Assistive Technology Australia

30/12/2023

Something I forgot: all our IP (database, website, publications, AR library and the AT Mentors course) have gone to NZ where they are being rebadged and will be rolled out. More on this from NZ later

The ATM course should be run here in due course as we have given an RTO a license to run it.

The course will also be run in Europe - more on that later too as the agency running lets everyone know.

30/12/2023

So sad to inform you that ATA no longer exists.

Once I work how how to close this page I will.

In the meantime it’s been wonderful to support you with provide impartial information advice and guidance on AT and the built environment.

All the best
Robyn

01/11/2023

So good that AT Mentors is picking up speed in NZ

ATSNZ expo - Due Drop Convention centre Wed and Thurs - come say Hi and find out about AT Mentors programme

06/10/2023

A collaboration with impact. Assitive Assistive Technology Australia has been supporting and collaborating with Rwanda Assistive Technology Access-RATA for some years now. As part of this collaboration we were able to offer a scholarship to a person with disability to undertake the Certificate IV in Assistive Technology Mentoring. Here is the wonderful result.

We are so pleased for Charles and RATA. Charles achievement required class attendance in the middle of the night, working in English and working with more limited access to AT.

Congratulations Charles and we look forward to hearing of your success and the success of RATA in supporting AT access for the people of Rwanda.
Robyn CEO

Many congratulations to our own Charles Birekeraho, who is one of RATA trainers on completing the certificate IV in Assistive Technology Mentoring which is given by Assistive Technology Australia organization. This was possible through a good collaboration between our 2 organizations and this partnership helps us to make a more meaningful impact in our community. We’re really grateful for your support Technology Australia.

12/04/2023

Our AT mentor Peter giving an Access Awareness Walk 'n' Talk to a group of engineers from Fairfield City Council. Highlighting built environment features that may cause issues for people with disabilities and the elderly.

03/04/2023

So proud of our team….

In January, when faced with probable closure we underwent our audit to the Aged Care Standards.

It is important to note that we have no ongoing relationship with consumers. Our services are short term and one off. Many of our past customers were interviewed by the auditors.

The results were received at the end of last week. We were found to be fully compliant and had NO improvement requests.

The consumer feedback to the auditors was wonderful. We do what we say we do. We listen, we advise and inform. What we do empowers informed decisions. Consumers valued the impartiality and the absence of sales pressure that comes with our model.
We provide for diversity and all our staff show a high degree of reported cultural sensitivity - perhaps grounded in the diversity of our team.

Anyway…. A wonderful report just in time for our closure

Governments may not value us, but our clients do. Pity we won’t be around to continue to support informed choice in AT.

30/03/2023

You won’t know what you’ve lost until we’ve gone….

As we prepare for closure, I thought I’d share this video of our history undertaken by the wonderful Andrew Chia about 9 years ago.

Things have moved on a bit. We changed our name, the apartment now shows wifi automation options in addition to the hard wired option; we have a tour of the apartment on the home page of our website, the apartment AT has been constantly updated, we have our Augmented Reality display library (ATA inAR).

We advanced the role of AT Mentors and created a qualification supporting this new role.

We became the Australian EASTIN partner and through CREATe ASIA with our NZ FDICs, we brought the Asian AT conference to Australia for the first time in 2019.

Half our staff are people with disabilities and AT Mentors work in the information service. Trained peers supporting peers.

The NDIA has released a grant to develop home living environment displays. We are about to destroy ours as we leave Blacktown. We can not apply for the grant we will ahve nowhere to build again and no funds to support the staffing.

The cost if running our entire information service is the same as the maximum grant available. Its going to be cheaper to fund us than to start again.

Independent Living Centre NSW is a leading information, education, and advisory centre for Assistive Technology and the Built Environment. This video highlig...

22/03/2023

Confirming the rumours…..
It is with great sadness that, except for a miracle, I confirm the rumours that after almost 50 years of providing impartial advice to people with disabilities, seniors, carers allied health professionals and others ATA is to close its services on 14th April. The website may continue and we may have some news on this later.

We have fallen between a gap in government policy and understanding. The NSW government which used to fund us, has withdrawn its funding because we are an information provider and information provision is an Australian government responsibility. The Australian government won’t fund us either because they insist think we are an advocacy agency and even as late as a week ago, Mr Shorten insisted that we were an advocacy agency, not an information provider and therefore a state responsibility.

We have been doing everything we can to build our income but it wasn’t fast enough.

The outcome - no impartial information and advice from us any more! People with disabilities and their service providers will be without a key resource.

Additionally sad and unthinkable is the grant round released last week, to develop demonstration home living environments for the purposes of impartial information on how people can live. What are we about to get rid of in our display in Blacktown? - our home automated etc, full sized apartment built to the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines. We have had it since 2012!

More later, but what I have learned is that governments are really only interested in passing the buck regardless of the outcome and they do not understand the empowerment that comes from being able to make a truly informed decision.

Want to make a noise?
NSW to the disability minister - might be a new one next week!
Australian government to Bill Shorten on minister.shorten@dss.gov.au

Robyn CEO

10/03/2023

Call for Contributions Submission of Paper /Poster /Workshop Proposal 30 April 2023 Notification of Acceptance 31 May 2023 Submission of Final Manuscript 15 June 2023 Submit Paper / Poster / Workshop Proposal

27/02/2023

All set up and ready to start!
An exciting day ahead at the 2023 Fairfield Seniors Expo at the Fairfield Showgrounds from 10-2.

Come a talk to AT Mentor, Peter Simpson and UC OT student TingYu who are available to discuss AT needs and solutions.

27/02/2023

We're all set up @ The Seniors Festival Expo 2023! 10am - 2pm. please Pop-In and say Hi!