This week the theme for Participation in Occupation was assisstive technology. Unfortunately I missed this tutorial which is unfortunate as my co-students have informed me that it was very interesting. I have however had the opportunity to work with people that use assisstive technology to improve their quality of life.
To begin this post I will define assisstive technology.
An assisstive device is "any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (Cook & Hussey, 2000, p.5).
In my understanding this is talking about any equipment that is designed to make things easier on an individual. And that the term disability is referring to any lack of function, whether it is hand strength requiring the individual to use an aide to open jars or cerebral palsy requiring an individual to use a customized wheelchair to get around.
The piece of assisstive technology that I am going to describe is a Xbox 360 Kinect.
It is one of the latest game consoles that comes with a motion sensor designed to pick up the users movement to be the controller. They are very popular in all areas of society at the moment resulting in there being many combination deals that often include the games designed to be used with it as well as the equipment required to play it when purchasing one. These deals are similar in price at most stores being about $(NZD) 599.00. These deals normally include the Xbox console, the Kinect sensor, a connection cable, and two games.
The reason this piece of equipment is an assistive device is because it is easy to use and it is designed to be specific for each individual.
This is a YouTube clip that introduces the features of an Xbox 360 Kinect ...
XboxViewTV (2010).
References:
Cook, A. M., & Hussey, S. M. (2000). Assistive technologies: Principles and practice. USA: Mosby.
XboxViewTV (2010, June 19). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OMLjXRfaDQ&NR=1&feature=fvwp
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