Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices

Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices is a useful guide for professionals working with people with disabilities. Whether you are looking for a specific device or brainstorming ways to address a particular need, this assistive technology guide provides the details you need to help with decision making.

Assistive technology can help people with disabilities in their personal lives, learning, enjoying recreation, and working. The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices is a helpful guide to help individuals with disabilities, educators, employers, and others providing services to people needing assistive devices. This must-have guide goes beyond descriptions of AT by including developmental histories of devices, cultural considerations, and limitations of technologies that will help interventionists develop uniquely appropriate accommodation plans for clients.

Robitaille presents the essential facts to help readers determine what types of assistive technology are most appropriate for their situations. She provides technical details using understandable language, photos and diagrams that professionals and laypeople alike can understand. The book includes devices for a wide range of abilities and types of impairments. Devices for sensory, physical, and intellectual disabilities are included to help users perform tasks that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. Information is provided to help readers learn what to look for in devices and the pros and cons of using various pieces of technology from low tech to high tech AT. The book includes a listing of AT providers organized by the types of technology they provide, tips for determining reasonable accommodations, and ways to fund technology purchases.

Robitaille’s insight comes from many years working in the assistive technology field, and she developed one of the first reading machines for the blind in the late eighties. Her work to provide affordable technology continues today in at Benetech, a hybrid non-profit business that works for social improvement through empowerment.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher