Hi Will, I work for an Assistive Technology service here in Melbourne Australia. There are two main parts to what we do. I believe these are fairly typical of those offered by similar services in other parts of the world.
The first aspect is to consider and act upon access and environmental issues relevent to the use of communication devices by people with complex communication needs (the service also employs Speech Pathologists). The second is to look at access to other technology and the environments in which the person is living and working. In the latter part, it's the OT that's the "primary" health professional; and I suppose this would be the area where we get closest to "IT" - in that we are bringing our clinical reasoning to bear on the the interface between the person and the computer/ECU control unit (be it software or hardware). In this area we are seeking to remediate problems with occupational performance and enhance the person's strengths in the context of the occupation with which they wish to engage (I mean occupation in the the "OT" sense of the word ie meaningful things a person does because they need to as part of the expression of their person-hood). Our service is fortunate to have an absolutely fantastic tech support guy who is intuitively able to grasp a lot of the OT and SP concepts and usually able to devices/systems up (or problem solves them when things go wrong as they often do!) for the client's specific needs. I have often thought it would be great to have a programmer on our team too....as, while a lot of software that's out there is great for the kinds of problems most people have....there are sometimes individuals for whom a simple "purpose-built" application might make a big difference in them being able to achieve their aims. Writing and compiling code for individuals would be pretty time consuming and expensive though! There are lots of good web resources on the role of OT in AT (Assistive Tech). To find out more I suggest you try the Resna website www.resna.org in the US and the Univeristy of Toronto Assistive technology centre at http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/ as places to start. The ATRC has more stuff about computer and web access issues for PWDs. I have lots of other AT links if you want to email me off the list. All the best with your decision-making. I entered the OT profession as a second career and can truly say it's been one of the best things I've done with my life. cheers, David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Will Wade" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 5:20 AM Subject: [OTnow] IT Areas within OT > Hi there, > Apologies if the following is slightly off topic but Im having > difficulty getting some answers. Before I start I realise this list is > pretty American - if anyone knows of a better list for me to post this > too please say! > > For the last 5 years I've been a web programmer for a variety of > organisations and last year quit my job at the BBC and took up > voluntary work in a disability housing project and then in a special > needs school for children with disabilities as a OT assistant for about > 12 months. I loved it all and am now looking into applying for OT. > > However I do have some doubts which I hope some of you out there may be > able to clear up for me. > Im prepared to ditch my current lifestyle (and the pay!) but I'm > interested to use the experience I have in some manner - the IT side of > things, - within OT but cant see many specialism's (the UK OTCT site > seems to be dead) that do much more than adaptive technology. I know a > lot of independent companies/charities are involved in this but how > indepth does OT go into this area? I have mainly witnessed computer > assessments and hardware adaption advice from the OT dept but not a lot > else. Is this a fairly large area of specialism? Im guessing not from > the lack of the the OTCT site at the moment (www.advance.me.uk) but am > interested to see whats being done at the moment. > > After a talk with several OT's in a variety of fields Im getting a hazy > picture of the use of IT within OT. Some seem pretty bored due to the > lack of technical involvement, some don't, some have no idea. > > Any advice gratefully received. > > Cheers > Will > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, visit: http://otnow.com/mailman/listinfo/otlist_otnow.com > > The OTnow Mail Archive: > www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > =============================================== > > __________ NOD32 1.566 (20031128) Information __________ > > This message was checked by NOD32 Antivirus System. > http://www.nod32.com > > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, visit: http://otnow.com/mailman/listinfo/otlist_otnow.com The OTnow Mail Archive: www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ===============================================
