Technical aids

The “disabled” represent a population with a wide variety of functional losses. The VA are in complete accord with the idea that each individual has a right to all the help technology can offer at a given time. The range of disability and therefore the needs are enormous; few centres, even in deveIoped countries, have the time or the means to develop technical aids in sufficient quality and quantity to meet all these needs. I t is essential to link all centres in the field to avoid costly duplication and repetition of error, to advance development, and improve treatment as rapidly as possible. Some links in this chain of co-operation have already been forged; information about development and evaluations are now being disseminated through such organizations as VA, ISPO and ICTA (ISO). Technical aids, by which are meant all rehabilitative devices except artificial limbs, are quite different now from what they were perhaps 5 years ago; there are available today an enormous number of devices for the handicapped. Most of the newer ones fall into four major areas: Mobility aids Communication devices Manipulation and control of the environment Patient handling devices.