Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In other words, disability is a multidimensional construct because its measurement is
multidimensional and it cannot be held to a “gold standard” valid for any context and
for any purpose. The only appropriate measure is the one that best suits the purpose and
the context to which it is addressed and not to the concept of disability in the abstract.
Moreover, the variety of measurement tools and the flexibility to change the measurement
procedures, adapting them to different people, contexts, and purposes, provide the most
reliable scientific approach.
Madans and colleagues identify, at the aggregate level, three main classes of reasons
for measuring (see Chapter 2). Here, “providing services” (2002, slide 11)—including the
development of programs and policies for service provision and their evaluation—is the
first among the three classes. More specifically, the assistive technology assessment (ATA)
process can be viewed as one aspect of the first-mentioned class.
Assitive technology (AT)* plays a key and fundamental role in facilitating the social
integration and participation of people with physical, sensory, communication, and cog-
nitive disabilities. The process of matching AT and person requires a well-designed and
well-researched sequential set of assessments administered by professionals with differ-
ent areas of expertise: The success of the matching is strongly affected by the evaluation
protocol/model and by the skills of the multidisciplinary team members. For this reason,
the first section opens the present handbook, providing readers with useful guidelines to
develop a set of functioning and disability screening tools for assessment in a center for
technical aid. The authors of Sections I and II embrace the model proposed as follows.
The Assistive Technology Assessment Model
The introduction of AT into people's lives is a delicate and long-term process, which
presupposes teamwork as much as professionalism, time, and experience. The aim of the
ATA model is to suggest guidelines to follow to reach valid results during the AT selection
and assignment process. The ATA process that has emerged is the result of the integration of
• The AT/aid assignment process, adopted by the aid center of an Italian rehabilita-
tion institute, the “Leonarda Vaccari” Institute in Rome, a model shared through
the years with other Italian AT/aid assignment centers, coordinated by the Rete
Italiana dei Centri di Consulenza sugli Ausili Informatici ed Elettronici (GLIC;
Italian network of advice centers on computer and electronic aids).
• The process, although it has some operating peculiarities, contains the steps com-
mon to the centers for technical aid within itself: access to the service stage, eval-
uative or planning stage, decision or choice stage, providing and customization
stage, support and follow-up stage.
*
We use assistive technology (AT), except where otherwise stated, as an umbrella term (WHO 2004), with the
meaning more commonly attributed to the “Assistive Technology device” term, as stated by the
United States
of America's Assistive Technology Act
(United States Congress 2004) and acknowledged by the World Health
Organization in the recent
World Report on Disability
(WHO & World Bank 2011) as follows: “Any item, piece
of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to
increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.”
