Seashell is an extraordinary place for extraordinary young people. We support children and young adults with the most complex needs in the country to reach their potential  through our specialist school, college and residential care facility.

Seashell were kindly provided with two Drive Decks (left) by the Ian Karten Charitable Trust. This allowed us to have one based in our specialist school and one in the college. These have been hugely beneficial to Seashell and are being used in several ways to benefit our learners across our site.

Smile Smart Tech describe their innovative Drive-Deck device as a “Unique training and assessment device which allows wheelchair users to remain in the comfort of their personal seating to train in using switches and control use”.

The drive deck allows an individual to learn and practise the skills needed to drive their wheelchair, using any kind of switch. The deck has several options to be accessible to a multitude of learners:

A drive Deck can be set to follow a track and activated with a single switch; an accessibility feature that allows learners with complex needs, at the start of their wheelchair driving skill progression, the opportunity to learn safely. With the introduction of more switches, alongside experience and training using the equipment, an individual can learn to drive their wheelchair off a track – in Free Drive mode.

My name is Ted and I have been the Assistive Technologist for Seashell Royal College Manchester since Jan 2022. When I started in post the Drive Decks had already been funded and provided to us by the Karten Trust. Since then, I have utilised and evolved the college’s use of them.

I now run Drive Deck sessions multiple times a week. I have collaborated with our Occupational Therapy (OT) department to embed sessions, skill learning, and progressions into the college students’ use of the Drive Deck. Together with OT we have embedded the use of the drive deck into our switch skills progression matrix.

Currently we are using the Drive Deck in three distinct ways in students’ Drive Deck sessions:

1. Used for further switch progression and development: The Drive Deck provides an innate way of introducing and embedding more switches to control more aspects of driving, if this is the switch progression our students are on.
   
   
2. Adapted, fine motor rehabilitation: I have recently had wonderful success using the Drive Deck with a student who recently suffered a stroke and lost a vast amount of his left hand and arm usage.
   
   This learner, who uses a standard wheelchair, previously had the capability of self-propelling himself functionally using both his hands. This student’s OT and I have devised a weekly session where he is being supported to re-learn to use his left hand and arm. At the start of these sessions the student was very resistant to any encouragement and prompting to engage with his left arm.
   
   However, driving the Drive Deck quickly became very motivating for him; especially with the introduction of a preferred and motivating P.O.L.E (*person, object, location, event) at the end of the track, in the form of switch activated music on a large interactive whiteboard. This allowed the learner to activate a switch with his left hand, with staff modelling and prompting the repeated action of this; and once he has driven to the end of the track, he activates his favourite music, again using his left hand and a second switch.
   
   This learner’s OT has fed back that; “The use of the drive deck has been integral in the rehabilitation of a young adult who had upper limb surgery to reduce contractures. Switch activated motion on the drive deck has proven to be an intrinsically motivating activity for this young adult with a clear cause and effect structure allowing it to be accessible for them. This has facilitated our ability to utilise both neuroplasticity and his own volition to increase the functional use on a non-dominant hand post-surgery. This would not have been possible without OT and AT collaboration and highlights the importance of a continued relationship between the two professions.” – Dionne Nmai, Seashell Trust Occupational Therapist
   
   OT and I have been blown away by the rapid rehabilitation benefits of using the Drive Deck in this way, and this has opened our eyes to further ways of using this equipment with Seashell learners.
   
   
3. Switch use progression in driving/ self-propelling: working towards an assessment for a switch adapted powered wheelchair. Working in conjunction with Smile Smart, the Drive Deck can be used for assessment as well as training and experience on switch-wheelchair driving. This can lead to an assessment, given by, Smile Smart to evaluate an individual’s skill set and overall use of the Drive Deck equipment and determine whether they are ready and would further benefit from a Smile Smart Powered Wheelchair.
   
   Smile Smart System (SSS) Powerchairs are adapted personal powered wheelchairs tailor-made to an individual specification. SSS powerchairs are modified using a wide range of controls and switching to offer optimum comfort, freedom and independence for the user.
   
   These unique powerchairs come with anti-collision sensors, voice confirmations, pre-determined track following, speed and motion controls.

Here at Seashell, I am very proud to say, I am about to undertake my first student assessment for a Smile Smart System Powerchair. This young man has been working with the college Drive Deck for the past 18 months. He has progressed from using one switch, driving on a track, to using a bespoke layout of three switches to drive forwards and turn left and right in Free-drive mode, being able to choose where he wants to Drive to. In this way the Drive Deck is offering this individual an opportunity that he would not be able to experience without this equipment.

Working as an Assistive Technologist I have not come across a similar or alternative method of offering support, training, experience and assessment for switch-users learning wheelchair driving who cannot self-propel or use a typical powered wheelchair joystick. Our OTs report that:

“The drive deck is used both as an assessment and intervention method, with progress tracked using GAS goals as an outcome measure.  Initial assessments inform the clinician’s understanding of gross and fine motor movements, including range of movement and limb function, what style of switch would be appropriate for use, and what POLEs the student may find motivating in addition to the drive deck itself.

Following assessment, OT and AT design interventions dependent on intended outcomes for the student. In the case of one student, the drive deck session is being used to increase participation in switch-based activities, promoting increased upskilling through repetition with familiar switches and POLEs.

For another student, initial use of the drive deck for switch work indicated the potential for the development of skills in independent driving and has led to AT arranging an external assessment for the student to be considered as a potential powered wheelchair user. A third student engages more consistently in drive deck sessions than in other switch work, and uses the drive deck functionally to practice upper limb control, which can be particularly tiring for them physically. In all cases, the drive deck has been utilised with full-time wheelchair users whose physical or medical conditions present a barrier to independent movement, and in all cases consistent motivation has been observed when the student is able to move themselves with greater autonomy, whether for

learning cause and effect, practicing switch-operation skills, or developing driving skills.” Lucy Basing, Seashell Trust, Occupational Therapist.

Going forward I would like to offer other services within the Network, and any around the Northwest; who may be considering the purchase of a Drive Deck the opportunity to get in touch with myself, and try the equipment with us on site here at Seashell. I would be happy to coordinate visits where you could see the kit yourself, and observe the sessions we run with our students.

The Ian Karten Charitable Trust, in providing the funds for the Drive Decks we have at Seashell, has immensely improved the service we are able to offer the Young Adults we support; and the benefits of the Drive Decks are vast, unique, and still evolving.

Thank you to Smile Smart Technology, and to the Ian Karten Charitable Trust for making this possible.