AT Education and Training  and the role of

independent AT Centres

 

Parallel session during the AAATE Conference, Lille 2005.

Wednesday, 7^th September 2005 13.30-15.00

 

Chairs: Gerald Craddock (CRC) & Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf (AIAS Ausilioteca)

 

This session will:

Examine the role and value of independent AT centres in ATrelated training and education with a specific focus on the training of professionals working for general (non AT specific)  services supporting the inclusion of people with disabilities

 

The EC report “Access to Assistive Technology in the European Union” (DG Employment and Social Affairs, 2003) includes among its general recommendations: “Take action to improve the theoretical and practical knowledge of functional problems, and the solutions that the use of Assistive Technology can offer. Profes­sionals, in particular prescribers and assessors, must have sufficient expertise of assessment procedures and products.” More specific recommendations refer to the development of education and training to professionals assessing the needs of people with disabilities related to AT.

In many countries and regions in Europe independent AT Centres have an important role in AT service delivery to people with disabilities and professionals in Health, Education and Social Services serving their needs. Most of the time advice will be based on assessments by multi professional teams, while the clients’ carers, family members and professional teams are involved, trained and in many cases supported, to make sure that the identified solutions are actually acquired, installed and effectively used by the client. Many AT Centres, alone or in collaboration with Universities, run training programmes for professionals working in the field of disability -but not necessarily AT experts- with the following aims: to highlight the role AT devices can have in empowering people with disabilities; to raise the quality of individualised rehabilitation, education, training and social integration projects related to AT, to update the knowledge of the professionals on products, alternative solutions and methodologies, to qualify the demand for advise to AT resource centres. Specialised and independent AT Centres are just one of the AT resources a professional working with people with disabilities will come across during his or her professional career, but important ones, because of their specialisation, their continuing research for innovation and their practical and case related approach. These premises -practical, continuing and focussing on innovation- seem to make them particular relevant for the development of training in a life long learning perspective. Assessment in AT Centres and their training to professionals are therefore closely linked and together related to the professional development that the EC has identified as a bottleneck in access to AT.

This session will examine the role of independent AT Centres in the professional development of professionals working with people with disabilities, by presenting and discussing the experience of four European independent AT Centres.

 

Key issues that will be explored by the speakers representing the AT Centres are:

 

Concerning the Education and Training activities of the Centres:

Which activities are undertaken and how do they relate to the recommendations formulated in the EC report “access to Assistive Technology in the European Union”?

How are these activities integrated in the Centre’s Service Delivery Model, in particular to the assessment and support practice and how can this relationship be made more effective?

How is quality in training evaluated and maintained?

 

Concerning professionals working with people with disabilities in non AT specialised  services:

Which training needs are identified by AT Centres (working knowledge, skills and attitudes related to AT), how are these identified and how do they relate to the role of the professional in the AT supported inclusion process?

How does the training delivered by AT Centres relate to the initial education of the professionals and what can be done to create continuity from a life long learning perspective?

 

Concerning the professional development

To what extend the EC recommendations can be a useful guide for a further professional development and how can independent AT centres facilitate this process.

 What are the principle obstacles for the further development of training by AT Centres and how can these be overcome.