I am always meeting people who have never heard of assistive technology. I am an occupational therapist and I teach people with disabilities, as well as other professionals, about assistive technology. I will use this opportunity to share some of that basic information with you.

My additional purpose is to persuade you that Assistive Technology truly "opens the door" to life for people with disabilities. Assistive Technology helps to compensate for the effects of disability-loss of speech, paralysis, incoordination, visual impairment, weakness, cognitive problems - in an active and positive manner. It places the focus not on what is lost but on what is possible...what is constructive...what can be done!

Assistive Technology refers to the devices that can be used by persons with sensory, motor and cognitive limitations to achieve greater independence and self-reliance. Typically assistive technology (AT) refers to those devices that are designed with electronics, microprocessors and high performance materials which allow: powered mobility, augmentative communication, environmental control and the use of microcomputers. These devices usually require training for use and customization to fit it to the individual's needs.

When the U.S. Congress wrote the Technology Related Assistance Act in 1988 mandating access to AT for people with disabilities, it wrote the following definition:

An Assistive Technology Device is "any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." (From The Technology-Related Assistance Act for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, Sec. 3.l).

Why is
Assistive
Technology
Important?

The technology that we live with today is powerful in ways that its predecessors never were. This is great news for persons with disabilities. Today's high technology systems, through the addition of software and hardware, can take on extra processing tasks and become adaptive. This allows a person with a disability to use a system too.

In the past, many simple devices were used to create greater independence for individuals with disabilities. In addition to devices to help with grooming, dressing and food preparation tasks, people learned to use magnifying glasses, transfer devices, ramps and bathroom adaptations. All of these devices continue to be very important to independence.

However, the possibilities for personal independence, adventure and employment seem limitless given the capability that today's technology rich world offers. There are computers that allow a person to word process with a single switch activated by an eye blink...or a page scanner attached to a computer that copies a page of print and converts it into synthesized speech so that a person with blindness can "read" it...or microprocessor-based devices that allow a non-speaking person to ask and answer questions and participate in a speaking world. Perhaps you have even seen someone in a monoski...a device that allows a person paralyzed from the waist down to charge down a slalom ski course.

Today, computers are essential to communication, information management, employment, banking, recreation and video games, even grocery shopping and buying airplane tickets. Having access to technology puts people with disabilities in the mainstream of life, prepares them for employment and interaction, builds their self-confidence, allows them to make choices and exercise control of their options. Assistive technology means that people with disabilities are the beneficiaries of the technology revolution too!

The key to successful use of assistive technology is creating a "good match." It is important to come up with a good fit between the wide array of devices that are now available, the set of physical, cognitive and sensory challenges faced by the individual with the disability and the tasks or personal goals that that individual wants to accomplish. The result should be greater self-reliance or control over some aspect of daily living or the ability to participate in everyday living in a meaningful way.

Computers are wonderful tools for supporting human creativity. Since disability tends to separate people from their active, creative self and prevent them from engaging in meaningful "occupation," the potential for benefit becomes obvious. Adapting computers so that disability is accommodated offers great potential to address all kinds of human occupation. Assistive technology is very natural to occupational therapy.

Assistive technology compensates, as nothing else can, for the deficits created by motor and sensory handicapping conditions. It bridges the gap between helplessness and functional independence and allows people to engage in meaningful, purposeful activities. Computers are used in education, banking, communication, entertainment, business, travel, and recreation. The individual with a disability just needs the AT device and the instruction and ability to use it to participate in all these of purposeful activities in our modern life.

Lets look at some specific examples that might help you understand how technology can help with specific kinds of disability.

• Written language through word processing and printing on computers. The keyboard is only one way to put information into a computer. Computers can use scans and switches, Morse code, on-screen keyboards, head-pointing devices or voice recognition as input methods.

• Design work even without the use of hands. A mouse controlled by head movement allows a paralyzed user to undertake creative and profitable careers in desktop publishing, digital graphics and computer aided design.

