"Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly."
Assistive technology social workers help individuals with disabilities to access and use technology designed to improve their quality of life, such as specialized equipment or software applications. They consult and collaborate with professionals to help clients to live independently, navigate their environment or communicate with others effectively.
Definitions and concepts of disability: This includes the social model of disability, the medical model of disability, and the difference between impairment and disability.
Assistive technology devices: This includes a wide range of devices that can help a person with disability to perform activities of daily living, including mobility devices, communication devices, and sensory devices.
Accessible design: This includes the principles of design that make environments and products accessible for people with disabilities.
Advocacy: This includes the process of advocating for the rights of people with disabilities to ensure that they have equal access to opportunity.
Assistive technology assessment: This includes the process of determining the best assistive technology solution for a person with a particular disability.
Assistive technology training: This includes the process of training people with disabilities to use assistive technology devices and how to problem-solve when issues arise.
Legal and ethical considerations: This includes laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities and the ethical considerations that go into selecting assistive technology devices.
Funding and grants: This includes information on sources of funding for assistive technology devices and grants that may be available to assistive technology providers.
Data collection and reporting: This includes the collection and reporting of data on assistive technology devices to evaluate their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
Collaborative partnerships: This includes working with other professionals in the field of disability social work to design and deliver high-quality assistive technology services.
Voice Recognition Software: This software allows individuals with speech impairments to communicate by dictating text, which is then converted into digital form through special software.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Devices: These are devices that help people with communication disabilities to convey their thoughts and needs.
Screen Readers: Screen readers are software programs that read the contents of a computer screen aloud. They help people who are blind or visually impaired access information on a computer.
Electronic Magnifiers: Electronic Magnifiers help those with visual impairments to magnify and enlarge text or images on-screen.
Hearing Aids: Hearing aids are devices intended to help people who have varying degrees of hearing loss.
Video Magnifiers: Video Magnifiers are devices that magnify and enhance printed text and images, making it easier for people with visual impairments to read.
Text-to-Speech Software: This software reads written text aloud so that people with visual impairments can "hear" the information instead of reading it.
Braille Displays: Braille displays show digital text in Braille form, allowing blind or visually impaired individuals to read it with their fingertips.
Customized Keyboards and Mouse Devices: These devices are customized for individuals with motor or dexterity challenges, making it easier to access a standard computer or mobile device.
Environmental Control Systems: Environmental Control Systems assist individuals with mobility or motor impairments to access and control their environment with a wide range of methods, from voice-activated systems to switches or smartphone apps.
"Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing."
"ADLs are self-care activities that include toileting, mobility (ambulation), eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, and personal device care."
"Assistive technology can ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs."
"...assistive eating devices can enable people who cannot feed themselves to do so."
"Due to assistive technology, disabled people have an opportunity of a more positive and easygoing lifestyle."
"...increase in 'social participation,' 'security and control,' and a greater chance to 'reduce institutional costs without significantly increasing household expenses.'"
"In schools, assistive technology can be critical in allowing students with disabilities access to the general education curriculum."
"Students who experience challenges writing or keyboarding, for example, can use voice recognition software instead."
"Assistive technologies assist people who are recovering from strokes..."
"...and people who have sustained injuries that affect their daily tasks."
"To ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs."
"Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly."
"For example, wheelchairs provide independent mobility for those who cannot walk..."
"...enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing..."
"...disabled people have an opportunity for a more positive and easygoing lifestyle, with an increase in 'social participation.'"
"...a greater chance to 'reduce institutional costs without significantly increasing household expenses.'"
"Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly."
"...by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks."
"ADLs are self-care activities... grooming, and personal device care."