Tecnologia assistiva para pessoas com mobilidade reduzida: prospecção tecnológica e análise das políticas públicas

Abstract

This Course Completion Work (TCC) discusses the topic of Assistive Technology (AT) with a focus on resources intended to assist human mobility. In order to reach the entire target audience, the terminology “reduced mobility” was chosen to encompass people with physical disabilities and motor disabilities, which is a consequence of certain pathologies and neurological or traumatic sequelae, but also those people who do not fit the concept of disabilities, such as the elderly, obese and people with temporary disabilities, who are similarly potential users of assistive products. The investigation is developed around the following problem: What is the panorama of publications and patents in the AT area and public policies in this area in Brazil? And to guide the development actions of the present study, the objective was outlined to carry out a prospective analysis on Assistive Technology for people with reduced mobility with the identification of existing public policies. In general, this work has the characteristic of exploratory and applied research, having a mixed approach, having as a technique, for data collection, bibliographic and documentary research based on literature review, primary and secondary sources and the search for prior art. through international bibliographic and patent technological bases for prospecting scientific articles and patents. And the analysis of Brazilian public policies was based on the deductive method, on the content analysis technique, opting for the thematic analysis modality, and on the Normative Assessment. The research results led to the elaboration of a work structured by three original articles, individually guided by the specific objectives of the research, all of which were submitted to technological publication. It was possible to conclude that the treatment of the data and the analysis of the results of the prospective bibliometric search contributed to the knowledge of the reality of the resources directed to the motor functionality existing in the state of the art, as the tendency of growth of the scientific production; the productivity of leading authors and journals; the countries of greatest interest; the research area with the highest concentration of publication; in addition to a synthesis of the main results of satisfaction in the use of Assistive Technology contained in the case studies found. As well, the patent prospection made it possible to identify the main trends in the world market of assistive products, indicating a growing interest in the development and protection of Assistive Technology related to mobility, mainly in the medical and hospital areas. The countries of greatest interest for patent protection and the profile of their inventors and applicants were investigated, highlighting, among the main ones, academic institutions. These results provided discussions about technological trends in order to contribute to scientific knowledge and support innovation processes. In the same sense, research on the scenario of Assistive Technology policies in Brazil brought the perception of opportunities and obstacles to the access of these technologies. The data found indicated that the promotion of the federal government and the existing public policies do not fully contemplate the demand and specificities of the target audience.