As I am not you: accommodating user diversity through adaptive rehabilitation training for multiple sclerosis patients

Abstract

People who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are unique individuals with their own characteristics and rehabilitation training needs. The great variation of MS symptoms and severity of the disease elevates a need to accomodate the diversity among its patients and support adaptive personalized training to meet every patient's rehabilitation needs. Our research has focused on integrating adaptivity in rehabilitation training for MS patients. We introduced the automatic adjustment of difficulty levels as a type of adaptation that can be provided in MS rehabilitation training exercises. A user study has been carried out to investigate the outcome of this adaptation. An adaptive personalized training has been provided to MS patients according to their own individual training progress, which was appreciated by the patients and the therapist. The automatic adjustment of difficulty levels is considered to provide more variety in the training and minimize the therapist's involvement in setting up the training.