Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
for a practical clinical tool to assess AT usability and services. It consists of 19 questions
for measuring seven constructs:
1. Use and community (how often an AT device is used within and outside of the
home);
2. Comfort in using a device;
3. Hassle (difficulty in setting up, using, and maintaining a device);
4. Self-perceived assessment of function;
5. Assistance and burden of care (assistance required with device set-up and use,
and assistance with the functional activities the AT device targets);
6. Service satisfaction (promptness, communication, courtesy, accessibility, and pro-
fessionalism); and
7. User's knowledge of AT resources.
In addition to the instruments described above, there is a study that helps to assess the
quality of the match via guidelines on the process: Empowering USers Through Assistive
Technology (EUSTAT; EUSTAT 1999; Andrich and Besio 2002) is a study that was car-
ried out during the period 1997-1999 within the Telematics Application Programme of
the European Commission, which addressed the educational needs of end-users of AT. It
produced educational material for people with disabilities, members of their family, and
personal assistants, as well as guidelines for those who organize or carry out educational
initiatives that facilitate the empowerment of end-users, helping them to make informed,
appropriate, and responsible AT choices. The EUSTAT had both a technological and social
orientation: it stemmed from the idea that people with disabilities must be active partici-
pants in the choice of their AT, thus promoting equal opportunities and also introducing
direct control by the end-user over the quality of AT services and products.
2.4 Conclusions
In this chapter, we faced a twofold open question regarding the measurement of indi-
vidual functioning; i.e., what does individual functioning measure, and how should it
be measured? The first part is focused on the bigger issue of what variables are used as
estimates when measuring functioning and disability, whereas the second part deals with
guidelines and tools for measuring individual functioning. These issues arise from the
nature of the disability's concept; in other words, it is a complex construct and a “multidi-
mensional experience [that] poses several challenges for measurement” (WHO and World
Bank 2011, p. 21).
A comparison of different national and international reports on disability over the
course of time shows that each measurement is different and gives rise to dissimilar
estimates on the prevalence of the phenomenon not only between different countries but
also within the same country and at the same time. Many different aspects can cause the
operational measures of disability to vary according to the prevalent notion of disability;
the purpose of measurement and application; the investigated characteristics of disabil-
ity; and “the definitions, question design, reporting sources, data collection methods, and
