Questions Framework for Assistive Technology

Question 6.  What are the three basic performance areas defined in the HAAT model? Give an example of each.

Answer in your own words:

Assuming they are referring to the activity part of the HAAT model the answer is the following: "Activities are categorized within three basic performance areas: activities of daily living, work and productive activities, and play and leisure activities (CAOT, 2002). Activities of daily living include dressing, hygiene, grooming, bathing, eating, personal device care, communication, health maintenance, socialization, taking medications, sexual expression, responding to an emergency, and mobility. Included in work/productive activities are home management activities, educational activities, vocational activities, and care of others. The play and leisure area includes activities related to self-expression, enjoyment, or relaxation."

Question 7.  How are tasks related to activities in assistive technology application?

Answer in your own words:

Activities can be broken down into tasks. The skills and abilities intrinsic to the human allow the individual to complete a series of tasks to produce the functional outcome of the activity. These skills may require any combination of physical abilities, cognitive abilities, or emotional for their successful completion."

Question 12.  Describe the four major parts of the context and how each can affect overall assistive technology system performance.

Answer in your own words:

The context includes four major considerations. These are (1) physical context, including natural and built surroundings and physical parameters, (2) social context (with peers, with strangers), (3) cultural context, and (4) the institutional context, including formal, legal, legislative, and sociocultural institutions such as religious institutions."

Question17.  What is meant by the terms novice and expert, and how do they affect assistive technology application?

Answer in your own words:

The term novice describes a user of an assistive technology system who has little or no experience with that particular system or the task for which it is used. As the user practices and gains more experience, he or she may become an expert user (i.e., demonstrating a high degree of skill in the use of the system). What differentiates an expert from a novice? The novice is more likely to use the system in prescribed ways, relying on soft technologies to use it effectively. The novice is less likely to generalize use of the system from one task to another and must use more conscious effort to control it. An expert takes more risks with the equipment in terms of stretching the way it is used and trying new activities with the system. For example, a skilled manual wheelchair user will take the chair up or down an escalator rather than use an elevator. A skilled communication aid operator will develop strategies to increase the rate of communication.

Question 18. Distinguish between ability and skill. How do abilities and skills relate to the concepts of novice and expert?

Answer in your own words:

An ability is a basic trait of a person, what a person brings to a new task, whereas a skill is a level of proficiency, which is comparable to effectance described by Matheson and Bohr (1997)... It is usually possible to obtain an assessment of a person's abilities, but it is difficult to predict the level of skill that he or she will develop using the technology.