What is AT?

Assistive innovation (AT): items, equipment, and systems that improve knowing, working, and daily living for individuals with impairments.

Start finding out about assistive innovation and the ATIA:

What is assistive technology?
How do you pick the ideal assistive technology?
Who pays for assistive innovation?
What is the ATIA, and how can it assist you learn about assistive technology?
Can you go to an ATIA conference and what will you find out?
Can you participate in an online ATIA webinar?
What is assistive innovation?

Assistive innovation (AT) is any product, piece of equipment, software application, or product system that is utilized to increase, maintain, or enhance the functional capabilities of persons with specials needs.

- AT can be low-tech: interaction boards made of cardboard or fuzzy felt.
- AT can be high-tech: special-purpose computer systems.
- AT can be hardware: prosthetics, installing systems, and placing devices.
- AT can be computer system hardware: unique switches, keyboards, and pointing gadgets.
- AT can be computer software application: screen readers and communication programs.
- AT can be inclusive or specific knowing products and curriculum help.
- AT can be specialized curricular software.
- AT can be much more-electronic devices, wheelchairs, walkers, braces, educational software application, power lifts, pencil holders, eye-gaze and head trackers, and a lot more.

Assistive information technology assists individuals who have trouble speaking, typing, writing, remembering, pointing, seeing, hearing, learning, walking, and numerous other things. Different impairments require various assistive innovations.

Find more about specific assistive innovations at the websites of ATIA members and ATIA Alliance Partners. Professional organizations in the field also have useful sites. For more links, see AT Resources.

How do you choose the ideal assistive technology?

Usually, the choice is a decision you make with a team of specialists and experts trained to match particular assistive technologies to specific requirements. An AT team might consist of family physician, regular and special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, rehabilitation engineers, occupational therapists, and other professionals including consulting representatives from companies that make assistive innovation.

Find out more about how various specialists can help you at the websites of their professional companies:

AOTA, American Occupational Therapy Association
ASHA, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
CEC, Council for Exceptional Children
LDA, Learning Disability Association of America
RESNA, Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive information technology Society of The United States And Canada

Service organizations and makers offer important info too. Start with the list of ATIA Alliance Partners.

Who spends for assistive innovation?

The answer depends upon the innovation, the use, and the user. Many sort of AT may cost you little or absolutely nothing, even for some extremely costly items. Some examples:

School systems spend for general unique education learning materials along with technology defined in an IEP.
Government programs (Social Security, veteran's benefits, or state Medicaid firms) pay for particular assistive information technology if a physician prescribes it as an essential medical device.
Private medical insurance spends for particular assistive technology if a medical professional prescribes it as a necessary medical or rehabilitative device.
Rehabilitation and task training programs, whether moneyed by government or private agencies, might pay for assistive innovation and training to assist people get jobs.
Employers may pay for assistive innovation that is a reasonable accommodation to enable a worker to carry out necessary job tasks.

Other sources of funds in states or communities consist of private foundations, charities, and civic companies. The ATIA's Funding Resources Guide supplies sources and resources to examine as potential options.

What is the ATIA, and how can it assist you learn about assistive innovation?

The ATIA is a not-for revenue membership company of producers, sellers, and providers of technology-based assistive gadgets and services. ATIA members are active in providing assistive innovation for the gamut of disabilities:

- Autism spectrum disorders
- Blindness and low vision
- Deafness and difficult of hearing
- Computer gain access to problems
- Communication disorders
- Mobility disability
- Mounting systems
- Learning specials needs
- Cognitive impairments
- Web availability
- Augmentative and alternative communication gadgets (AAC)

ATIA members are not mostly concentrated on architectural products (specialized elevators, lifts, ramps or get bars), transport items (wheelchairs and motor automobile adjustments), prosthetic devices (artificial limbs and eyes), and listening devices.

Find out more about the assistive technology products and services provided by ATIA members by looking at their sites, listed in the ATIA Membership Directory.

ATIA members possess a remarkable storehouse of experience and knowledge valuable to meeting the distinct requirements of individuals requiring assistive innovation. They have broad experience adjusting their items to specific situations and helping regional practitioners find distinctive solutions for customers with disabilities.

The ATIA Conference, held each year considering that 1999, showcases product or services for the assistive innovation community-from users to teachers to market and government experts. In addition, the ATIA sponsors working groups through which its members work to advance industry requirements as technology modifications, and to find new ways to disseminate details about those advances to specialists and the general public.

The ATIA and its members develop online webinars that provide continuing education about assistive technology for specialists and interested members of the public.

Can you attend an ATIA Conference and what will you learn?

Everyone is welcomed to participate in the ATIA Conference, to take advantage of the exact same broad series of learning chances that practicing therapists, teachers, and other industry specialists get.

You can learn how to select from the best existing technologies and get a very first look at new ones along with cutting-edge scholastic research study. Teachers can find out proven ways to utilize AT in the classroom. Hands-on workshops teach more sophisticated ways to utilize particular products. In neighborhood forums, practitioners, persons who use assistive innovation, and their families can talk about issues with producers and specialists.

For some, the most interesting part is the Exhibit Hall, where you can try a complete variety of products, consisting of new and developing technology. For others, the finest part is satisfying other individuals who are dealing with the same problems, sharing stories and assisting each other.

Can you attend an Online AT Education webinar?

ATIA members and Alliance Partners offer a wealth of valuable info through the Assistive Technology Online Professional Development Program, both live and taped. In Live Broadcast webinars, the audience can communicate with the presenter. Webinars are also tape-recorded and archived so individuals who can not go to a Live Broadcast can access the details.

Webinars are mainly geared towards instructors and practitioners, who can utilize them for continuing education credits. But they can likewise be helpful for users, moms and dads, and other members of the public who have discovered the fundamentals of assistive innovation and wish to discover more.