Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The course is intentionally appealing to people from different vocational and educational
backgrounds. Therefore, the target groups addressed by the university course are
multifaceted and could be summarized as follows:
•
Vocational field of rehabilitation, therapy, and welfare:
Within this vocational field, the
course especially addresses people employed in the field of “people with disabili-
ties” and “integration of people with disabilities” dealing with counselling, care,
support, service, and accompaniment of people with disabilities.
•
Vocational field of health care:
People who are working in the fields of rehabilitation,
nursing, and care and support of people with disabilities and older adult people
are approached in particular.
•
Vocational field of education:
Within this target group, we appeal to teachers of stan-
dard schools and adult education as well as special school teachers and peda-
gogues dealing with children with disabilities.
•
Vocational field of AT:
Especially addressed are people who are engaged in the areas
of production, distribution and trading, maintenance, training, and research and
development of AT.
•
(Emerging) vocational field of eAccessibility and Design for All:
In particular, the course
addresses the still small but growing number of people focusing on eAccessibility
and Design for All in their job, be it in mainstream (e.g., software/web developers)
or specialized fields such as the AT industry of service provision for people with
disabilities.
To be in accordance with the idea of equal access to education, Assistec encourages in
particular people with disabilities to participate. Being disabled and having experiences
in this context is seen as a benefit. Entering into the field of Assistive Technology Service
provision is also seen as a contribution too enhance the vocational chances of people with
disabilities in the open labor market and the course wants to support this.
9.5.4 The Curriculum
The university course's curriculum consists of four modules. Each of the modules is
composed of single seminars. As a whole, the university course comprises four modules
and a total of 17 seminars. Figure 9.4 outlines the university course's contents.
Module one focuses on imparting fundamental knowledge concerning medicine,
physiology, psychology, and classification of disability; legal foundations regarding
disability and funding facilities; ATs; and Design for All and eAccessibility. As the module's
name already implies, the contents constitute fundamentals for the course as a whole and
especially for the following subject.
The teaching contents of module two emphasize the special knowledge of ATs,
including practical training units regarding AT products and their application. Therefore,
this module disposes of a central position in the whole curriculum. This also includes the
referral of AT to eAccessibility and the requirements of mainstream systems and services
to allow AT-facilitated interaction and participation.
Module two allows students to specialize in AT for a specific target group, including a first
phase for working on concrete practical examples. Module three deals with the management
and realization of the process of assortment and provision of ATs, and a goal could be described
as “to educate counsellors and process/case managers.” Hence, pivotal issues are needs
