Biomedical Engineering Reference
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incident and that he continues to lack confidence, this trait may be considered a personal
factor. However, if he reports that his confidence reduced coinciding with the onset of his
palsy, this factor may be categorized within the body function component (Howe 2008).
From this point of view, the Matching Person and Technology (MPT) series of assessments
(Scherer 1998) is a useful measure to make the right attribution concerning the technology
predisposition of the user/client:
The MPT model and accompanying assessment instruments address three primary
areas to assess as follows: (a) determination of the milieu/environment factors influenc-
ing use; (b) identification of the consumer's needs and preferences; and (c) description
of the functions and features of the most desirable and appropriate technology (Scherer
and Cushman 2001, p. 127).
Two instruments within the MPT tool kit are particularly suitable for the psychologist's
use: the Assistive Technology Device Predisposition Assessment (ATD PA) and the Survey
of Technology Use (SOTU). The ATD PA is a self-report questionnaire with items on a
five-point scale and yes/no questions that
measure an individual's predisposition to and
readiness for AT device (ATD) use. The follow-up version assesses the realization of benefit
from the selected ATD and reasons for situations of nonuse. The ATD PA was developed to
help reduce inappropriate ATD recommendations and the frustration that often accompa-
nies a poor match of person and device (Scherer et al. 2011). In addition, some of the areas
investigated by ATD PA (section B: Well-Being, QOL, and section C: Psychosocial factors)
offer insights for further investigations of the personal traits of the user/client (Scherer
2005). The SOTU is another MPT instrument designed for professionals considering pro-
viding an individual with any kind of technology but who suspect that the individual
may be reluctant to use it. The purpose of the psychologist in administering SOTU is both
to detect if the user/client feels that the use of technology threatens his/her well-being or
self-esteem and to help him/her to discover the positive aspects (Scherer 1998).
Concluding this section, we hold that the psychologist's profile in a center for techni-
cal aid is that of the specialist in personal factors, who, more than a rehabilitator, is an
enhancer and an “empowerer” of personal awareness and a mediator and defending
counsel of personal and subjective factors in the multidisciplinary team of professionals.
8.6 Outlining the Psychologist's Role in the ATA Process
Although we do not believe that psychology has ended, as we held above in contradic-
tion to Gazzaniga's statement, modern psychology has assumed a paradoxical attitude
toward disability not facilitating the formation of a clear role for the psychologist in the
field of disability. On the one hand, Finkelstein's autobiography assertion about the risk of
psychology imprisoning disabled people in their bodies “as being
not
-able” when he was
“introduced to the concept of mental deficits in brain functioning” (1998, p. 31) is certainly
true if that little mention of disability is raised only during the study of neurophysiology.
What is proved otherwise is that a defense of a discipline as “abnormal psychology” does
not resolve Finkelstein's assertion when it is claimed that
the distinctions of normal and abnormal are not synonymous with good or bad.
Consider a characteristic such as intelligence. A person who falls at the very upper
