'Many occupational therapists practise ergonomics and some become certified in this area. The role of occupational therapy in ergonomics is to enable and optimize function in daily living activities in both the home and work environment. Examples of occupational therapy intervention in ergonomics include: work-site assessments (job analysis, physical demands analysis), return-to-work programs, job accommodation , modification of job tasks and the work environment to promote function, health promotion programs including stress management and injury prevention programs.
Ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than fitting the worker to the job. The focus of ergonomics is the relationship between the worker and the work environment. Occupational therapists practise ergonomics as it fits well with their Canadian Model of Occupational Performance which emphasizes the influence of the environment on behaviour and the interaction between the person and the environment' (http://www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=295 retrieved 15/09/2011).
Stubbs (2000) states that ergonomics is the scientific study of human work and emcompasses five key systems: the task, the environment, the person, organization and equipment. As discussed in the tutorial, we know that occupational therapists focus on the person, the task (activity) and the environment and just like in occupational therapy, Stubbs (2000) emphasizes that ergonomics is concerned with the "fit" between person, task and environment.
As a class, we brain-stormed aspects to consider under Person, Activity and Environment, in order to accomplish a better 'fit' between these three key areas.
Person: age, stage of life, gender, responsibilities, perceptions, preferences, autonomy, motivation, skills, abilities, aptitudes, attitudes, confidence, competence, finicial circumstance, time available, sense of identity, individuality, tolerance, communication and roles.
Activity: Robustness of materials, adaptions of materials, rhythms of the acticity, costs of the activity, processes of the activity, time of day/month/year the activity takes place, equipment needed, degree of engagement required.
Environment: physical, political, social, cultural, institutional, resources, space, time, seasons, richness, distractions, cultural roles, social perceptions and expectations, accessibility.
Now to relate it to my activity: composing (crafting) music on my harp . . .
Person: I perceive myself to be fairly competent and confident at creating new and likeable music from my own mind. I acknowledge that perceptions from others may regard my compositions as inadequate. I have the necessary skills to compose music; I can sense and feel what sounds "right", by sound rather than reading and writing music. My abilities to create music are different from some composers, but my skills neverthless create a combination of sounds that turn into a musical story. I have the physical, emotional and cognitive capacity to compose and play music on the harp. My preferences are to compose music that is relaxing, or tells a story or to create for someone special to me. I prefer to be alone, with no distractions. Abstract thought processes enable me to go outside what "concrete" and directional composers view as how music should be crafted.
Activity: the materials needed are me, a chair, the harp. Robustness of each of these materials varies; for the activity of composing to occur, I must ensure that I am physically and emotionally able. The harp must me in tune, with all the necessary strings in place. My composing rhythms usually occur in late afternoon; this time of day is usually when I have the house to myself and can enter a nostalgic frame of mind. Exceptions to this are if I am highly stressed or emotionally unstable, in which case the compositions help to eleviate the straining feelings I have. The activity of composing has no finacial costs for me apart from the fact that to be able to engage in this activity I must have a harp, harps are between $1000 - $20,000. My harp was $3000.
Composing requires the composer to have musical intuition; therefore the processes of composing for me are quite spiritual. The process of learning to play the harp occured through harp lessons, observation and listening. I cannot use musical theory based learning; I learn through listening to sound and feeling the sound. The degree of engagement need to be full in order for me to create a peice of music that I, personallu, deem as acceptable.
Environment: This activity is very accessible within my home environment, however to compose elsewhere requires transportation of the harp to another environment, which isn't able to be achieved unless I have someone with a big enough vehicle for myself and the harp (I cannot drive). Seasons impact on composing with regards to my mood and whether I play indoors or outdoors. Time can sometimes be a pressure, as I need a fair amount of time to get in the "mood". Social and cultural "norms" don't often incorporate a 21 year old young female from Dunedin, New Zealand to play a harp. I don't fit in with the social stereotypes of my age group, however, there is social acceptance of my harp playing and composing amongst my peers and many strangers I come across. In the harping culture, I actually don't play the harp "correctly", but my compositions still meet cultural expectations from other harpists. Stimulation from the environment includes the physical space and scenery, social relationships and cultural influences (coming from a creative and somewhat musical family). Spacial organisation involves creating or ensuring I have enough physical AND emotional space for composing something I feel happy with.
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