A person with disabilities shared her frustration during a conference on assistive technology organised yesterday by the National Commission Persons with Disabilities.
Assistive technology aims to promote more independence by enabling persons with disabilities to perform tasks they were previously unable to do by means of assistive, adaptive and rehabilitative devices.
Opening the conference, commission chairman Oliver Scicluna highlighted the contribution of assistive equipment towards the quality of life of persons with disabilities. “This technology helps us tackle the barriers we face in education, employment and in leading an independent life,” he said.
Organisations highlighted the services they offer.
The Access to Communication Unit, within the Education Division, provides assessment service for students with physical, communication or learning disabilities to promote their participation in home and school activities. The unit’s augmentative and alternative communication services support such students in their expressive and receptive communication difficulties.
I want to work.I cry so much because I’m not employed. Sometimes I’m very angry I cannot earn my living
Mobility and daily living assistance services are the focus of the three units that make up the Sonia Tanti Independent Living Centre.
The adaptive driving assessment training unit assesses the clients’ ability to drive and propose any necessary modifications. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists at the wheelchairs and seating unit give personalised assistance for correct wheelchair choice.
Clients using the equipment demonstration unit try out various aids that could assist them in their everyday life, both at home and at work. The main local agency providing support to disabled persons in overcoming or removing barriers to education and employment through ICT is the Foundation for Technology Accessibility.
Set up in 2000 by the Malta Information Technology Agency and the commission, the foundation assists persons with disabilities in the selection, acquisition or use of an assistive ICT device intended to improve their quality of life.
The conference noted the dearth of research on the assistive technology scenario in Malta. One such study is being conducted by Vickie Gauci, head of the Disability Studies Department at the University of Malta, who presented her findings to the meeting.
Ms Gauci found that Maltese users consider assistive equipment as a tool that “helps them to do and to be”.
Sometimes, it is so intimately linked to one’s identity that some users reported that the equipment “led me to freedom” and others admitted “it is everything to me”.