Disability and Assistive Technology Systems

The social model of disability is discussed highlighting the recent pre-eminence achieved over the medical model of disability. The concept of “quality of life” indices is explored and its relevance to assessing assistive technology applications is described. A survey of the main assistive technology quality of life procedures is presented and the value of the individual procedures considered. The later sections of the chapter investigate whether assistive technology can be described in a single holistic and generic model, the idea being that the model will provide a uniform and consistent framework for analysing existing applications and for creating or synthesizing new assistive technology systems. The new comprehensive assistive technology (CAT) model is presented and its use demonstrated in these sections.