"Assisstive technology refers to a broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities" (Cook and Hussey, 2000). Assisstive technology hence includes a wide range of things to help an individual engage in an activity. When we think of assisstive technology, it is not necessarily 'high tech' equipment. It can be very simple devices such as a keyboard that is bright yellow for visually impaired people.
In this tutorial we had two people come to talk to us and show us a range of assisstive technologies. One of the pieces of equipment introduced was a 'talking tin.' This was intitially designed to help people with a visual impairment to identify their tinned food. Hence TALKING TINS. However these devices have many more uses around the home or in the classroom. You can record a message on them and then play back the message. There were two models of the talking tin. One was a yellow model that cold hold a 10 second message and a red model that could hold 30 seconds of multiple messages. The yellow model cost $18 and red model costs $24 from Star Education.
Clients who have sustained a traumatic brain injury can use these to increase their functional capacity. They or someone else can record steps of a task on the talking tin and then the TBI client can replay the steps as many times as he or she like. Due to their condition they quite often have memory problems so the talking tin assists them to complete a task.
There are many types of assisstive technology!! Check out www.star-educational.co.nz to look at more devices and maybe even get yourself one!
Happy browsing technology friends :)
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