Wednesday 16 May 2012

Tutorial Eight - Assistive Technology

In class the other day, we had a Occupational Therapist come and talk to us about his role within a school setting where he works with children with significant physical disability. It was the Occupational Therapists role to assist the students to function as independantly as possible, and provide therapy that is centered on the needs of the student. Often this involved the use of assistive technology in some capacity.


What is Assistive Technology? 

Assistive technology can be defined as a broad range of devices, services and practices that are concieved and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities. (Hussey & Cook 2000).

More simply put, assisstive technology is basically any item (whether a piece of equipment or a service) that can be used to increase or improve the functional capabilities of an individual with some form of disability.

One such piece of equipment is the Ipad. You simply buy the Ipad, then what ever App you require. There are many Apps available to cover a plethora of things - from communicating to entertainment and everything inbetween.  The application im going to look at it for in this blog is for communication.
There are a variety of different Apps you can purchase to assist with communication depending on the individuals level of functioning and how much assistance they require. The nice thing about Apps is that they are available in a range of prices (from free upwards), so are affordable for most people, and they are cheaper to buy and maintain than many of the other assisstive communicative devices.
Depending on the GB size (or storage capacity) and what version of Ipad you buy dictates the price. Currently for the latest Ipad (based on prices from http://www.applestore.co.nz) to buy an Ipad that connects using wifi connection a 16 GB costs $729, 32 GB costs $879 and a 64 GB costs $1029. If you are wanting one that connect to the internet via both wifi and cellular networks then 16 GB costs $929, 32 GB costs $1079 and a 64GB costs $1228.

This Utube video shows some of the different communication apps that are available.


http://youtu.be/W-eWvnWMx6c





The Ipad and its communication Apps have assisted users to increase their occupational involvement as they have a way of communicating with others easily, giving them independance and increasing their functional capabilities. Having a good communicative device enables a person an communicate exactly what they want to say, when they choose to say it - instead of waiting to be understood.

The Ipad with the communicative App can break down the constraints of occupational deprivation (occupational deprivation is when something external to the person is creating conditions that lead to deprivation e.g. geographic, environmental, social, economic, historic, cultural or political) because the communication App programmed with certain accents or certain phrases that are specific to a certain culture, some can work as a translative device where you can put in what you want to say in one language and it comes out in another which can reduce the social aspect of occupational deprivation.

When it comes to occupational transition, a communicative device can enable a person to communicate any worries or concerns they may have about the transitional period to other people, as opposed to if they didnt have the device, they may be unable to communicate their concerns or questions.

The following are two links to Utube clips to demonstrate the use of an ipad with a communicative App.

http://youtu.be/viaJE_gMNXo
This shows what the SpeechTree software can do when run with an Ipad.

http://youtu.be/ZuCbYNls0V0
This link shows how the Ipad can be used with children with autism.

http://youtu.be/0gsRL7yWI9A
How a little girl called Ainsley uses her Ipad with communicative software.



REFERENCE:
 Hussey, S. M. & Cook, A. M. (2000). Assistive Technologies: Principals and practice. St. Louis. Mosby.

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