What is Assistive Tech
The lowdown on AT
Product Guide
What's available
F
Hardware & Software
Further information on AT
AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to or changed methods of interacting with the technology needed to accomplish such tasks.
Likewise, disability advocates point out that technology is often created without regard to people with disabilities, creating unnecessary barriers to hundreds of millions of people.
Partnered With:
Durable Medical Equipment (DME)
Seating products that assist people to sit comfortably and safely (seating systems, cushions, therapeutic seats).
Standing products to support people with disabilities in the standing position while maintaining/improving their health (standing frame, standing wheelchair, active stander).
Walking products to aid people with disabilities who are able to walk or stand with assistance (canes, crutches, walkers, gait trainers).
Advanced technology walking products to aid people with disabilities, such as paraplegia or cerebral palsy, who would not at all able to walk or stand (exoskeletons).
Wheeled mobility products that enable people with reduced mobility to move freely indoors and outdoors (wheelchairs/scooters)
Robot-aided rehabilitation is a sensory-motor rehabilitation technique based on the use of robots and mechatronic devices
Learning Difficulties
Age-appropriate software
Cause and effect software
Hand-eye co-ordination skills software
Diagnostic assessment software
Mind mapping software
Study skills software
Symbol-based software
Text-to-speech
Touch typing software
Visual Impairment
Choice of appropriate hardware and software will depend on the user's level of functional vision.
RIAS (Remote Infrared Audible Signage) has the potential to help both low vision and the blind navigate outside and indoors.
Hardware
Large monitors.
Adjustable task lamp, using a fluorescent bulb, shines directly onto the paper and can be adjusted to suit.
Copyholder holds printed material in near vertical position for easier reading and can be adjusted to suit.
Closed circuit television (CCTV) or video magnifiers. Printed materials and objects are placed under a camera and the magnified image is displayed onto a screen.
Modified cassette recorder. To record a lecture, own thoughts, ideas, notes etc.
Desktop compact cassette dictation system. To allow audio cassette playback with the aid of a foot pedal.
Fusers produce tactile materials, for example diagrams and maps, by applying heat to special swell paper.
Scanner. A device used in conjunction with OCR software. The printed document is scanned and converted into electronic text, which can then be displayed on screen as recognisable text.
Standalone reading aids integrate a scanner, optical character recognition (OCR) software, and speech software in a single machine. These function together without a separate PC.
Refreshable Braille display. An electronic tactile device which is placed below the computer keyboard. A line of cells which correspond to Braille text move up and down to represent a line of text on the computer screen.
Electronic Notetaker. A portable computer with a Braille or QWERTY keyboard and synthetic speech. Some models have an integrated Braille display.
Braille embosser. Embosses Braille output from a computer by punching dots onto paper. It connects to a computer in the same way as a text printer.
Perkins Brailler. To manually emboss Grade 1 or 2 Braille.
Software
Customization of graphical user interfaces to alter the colors and size of desktops, short-cut icons, menu bars and scroll bars.
Screen magnifiers
Screen readers
Self-voicing applications
Optical character recognition. Converts the printed word into text, via a scanner.
Braille translation. Converts the printed word into Braille, which can then be embossed via a Braille embosser.
Text-to-speech and Speech-to-text
Spell checkers and Grammar checkers
Guide Index
Product Guide
Hard/Software