Different types of assistive technologies
AT as a concept goes back to 1988 when it was officially introduced in the USA through the Assistive Technology Act (ATA), a document through which the US government recognised the importance of technology for people with disabilities, more precisely for their inclusion. It is understood as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customised, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of an individual with disabilities” (Mesquita; Carneiro, 2021).
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), AT is “an umbrella term for assistive products and their related systems and services”, whose role is “to help maintain or improve an individual’s functioning related to cognition, communication, hearing, mobility, self-care and vision, thus enabling their health, well-being, inclusion and participation”.
WHO also points out that globally, more than 2.5 billion people need one or more assistive products, a number that is expected to rise to 3.5 billion by 2050, considering the ageing global population and the increase of noncommunicable diseases worldwide.
Cf. Assistive technology (who.int)
The types of AT vary according to the impairment an individual suffers from.
AT for people with mobility impairments:
- Wheelchairs
- Ramps
- Elevators
- Escalators
AT for persons with visual impairments:
3D moulding for the visually impaired persons
At the Capitolini Museum in Rome, June 2023
- Tactile: Braille, 3D objects
- Auditory: Electronic book readers, reading pens, smart pens that record lectures and take notes, digital talking books, Text to speech engines
- Visual: optical devices such as magnifiers, monocular, etc., non-optical devices such as very large prints, video magnifiers
- Computer, mobile and multimedia: screen magnification, font, color, contrast adjustment, Hi-resolution camera, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR)
AT for persons with hearing impairments:
- Assistive listening devices (ALDs) help amplify the sound, particularly in noisy environments. ALDs can be used with a hearing aid or cochlear implant to help a wearer hear certain sounds better. ALD systems for large facilities include hearing loop systems, frequency-modulated (FM) systems, and infrared systems. About the size of a cell phone, personal amplifiers are used whenever the above systems are unavailable or when watching TV, when outdoor, or while traveling in a means of transport, their role being the one of increasing sound level or reducing background noise.
- Alerting devices, whose role is to give a signal that something is happening. These devices emit a loud sound, a blinking and/or a vibration to alarm a person with hearing impairment about a particular event.
AT for persons with cognitive disorders:
- Alternative augmented communication (AAC) systems are in place in numerous countries in order to help people with cognitive disorders in their daily lives.
- Most common tools are the collections of printed symbols, representing in a simplified way the action/ activity/ condition/ emotion to be expressed in words
- More recently, these icons have been turned into digital collections of such symbols