our team consisted of three occupational therapy graduate students and one psychology undergraduate student at Ithaca College. Our clients were the employees at Challenge Contract Production. Challenge Contract Production is a supportive work environment for individuals with various limitations including developmental disability and intellectual disability. Challenges’ mission is to teach their employees job skills that can translate to the wider competitive workforce. The employees we focused on are given the task of weighing dry food products for packaging. During employee scale training we observed job coaches verbally trying to teach mathematical concepts to the employees without any teaching aids or variations in teaching strategies. We determined, along with supervisors at Challenge, that many of the employees struggled with the mathematical concepts needed to understand accurate weight measurement. For example, when a target weight is 16 grams and the employee reads 20 grams on the scale, he/she is unsure if product should added or subtracted to achieve the target weight of 16 grams. In order to gain independence in the workplace and achieve competency with work tasks, the employees needed to be able to complete the weighing task without constant supervision.
Problem Statement
The goal of this project was to create a visual aid to help the employees at Challenge Contract Production solve addition and subtraction problems encountered during the weighing of dry food products, in order to promote independence and mastery of essential job tasks. In this project we aimed to create a solution that was low cost, intuitive to use, simplistic in design, and unobtrusive to the work environment.
Design and Development
Through several iterations of a number scale our team decided to prototype a visual cognitive aide. This aide consisted of multiple visual cues including an adaptable numerical scale, color coded areas that indicate the target weight, and an adjustable arrow which can be moved to identify numerical relationships. Initially our team considered creating adjustable cards with a digital read out. It was ultimately decided an erasable whiteboard would be more flexible for the supervisors and as beneficial for the employees.
The first prototype was well received by the supervisors and employees at Challenge, but included suggestions such as adding the plus/minus symbols and text stating add/ take away for clearer visual referencing. The first prototype was also too short, the supervisors requested it be taller to fit more numbers. We then created the final aide including their recommendations.
Evaluation and Results
Our evaluation consisted of observation and interviews with employees and supervisors during scale training both prior to introducing the prototype and after introducing the prototype. We showed the employees and supervisors how to use the prototype and left it at the job site to be trialed for one week.
First visit (no prototype) – We observed an employee needing multiple physical and verbal cues from the job coach to complete the weighing task. The employee did not demonstrate an increase in job task independence during the span of our observation. The employee consistently sought help from the job coach throughout the training session. It became clear that the employee did not understand numerical concepts and was guessing how to achieve the desired weight. Time to complete weighing task was over 1 minute.
After this observation we created the initial prototype. We instructed the supervisors on how to use the prototype and left it with them for one week to utilize for training.
Last visit (prototype in use one week) – When we returned we observed the same employee independently using the prototype to problem solve the weighing process. The job coach was near by, but did not directly supervise the weighing task. Time to complete task was less than 1 minute; the employee was independent, and the product was weighed at the desired amount. He was independent with the task until the product weight on the scale was greater or lesser than the numerical range on the prototype. Based on this visit we created a final product with changes from our observation and supervisor’s suggestions, such as creating more space for numbers and adding text/symbols.
Feedback from supervisors/workers: Reports from supervisors indicate that the product is being used and is helpful in facilitating independence in the job task for multiple employees. Floor supervisors reported that employees required less supervision for the weighing task. Challenges’ career exploration coordinator shared this feedback with us:
“A lot of work has been done in the past with the consumers (employees) to assist them with reading the scales, but a lot of them struggle to process instructions without a visual aide. What you guys created has made it possible for some of the consumers that struggle with verbal cues, to be able to work with the scales and visualize when they need to add or subtract product. There are two consumers who have gone from not being able to read the scale at all, to (with your assistive technology) being able to operate the scale successfully without any prompts from staff. The way I look at it is if it helped at least one person, it is a success. Two people have already benefited from it and plenty more will work with it in the future.”
Discussion and conclusions
Overall, the device successfully facilitated independence for the employee we observed and was in use by other employees at Challenge. The visual aid made the employees more efficient in completing the job task and provided confidence in mastery of the task. The skills the employees gained can be translated to the wider workforce. The design is simple, cost effective, unobtrusive to the work environment, and can be replicated easily and quickly produced with everyday products. This visual aid could be used in multiple settings for a range of individuals to facilitate an understanding of mathematical concepts and relationships.
Acknowledgments
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Challenge Contract Production
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Lynn Gitlow, Ph.D., OTR/L, ATP (Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy, Ithaca College)
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