A Grasp Taxonomy for People with C5-7 Spinal Cord Injury

Despite the broad utility of grasp taxonomies to describe manual abilities, no such tool exists for people with spinal cord injury (SCI). This leaves gaps in the practical assessment of assistive devices and tools that people with SCI might use during dexterous manipulation. Here, we evaluate the grasp strategies employed by individuals with C5-7 SCI using six publicly available videos to develop a preliminary taxonomy. The taxonomy was then evaluated for completeness using an egocentric video case study of an author with C5-6 SCI, captured while demonstrating the general tasks observed in the public videos. Twenty-seven grasping strategies are presented in the taxonomy, 14 of which are unique to this work. Though the dataset used to generate this taxonomy is not universally representative of all individuals with SCI, the egocentric case study suggests it closely captures the overall grasp strategies observed in this group. This grasp characterization captures dexterous abilities typically overlooked in technology design and assessment. We therefore propose that it should be used to inform the design of novel grasp assistance.