Tutorial Seven

Assitive Technology



Cook and Hussey (2000) defines assistive technology as a “broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices that are conceived and applied to ameliorate the problems faced by individuals who have disabilities” (p. 5).

During this tutorial, we were introduced to a number of assistive equipment.
I was really impressed by the Gotalks, which are battery powered communication devices used for people who cannot communicate well by speaking. The way it works is that another person records the messages – any messages the user is likely to need. Then an overlay of pictures (or words or symbols) is created and slid into the Gotalk, and then the user can “talk” simply by pressing on a picture to play a message.
The Gotalks come in different sizes. The pocket version has 4 cells and the bigger versions have 9 or 24 cells. Each one has 5 levels of messages and a row of single level core messages.

The smaller versions are around $300 - $400 and the larger ones are around $800.

This assistive device is ideal for anyone with autism, down syndrome, severe cerebral palsy or retardation or any condition which limits speech

(the above information was taken from the Star Alliance product catalogue)


The use of the assistive device will increase the functional capacity of the user. Using the Gotalk could enable its user to do many things independently. For example Catching a bus to go into town to do some shopping on their own. To catch the bus they could have a recorded message on their Gotalk to tell the bus driver where they want to go.