Many Veterans with spinal cord injury or dysfunction (SCI/D) will require ongoing assistance with transfers after rehabilitation. Informal caregivers, defined as those who provide unpaid support, are often responsible for providing this assistance, however, repeated performance of this task over time has been associated with increased risk of injuries to both caregivers and care recipients. Major improvements are needed in the way we train and educate caregivers who need to assist Veterans in performing transfers. There is currently no objective way to evaluate caregiver-assisted transfers, making the assessment of the techniques difficult. My team has recently drafted a new instrument, called the Caregiver Assisted Transfer Technique Instrument (CATT) which has been developed to provide clinicians and informal caregivers with an objective measure to evaluate assisted transfer techniques. The CATT is designed to evaluate transfer set up, lift quality, and results and was designed through expert input and extensive literature review. The goals of a recently funded VA Merit Review grant will be to establish the tool’s reliability and validation against gold standard biomechanical measures. The CATT not only provides an objective indicator for the level of risk associated with caregiver assisted transfers but will also allow for identifying specific deficits associated with technique and areas to target education and/or interventions. Physical activity levels among Veterans who use wheelchairs is very low despite the importance in improving overall physical and mental health. Wheelchair users have few exercise options particularly if they lack volitional function of their lower extremities. They also face many barriers to exercise with the two most cited being lack of transportation and time. In recent work my team explored the feasibility of an at home high- intensity interval handcycling training program for persons with spinal cord injury and upper limb vibration exercise via a medical grade dumbbell (Galileo). While the programs showed promising results, a common theme in carrying out the research was that the participants lacked motivation to continue exercising outside of the study and many noted that they wish they could use a Peloton bike which is not accessible to most wheelchair users. This led me to pursue VA Merit Grant funding to build a socially connected exercise system (ParaCycle) that is accessible to wheelchair users and provides access to commercial fitness apps with motivating features (e.g. immersive technology, social supports, etc.) similar to the Peloton. We aim to iteratively design and develop the device engaging input from end-users and will conduct usability testing of the device both in the lab and at home.