Heading to the Los Angeles Abilities International Accessibility Conference? Don’t miss RESNA’s Scientific Paper Platform, a one‑hour, moderated session where leading researchers share real‑world findings with a clear focus on how practitioners can apply them immediately in daily practice. Attend this session and earn 0.1 IACET CEU. 

Check out RESNA’s Scientific Paper Posters, showcased all day during the conference. This format brings together cutting‑edge research, real‑world practice insights, and emerging policy developments that shape assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering. It offers an inviting space to dive deep into new findings, ask presenters your questions, and connect research to clinical practice, commercial innovation, and policy impact. 

Scientific Paper Platform

Thursday, March 26th 

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. PST

Room: Seaside Ballroom

Accessibility gaps in streaming media - what mobile’s decade-long journey can teach us

Presenter: Harry Lew, P.Eng., CUA

Wheelchair service providers’ opinions about the usefulness of a new rear anti-tip device for manual wheelchairs: a mixed-methods focus-group study

Presenter: R. Lee Kirby, MD, FRCPC

Mobility Assistive Product Abandonment and Associated Factors in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia: A Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study

Presenter: Zelalem Dessalegn Demeke, BScPT, MScOT

Tech Transfer: How Transferring the Classroom Audit Pen‑and‑Paper Evaluation to a Mobile App Platform Enhances Accessibility Assessment

Presenter: Sayeda Farzana Aktar, Ph.D.

Abstract:

Across multiple areas of assistive technology (AT), users experience inconsistent usability, uneven performance, and barriers that limit long‑term benefit. This session presents findings from four studies examining accessibility of streaming media platforms, innovations in wheelchair safety, mobility device abandonment in low‑resource settings, and mobile‑based accessibility auditing. The studies show:

• Audits of major streaming devices revealed significant variability in assistive technology support despite existing standards
• A mixed‑methods evaluation of a novel self‑deploying rear anti‑tip device (Arc‑RAD) showed strong provider support alongside key considerations for future refinement.
• A cross‑sectional study in Ethiopia identified a 36.4% device abandonment rate driven by modifiable service delivery factors, underscoring the importance of user involvement and environmental fit.
• Finally, transitioning to mobile auditing platforms demonstrated clear gains in accessibility, consistency, and institutional transparency.

Collectively, these findings highlight the need for user‑centered design, context‑appropriate device selection, and technology‑enabled assessment to advance equitable AT access.

Learning Outcomes:

1. By the end of this session, learners will be able to identify accessibility standards and user-centered design principles relevant to mobility and overall assistive technologies. By the end of this session, learners will be able to list ways to assess manual wheelchair users and caregivers as they perform community‑level wheelchair skills.
2. By the end of this session, learners will be able to identify barriers to technology and device adoption and recommend strategies to improve long‑term usability and accessibility.

Scientific Paper Posters

Thursday, March 26th - Friday, March 27th

8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PST

Seaside Ballroom

A Functional Model to Rehabilitation Physical Therapies for Patients with Parkinson's disease, using a Mobile Application

Presenters: Jorge Luis Rojas Arce, PhD; 

Linking Research Themes to Commercial Outcomes: A Machine Learning Analysis of NIDILRR Grants

Presenter: Fuzexia Guo, MS;  Julie Faieta, PhD, OTR/L

Canadian emergency alert accessibility: A comparative analysis with Canadian and United States findings

Presenter: Harry Lew, P.Eng., CUA

Effects of keyboard display patterns on word spelling accuracy in a commercial EEG-based P300 speller

Presenter: Mengxuan Wu, Ph.D.

If you are registering to attend the Los Angeles conference, please use the discount code RESNAMEMBER.

Register for the Los Angeles Conference