Perspectives of rehabilitation professionals on assistive technology provision to young children in South Africa: a national survey

Abstract

Purpose

Various factors influence the selection of assistive technology for young children within a context with limited resources, such as South Africa. Rehabilitation professionals are required to weigh up different factors as part of their professional reasoning process when making assistive technology (AT) selections. Insight into the perceived influence of different factors may assist in understanding how professionals make decisions about AT in this context.

Materials and methods

An online survey with questions designed using best–worst scaling was distributed to rehabilitation professionals throughout South Africa. Factors influencing assistive technology selection included in the best–worst survey were identified in previous phases of a larger project. A total of n = 451 rehabilitation professionals completed the survey by selecting the factors that were most and least influential on their assistive technology provision.

Results

Results of the survey were obtained by calculating the number of times each factor was selected as most influential across the entire sample, and across all questions, enabling the researchers to sort the items in terms of the frequency of selection.

Conclusions

Even though the rehabilitation professionals that participated in the study provide services in a context with limited resources, assessment and factors pertaining to the assistive technology itself were generally perceived to be of greater influence than environmental factors. It is recommended that these factors be reflected in frameworks and models of AT selection.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• The family’s ability to support the implementation of AT is an important resource that is perceived to influence the selection of AT by an RP.

• Insight into the mind-set of professionals that are used to selecting AT within settings with limited resources may provide RPs in well-resourced contexts with guidance on how to do more, with less.

• RPs should aim to determine child preference and attitude towards AT during the AT selection process.

• RPs should be aware of their own influence on AT selection. Existing AT Selection models should be adapted to clearly reflect the influence of the recommending professional.

Keywords:

• Assistive technology
• young children
• resource-limited context
• selection
• best–worst survey
• ATD Selection Framework

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants for their valuable contribution.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the National Research Foundation or the University of Pretoria.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Research Foundation Grantholder linked bursary [TTK 150708124127], the Research Office of the University of Pretoria as well as the Margaret McNamara Education Grant South Africa Programme.