Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is a device or equipment to help you do the things you find hard because of your disability.

Types of Assistive Technology

There are many different types of assistive technology to support independence and/or participation in daily living tasks. Some of these include:

  • Mobility aids – e.g. wheelchairs, walkers, prosthetics, orthotics
  • Hearing aids and communication devices – eg. aumentative and alternative communication (AAC), closed captioning, picture exchange communication system (PECS)
  • Posture and seating equipment
  • Cognitive aids – e.g. devices to help with memory or attention
  • Reading and writing aids – e.g. voice to text devices
  • Tools – e.g. book holders, pencil grips
  • Adaptive switches and utensils
  • Specialised bikes and trikes

How can an Occupational Therapist help?

Occupational Therapists are trained to assess a person’s capacity to participate in daily living activities. Our team of Occupational Therapists are skilled at finding the right assistive technology for each individual based on their needs, circumstances and activities.

Occupational Therapists use clinical reasoning into their decision making when prescribing assistive technology based on client interview, assessment, observations and costs among other things. For example, they may observe a person doing a task with or without assistive technology and trial different options to deem what is the most effective.

Other related services

Speech pathologists can support difficulty with feeding and swallowing (also known as dysphagia).
Language is a structured, organised system which allows people to communicate with each other.
Literacy refers to the ability to read, spell, and write.
Speech is the ability to use your lips, tongue and other parts of your mouth to produce speech sounds.
Stuttering ( also called dysfluency) is the involuntary repetition of sounds, words and phrases when speaking.

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