Tuesday 5 April 2011

Tutorial 8: Assistive technology

         Tutorial 8: Assistive technology

             This week we had a lecture and a tutorial about assistive technology. We also had an occupational therapist and Kev from Star mobility presenting a few assistive technologies. Starr mobility website is a place to go when you need to look for assistive technology, this is their website http://www.starmobility.co.nz/
In this post I will define assistive technology and I than will write about one assistive device that I have seen in the class presentation.
An assistive device is anything that can be implemented to improve or increase functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. These can be equipment, a product system or any item that is custom made, commercialised or modified to suit someone’s personal needs (Cook & Hussey, 2000).
During the tutorial, Kev introduced the talking photo album. This device is an A3 size album, which has many pages.  It has the feature to record on each page for 10 seconds and each individual recording can be played back. It has a large visual area to display photos, stories, recipes and types of messages, and it has a loud speaker as well.
We had the opportunity to display photos and record step by step how to make a banana shake. Each individual page recording can be played back, deleted or replaced.
This scenario would be helpful for a person who has problems with short term memory and want to be involved in an activity. By using this assistive device, an activity can be completed and self-esteem can also increase.
Here is a website where technical description is and provides a short video as well. http://www.vat19.com/dvds/talking-photo-album-record-messages.cfm
References: 
Cook, A. M., & Hussey, S. M. (2000). Assistive technologies: principles and practice, USA: Mosby.
 Star Mobility & Disability Centre, (2011), Retrieved, April, 09, 2011, From,                http://www.starmobility.co.nz/
   Talking photo album, (2011), Retrieved, April , 12, 2011, From, http://www.vat19.com/dvds/talking-photo-album-record-messages.cfm

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