The occupational therapist: Enabling activities and participation using assistive technology

This chapter explains enabling activities and participation using assistive technology (AT) from an occupational therapy perspective. This perspective is based on facilitating people to do the things they want and need to do. Occupational therapy is complex owing to the need to consider a wide range of roles, activities, environments, and contexts for each person and their AT. Occupational therapy aims to achieve a person–environment–occupation fit, which may be achieved through skill acquisition, education, environment adaptation, and/or activity redesign in conjunction with AT. The AT process involves four steps (stages/phases) imagining possibilities, seeking information, choosing the best option, and living successfully with AT. The occupational therapist's role is to actively involve the person in all stages of this process. This process has been illustrated using two case studies. The occupational therapist using a person–environment–occupation lens and breadth of knowledge across AT devices is well placed to partner with people to attain optimal AT solutions