At Inclusive Solutions, we understand that our clients and their families have to cope with much more than most people do. Learning about the diagnosis and the implications for their lives can be overwhelming. We provide technology to help our clients to still live as full a life as possible through the power of communication, understanding their sensory needs and having some control in their own lives.
We know that when faced with all the available options it is not always easy for our clients and their professional teams to know what features best match the needs of the user. That is why we provide a service we call an assessment or product trial.
An assessment is designed to understand the client’s current abilities and needs. If a person cannot speak, it is obvious that the person requires a communication solution. If the person cannot speak and also cannot use their hands to control a computer by using a mouse or a keyboard; we know that the person also needs an alternative method to access the communication on his computer.
That sounds easy enough? But people are different and they can experience other complications such as visual difficulties, language processing difficulties or motor planning difficulties to name a few. In an assessment we aim to understand how the complexity of the client’s barriers impacts their primary need – communication, access to a computer or coping with sensory processing challenges.
Our pre-assessment questionnaire is designed to gather as much information as possible from the client and/or their primary caregiver and/or their professional team. It is helpful when we have input from the different members of the team as it provides a better understanding of the overall needs that the client has. The questionnaire is available on our website.
From the information received in a pre-assessment questionnaire we are then able to customise each assessment to the client’s strengths while making accommodations for their challenges. This aspect of an assessment is valuable to our clients because while they experience success in their ability to use a product to meet their needs, their support team can observe how accommodations can be made for the areas that the client may find challenging.
During the assessment we also have to consider what impact the client’s diagnosis will have on them in the future. If a person has a regressive condition, the client can trial a range of products to meet his needs for the present time as well as the future.
Information empowers our clients, which in turn helps with financial planning. An assessment helps them to decide whether they want to purchase a tool that will help to meet their immediate needs and then purchase another tool for when they lose their current ability. Or whether they want to purchase the tool that might be more expensive now, but will meet all their current and future needs as they lose their abilities.
We also find that the assessment process is valuable to the therapists and educators who support children who will require an alternative or augmentative communication system or who require supports for their sensory needs or who need a way to access the computer. Families together with their professional team are able to make better and more informed decisions about what technology options to purchase, what needs they are trying to meet for the learner, who will support the learner, and what to expect in his or her future.
We provide free assessments if you are able to travel to one of our offices, so please get in touch if you would like to trial any of our devices. We can also do home / school visits but a travel and assessment fee will apply. Please contact us for more information.