ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

                         ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Assistive technology is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.

Hearing aid

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND ADAPTAVIE TECHNOLOGY

The term adaptive technology is often used as the synonym for assistive technology,  however, they are different terms.

Assistive technology refers to "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities, while adaptive technology covers items that are specifically designed for persons with disabilities and would seldom be used by non-disabled persons.

In other words, "assistive technology is any object or system that increases or maintains the capabilities of people with disabilities," while adaptive technology is "any object or system that is specifically designed for the purpose of increasing or maintaining the capabilities of people with disabilities."^[1] Consequently, adaptive technology is a subset of assistive technology. Adaptive technology often refers specifically to electronic and information technology access

PROSTHESIS

A prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is a device that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanicaldevices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control lost by trauma, disease, or defect.

Prostheses are typically used to replace parts lost by injury (traumatic) or missing from birth (congenital) or to supplement defective body parts. Inside the body, artificial heart valves are in common use with artificial hearts and lungs seeing less common use but under active technology development.

 Other medical devices and aids that can be considered prosthetics include hearing aids, artificial eyes, palatal obturator, gastric bands, and dentures. The terms "prosthetic" and "orthotic" are adjectives used to describe devices such as a prosthetic knee. The terms "prosthetics" and "orthotics" are used to describe the respective allied health fields. The devices themselves are properly referred to as "prostheses" and "orthoses" in the plural and "prosthesis" and "orthosis" in the singular.

HOME TECHNOLOGY

The form of home automation called assistive domotics focuses on making it possible for elderly and disabled people to live independently.

Home automation is becoming a viable option for the elderly and disabled who would prefer to stay in their own homes rather than move to a healthcare facility. This field uses much of the same technology and equipment as home automation for security, entertainment, and energy conservation but tailors it towards elderly and disabled users.

COMPUTER ACCESSIBILITY

In the United States there are two major pieces of legislation that govern the use of assistive technology within the school system. The first is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the second being the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which was first enacted in 1975 under the name

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. In 2004, during the reauthorization period for IDEA, the National Instructional Material Access Center (NIMAC) was created which provided a repository of accessible text including publisher's textbooks to students with a qualifying disability.

Files provided are in XML format and used as a starting platform for braille readers, screen readers, and other digital text software. IDEA defines assistive technology as follows: "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 a child with a disability. Exception.--The term does not include a medical device that is surgically implanted, or the replacement of such device."

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Assistive technology for cognition (ATC)^[10] is the use of technology (usually high tech) to augment and assistive cognitive processes such as attention, memory, self-regulation, navigation, emotion recognition and management, planning, and sequencing activity.

Systematic reviews of the field have found that the number of ATC are growing rapidly, but have focused on memory and planning, that there is emerging evidence for efficacy, that a lot of scope exists to develop new ATC.^[11]Examples of ATC include: NeuroPage which prompts users about meetings,^[12] Wakamaru, which provides companionship and reminds users to take medicine and calls for help if something is wrong, and telephone Reassurance systems.

An AAC user uses number coding on an eye gaze communication board

REFRENCES:

1.       "Tennessee Science Standards" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-10-05.

2.     "Assessing for Adaptive Technology Needs". Retrieved 2012-10-05.

3.      C. Barrué. Personalization and Shared Autonomy in Assistive Technologies. Ph. Thesis. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. 2012

4.      Web accessibility guidelines

5.      CEN EN 1332-4 Identification Card Systems - Man-Machine Interface