Assistive Technology Assessments with Everyone Can: What You Need to Know

For some 43 years now, the team at Everyone Can have been doing everything we can to see that disabled people are able to communicate, control their home environment and basically live their lives with as much ease and independence as possible. We are absolutely delighted that through dedication and donations we have been able to transform the lives of hundreds of wonderful people living with disabilities. It is a process that begins with an assessment.

We realise that ‘an assessment’ isn’t very specific and doesn’t really tell you much about, well, anything. We want to change that with this blog! Whether you are reading this as someone with a disability, a parent or carer, or someone interested in supporting the work we do here at Everyone Can, we would like you to know some more about these elusive assessments and how to arrange one.

What are the Assessments For?

The assessments are designed to give the assessor an understanding of the challenges that the person living with a physical and/or learning disability faces in their everyday life. We assess specifically the ease with which they can communicate and how able they are to control their home environment.

We don’t mean to brag, but when it comes to assistive technology, we really know our stuff. With that in mind, we can take the results of the assessments and work out from the wealth of assistive technology out there, which ones will best help the disabled person. It may mean for example, downloading some software that can control the light switches, a programme to radically assist with speech, or having a piece of hardware that can make using a computer easier – things that most of us take for granted.

Who Does the Assessments at Everyone Can?

We think it is really important for you to know that not only are our assessments carried out by a member of our very experienced and thoroughly trained team, our approach is person-centred meaning that we take into account all areas of need for a disabled person and ensure that they are as comfortable as possible throughout. That way, we can use our expertise to match technology to the needs of disabled people.

How the Assessments Work

The initial assessment will take place over the phone. We find that this will often give us enough information to be able to suggest the best-suited assistive technology and how to get it, or we may be able to remotely access your existing technology and improve it from our base in Sale, Manchester. However, if we feel that a bit more investigating would be beneficial, we can arrange for you to visit our fully equipped assessment centre. We know that getting to us might be too difficult for some, so we can also do home visits.

After the assessment we will write up a report which documents the specific equipment or software settings that will really make a positive difference to the disabled person’s life. Unfortunately we aren’t able to fund the technology that we suggest but we will do everything we can to help you find funders or suggest funding options.

Free Technology Training

It is all very well and good having the technology, but it won’t be of much use unless you know how to use it. Once the technology is received we will give you free training. Again, you can come to our centre for training or we can do the training remotely using an Internet connection, which is available at a time and place that tends to be more convenient.

Who Can Make an Assessment Appointment – and How?

Disabled people can self-refer (contact us themselves) or can be referred by others, such as family members, carers, health professionals or education professionals. All you need to do is get in touch!