Undergraduate - UnitOCC4121 - Adaptive and assistive technology

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Occupational Therapy
Offered	Peninsula Summer semester B 2015 (On-campus block of classes)
Coordinator(s)	Associate Professor Rachael McDonald

Synopsis

Assistive technology promotes greater independence for people with disabilities by enabling them to perform tasks that they otherwise would have great difficulty or not be able to accomplish. This unit will involve problem solving and clinical reasoning to help the students to develop into competent assistive technology professionals and providers. The course will consist of information relating to social and political aspects of people with disability and technology. The areas of Seating and Positioning, Mobility, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Daily Living Technologies and Assistive Technology Access will be studied in detail. Students will choose one area for their first assignment, and will attend 2 separate clinics each of 4 hours duration to observe clinical practice.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Describe a range of clinical conditions for which various assistive technologies are applicable;
Evaluate barriers and enhancers created by using assistive and adaptive technologies for disabled people;
Integrate the social and political aspects of disability with reference to assistive and adaptive technologies;
Develop and describe appropriate assistive technology provision for clients with specific conditions, supported with sound clinical reasoning;
Demonstrate skill at assessing, applying for funding and prescribing a range of Assistive Technology Devices for clients in everyday practice;
Critically discuss the implementation of the principles of adaptive and assistive technology in the areas of: Seating and Positioning, Mobility, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Daily Living Technologies and Assistive Technology Access;
Display specialist information in one of the areas of Seating and Positioning, Mobility, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Daily Living Technologies and Assistive Technology Access;
Demonstrate professional competence in searching and summarising (verbally and in writing) the scientific literature on a specific topic related to assistive technology.

Assessment

Attendance at 100% unless a medical certificate is provided.
Presentation at a seminar (20 minutes)
1 x 1,000 words and 1 x 3,000 words essays
Written content examination (1 hour)

Workload requirements

40 hours attendance in lectures/practica (block mode), 4 hours clinic attendance (over 2 separate occasions), 16 hours seminar attendance.

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Rachael McDonald

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Occupational therapy

Prerequisites

Completion of first year of an undergraduate programme.