The document discusses various motor disabilities and their symptoms. It describes conditions that cause motor impairment like cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and stroke. Physical and mobility impairments are defined as disabling conditions requiring adaptation. Specific conditions covered include spinal cord injury, loss of limb, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, arthritis, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and their related symptoms. Assistive devices for people with motor disabilities are also outlined such as mouth sticks, head pointers, switches, trackball mice, eye tracking, and adaptive keyboards.

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• Motor impairment is the partial or total loss of function of a body part, usually a
limb or limbs. This may result in muscle weakness, poor stamina, lack of muscle
control, or total paralysis. Motor impairment is often evident in neurological
conditions such a cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and multiple
sclerosis.
• Physical and mobility impairments are motor disabilities. People with physical
and mobility impairments are defined as having a disabling condition or health
impairment that requires adaptation. Physical and mobility impairments are
caused by traumatic injuries, diseases, and congenital conditions.

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5. Spinal cord injury is damage to
the spinal cord. It’s an extremely
serious type of physical trauma
that’s likely to have a lasting and
significant impact on most
aspects of daily life.
The spinal cord is responsible
for sending messages from the
brain to all parts of the body. It
also sends messages from the
body to the brain. We’re able to
perceive pain and move our
limbs because of messages
sent through the spinal cord.
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Loss of limb and nerve damage
are two of the most devastating
results caused by injuries
suffered in a car accident or by
some other means that was not
your fault. It can take years
before a person who has lost a
limb learns how to function
efficiently again, and the
psychological scars may last
even longer.

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Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group
of disorders that affect a
person’s ability to move and
maintain balance and posture.
CP is the most common motor
disability in
childhood. Cerebral means
having to do with the
brain. Palsy means weakness or
problems with using the
muscles. CP is caused by
abnormal brain development or
damage to the developing brain
that affects a person’s ability to
control his or her muscles.

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• Movement and walking disabilities
• Speech difficulties
• Learning disabilities
• Cognitive impairments
• Hearing or vision loss
• Epilepsy
• Emotional and behavioral challenges
• Spinal deformities
• Joint problems

10. Muscular dystrophy is a group of
diseases that cause progressive
weakness and loss of muscle
mass. In muscular dystrophy,
abnormal genes (mutations)
interfere with the production of
proteins needed to form healthy
muscle.
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• trouble walking
• loss of reflexes
• difficulty standing up
• poor posture
• bone thinning
• scoliosis, which is an abnormal curvature of your spine
• mild intellectual impairment
• breathing difficulties
• swallowing problems
• lung and heart weakness

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) involves an immune-
mediated process in which an abnormal
response of the body’s immune system is
directed against the central nervous system
(CNS). The CNS is made up of the brain,
spinal cord and optic nerves.
Within the CNS, the immune system causes
inflammation that damages myelin — the
fatty substance that surrounds and insulates
the nerve fibers — as well as the nerve fibers
themselves, and the specialized cells that
make myelin.

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• Muscle weakness
• Numbness and tingling
• Lhermitte's sign
• Bladder problems
• Bowel problems
• Fatigue
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Sexual dysfunction
• Vision problems

14. Spina bifida, which literally
means “cleft spine,” is
characterized by the
incomplete development of
the brain, spinal cord, and/or
meninges (the protective
covering around the brain
and spinal cord). It is the
most common neural tube
defect in the United States—
affecting 1,500 to 2,000 of
the more than 4 million
babies born in the country
each year. An estimated
166,000 individuals with
spina bifida live in the United
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• weakness or paralysis in the legs.
• urinary incontinence.
• bowel incontinence.
• a lack of sensation in the skin.
• a build up of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF),
leading to hydrocephalus, and possibly
brain damage.

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Arthritis is the swelling and
tenderness of one or more of your
joints. The main symptoms of arthritis
are joint pain and stiffness, which
typically worsen with age. The most
common types of arthritis are
osteoarthritis and rheumatoid
arthritis.

