Helping people to compensate:

Black Hills Workshop's Center for Assistive Technology

We all have our limitations. Assistive technology is anything or way of doing things that makes a person “functionally independent.” That’s a made-up human service term meaning the person is able to do the things in their lives that are important to them: dressing, getting around, communicating with those they love, spending their time doing what means the most to them. Assistive technology can be a clapper that allows someone to turn on the light switch when they wake up in the morning. It can be elastic shoe laces that help them to keep their shoes tight without having to learn how to tie them. It can be a stand for their blow dryer if they can’t hold it themselves. It can be a fax machine to send drawn love notes to their sweetheart when they aren’t able to talk or write. It could be a prepaid debit card that is reloaded with new spending money each week because someone has trouble understanding budgeting. Many times, a simple compensation is the difference between “not able to,” and “able to, by myself.”

How do you know if someone could benefit from assistive technology? There are two screening questions:

1. Is the person not doing something they want and/or need to do because of a physical, cognitive, or other limitation?
2. Is someone else, like a staff person, doing those things on their behalf?

If you answered yes to one or both of those questions, further exploration may be in order. There may be a device that can help, and/or an innovation that hasn’t been thought of yet. Black Hills Workshop’s Center for Assistive Technology can help research ideas to help your loved one. We encourage you to think about the circumstances and situations that may benefit from assistive technology.