Site for Assistive Tech, in progress
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006Pollie Barden and I are building a centralized location for ITP’s Assistive Technology Program resources. Assistive Technology is an umbrella term that describes devices and processes that enable disabled persons to perform tasks that they were unable to prior, or experienced difficulty with. The introductory course, Developing Assistive Technology, for example, consists of visits to various clinics and centers to understand what needs exist. Then teams of ITP, graduate rehabilitation, physical and occupational therapy students collaborate on ideas to develop a product, program or activity that addresses a certain client’s or clinic’s needs.
Our goal is to provide the following:
- Introduce prospective students and interested organizations to the program
- Centralize information for courses, staff, and program contact details
- Centralized documentation of past & current ITP projects
- Blog environment for students to discuss, get feedback on their projects
- Automatically post all items from the listserve
- Track interesting research in the field, review commercially available products, note projects from other sources and schools
- Provide students with easier access to resources
Centralizing all these resources will not only showcase the great work coming out of one segment of ITP, but also to help grow the program and serve as a research tool to document needs that exist, design approaches, and collaboration processes. Understanding what other teams have experienced and learned will hopefully help improve future projects. Students here are moving towards universal design principles - making products and devices that are usable by a wider audience, including persons with disabilities, the elderly, or those with limited access to resources.