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• Pain
• Stiffness
• Swelling
• Redness
• Decreased range of motion

18. Parkinson's disease is a
progressive nervous system
disorder that affects movement.
Symptoms start gradually,
sometimes starting with a
barely noticeable tremor in just
one hand. Tremors are
common, but the disorder also
commonly causes stiffness or
slowing of movement.
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• mood changes, including depression
• difficulty chewing and swallowing
• problems with urination
• constipation
• skin problems
• sleep problems

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Essential tremor is a
nervous system
(neurological) disorder
that causes involuntary
and rhythmic shaking. It
can affect almost any
part of your body, but the
trembling occurs most
often in your hands —
especially when you do
simple tasks, such as
drinking from a glass or
tying shoelaces.

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Mouth sticks and head pointers
are designed for people with
limited strength and dexterity to
perform activities like drawing,
typing, pressing buttons, turning
pages, etc. Mouth stick is a
widely used assistive device with
a rubber tip at one end for better
tip interaction. At the other end,
there is a plastic or rubber feature
that is inserted into the mouth for
controlling the movement of
mouth stick.

23. Head wands are very similar in
function to mouth sticks, except the
stick is strapped to the head. A
person moves the head to make the
head wand type characters,
navigate through web documents,
etc. Fatigue can be an issue when a
lot of keystrokes are required in
order to accomplish a task.
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People who have very limited
mobility use this type of device. If a
person can move only the head, for
example, a switch could be placed
to the side of the head that would
allow the person to click it with head
movements. This clicking action is
usually interpreted by special
software on the computer, allowing
the user to navigate through the
operating system, web pages, and
other environments. Some software
facilitates the typing of words by
using an auto-complete feature that
tries to guess what the person is
typing, and allowing the person to
choose between the words that it
guesses.

25. Similar in functionality to the single
switch described above, sip and puff
switches are able to interpret the
user's breath actions as on/off
signals, and can be used for a variety
of purposes, from controlling a
wheelchair to navigating a computer.
The hardware can be combined with
software that extends the functionality
of this simple device for more
sophisticated applications.
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A trackball mouse is not necessarily an
assistive technology—some people without
disabilities simply prefer it to the standard
mouse—but it is often easier for a person
with a motor disability to operate than a
standard mouse. Someone may, for example,
use a trackball mouse in conjunction with a
head wand or mouth stick. It is relatively easy
to manipulate a trackball with these devices
and much harder to manipulate a standard
mouse. Someone with tremors in the hands
may also find this kind of mouse more useful
because once the person moves the mouse
cursor to the right location, there is less
danger of accidentally moving the cursor
while trying to click on the mouse button. A
person with tremors in the hands could also
manipulate the trackball mouse with a foot, if
there is enough motor control in the feet.

27. Eye tracking devices can be a powerful
alternative for individuals with no control, or
only limited control, over their hand
movements. The device follows the
movement of the eyes and allows the
person to navigate through the web with
only eye movements. Special software
allows the person to type, and may include
word-completion technology to speed up
the process. These systems can be
expensive—usually in the thousands of US
dollars—so they are less common than the
less sophisticated devices, such as mouth
sticks and head wands.
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In cases where a person does not have reliable
muscle control in the hands for precision
movements, an adaptive keyboard can be
useful. Some adaptive keyboards have raised
areas in between the keys, rather than lowered
areas, to allow the person to first place the
hand down on the keyboard, then slide the
finger into the correct key. A person with
tremors, or spastic movements could benefit
from this type of keyboard. Keyboard overlays
are also available as an adaptation to standard
keyboards, which achieve the same results. In
some cases, adaptive keyboards come with
specialized software with word-completion
technology, allowing the person to type with
fewer keystrokes, since typing can be rather
laborious and slow otherwise.

29. Another alternative is to install
software that allows a person to
control the computer by speaking.
This assumes that the person has a
voice that is easy to understand.
Some people with motor
disabilities—those with cerebral
palsy in particular—may have a
difficult time speaking in a way that
the software can understand them,
since the muscles that control the
voice are slow to respond, and
speech is often slurred, despite the
fact that these people do not have
any slowness in their mental
capacity.
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