Grant: College & Community Social Innovation Fund

Workplace injury has significantly affected Canada’s skilled trades industry, contributing to premature departures and a depleting workforce. Strength-augmenting passive exoskeletons are perceived to reduce disabling work-related risks and improve job accessibility in the skilled trades. However, existing exoskeletons, and other personal protective equipment (PPE), are based on outdated anthropometric data that do not reflect the increasingly diverse Canadian workforce. The lack of Canadian population-specific anthropometric data has limited the effectiveness, functionality, and practicality of exoskeletons and other PPE and has ultimately impacted their adoption and implementation in the skilled trades. Ill-fitting exoskeletons and PPE may also create safety hazards and is recognized as a significant barrier that underrepresented groups (e.g., women, newcomers, aging population) continue to face in entering and prospering in this vital sector. Through four interlinked phases and by applying a mixed methods approach, we will understand the needs and requirements of skilled trades workers and product designers and develop a comprehensive anthropometric database, reflecting Canada’s diverse skilled trades workforce, to support the inclusive design of exoskeletons and PPE. First, we will conduct focus groups with at least 54 skilled trades workers from three underrepresented groups (women, newcomers, workers aged 55 and over) to better understand their perspectives and lived experiences on exoskeleton and PPE use, the barriers and facilitators of usage and adoption, and their user requirements for the design of effective exoskeletons. Second, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with at least 10 key informants representing exoskeleton and PPE manufacturers and designers to identify design needs based on user requirements. And, finally, we will develop a comprehensive occupation- and population- specific Canadian anthropometric database from at least 768 skilled trades workers by leveraging CISWP’s state-of-the-art photogrammetric technology to capture multiple body dimensions in static and dynamic poses and movements and while minimally-clad and while wearing personal gear. Long term, we anticipate this work will have important implications for addressing community need. Inclusively designed exoskeletons and PPE will help promote health equity in the workplace by ensuring assistive technologies and PPE can equitably benefit and protect everyone.