Abstract
There has been increasing recognition of the importance and benefits to society of social inclusion and the full participation of disabled people. Many countries have also enacted legislation aimed at removing discrimination against disabled people. Removing barriers to full participation by disabled people will require the development of new assistive technology systems and improved information and distribution systems for existing assistive technologies.
This will require an effective and ongoing dialogue between the disabled end-user community, social services, the clinical rehabilitation services, and the professional engineering disciplines involved in the development, provision, assessment, and ongoing support for assistive technology. To support this dialogue there is a need for common terminology, concepts, and definitions, embedded within a single, unified model framework. This paper presents the Comprehensive Assistive Technology (CAT) model, which was designed to meet this need.
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