• Spoken language through augmentative communication devices. Portable and computer-based devices can replicate and produce spoken language. They can be selected and programmed to meet the needs and ability of the user.

• Conservation of energy and organization and sequencing of tasks. Tasks that would have been beyond the physical ability of a person such as: dialing the phone, managing a personal calendar, doing financial tasks, managing a household, faxing grocery lists to the store, finding information on the Internet, etc. all become possible.

• The use of page scanner to convert a page of printed information into a computer document. Once it is a computer document, the user can direct the computer to "speak" the page of printed information by using a speech synthesizer. The computer follows the users commands to read the page and can even save the page or print it in Braille or large letters.

• Transmission of written material by phone so that computer and modem can function as a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD).

• The use of a single user closed circuit TV’s that enlarges everyday kinds of print...like recipes or checks or snapshots...for a person with low vision.

• Using keyboarding as a substitute for cursive writing to bypass fine motor and perceptual problems. By compensating for severe penmanship deficits, a young learner gets on with the task of learning to produce written language. With spell checkers, grammar checkers, and word completion software even those with severe learning disabilities can write.

• Effective early learning with attractive software and hardware. Computers with adaptations allow children with disabilities to participate alongside their peers. Software offers exploration as well as drill and practice in basic concepts as a non-judgmental, extremely patient tutor. The multisensory stimulation offered by contemporary software really helps to build concepts for slow learners. For children who do not have normal mobility or fine motor skills, the computer becomes a substitute for paper and pencil.

• Computers can act like a memory prosthesis. Software, personal digital assistants and pagers can be programmed to remind a forgetful person about daily routines, medication times, and names, dates and facts.

Special Education is one of those places. Children need the time, the instruction and the expectation to use their assistive technology devices. Education is the natural time in children's live for developing the self reliance and motivation that underlay preparation for responsible life in the community. Assistive technology enables education in the mainstream, helps children develop friendships and communicate with their peers, move independently and produce the homework and classwork that they couldn't do otherwise.

Rehabilitation hospitals and outpatient clinics are another important place. People who have had an accident, an illness or experienced a loss of ability need help to find the tools that will allow them to return to their life roles and satisfying activities. Whether people are planning to return to work or to meaningful retirement, the tools that allow them to return to purposeful activity will add greatly to their independence, self reliance, and choice.

There is also a transdisciplinary organization that is dedicated to the field of AT. The organization, RESNA, is the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America. RESNA encourages the development of skills, knowledge, collaboration and research among its membership and offers specialty certification that lets consumers know they are working with an AT expert.

Each of the 50 states also has a federally funded state wide Assistive Technology Project that is designed to meet the information and referral needs of people within their state. These projects are coordinated by RESNA through a Technical Assistance grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) in the Department of Health and Human Services. All agencies, services and school districts within a state should know how to get in touch with their state's "Tech Act" project.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a great new help to consumers or service providers who are seeking to educate themselves about AT. Not only do RESNA, AOTA and NIDRR have home pages on the WWW but so do most of the AT Research and Development Centers, the centers of excellence in providing assistive technology services, as well as the vendors and companies that sell AT devices and products. Using a search engine and good search techniques can lead you to many sources of excellent information.

You are now on your way to becoming an "educated consumer." Of course, you are welcome to get in touch with me by e-mail or by telephone if you feel that my professional services as an occupational therapist with expertise in assistive technology would be of interest.

Thanks...and good luck!

Mary Ellen Buning, MS, OTR Phone: 970/484-2518 Fax: 970/493-2783

Assistive Technology Consulting E-mail: mebuning@fortnet.org

Fort Collins, Colorado URL: http://www.fortnet.org/AssistiveTechnology

Mary Ellen Buning is currently pursuing doctoral studies in the Rehabilitation Science and Technology Program in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She can be reached at mbuning+@pitt.edu.