Teachers/facilitators

Emma Tebbutt, Kylie Shae, Irene Calvo – WHO

Description/abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF co-published the Global Report on Assistive Technology (Global Report) in 2022 which showed that there is a large, unmet need for assistive technology worldwide. Recommendation three of the Global Report is to: Enlarge, diversify, and improve human resource capacity. The Global Report suggests that reaching adequate personnel capacity at all levels (community/primary, secondary and tertiary) will demand a combination of AT specialists and generalists, as well as shifting roles of other professionals in task-shifting and task-sharing models.

In this interactive instructional course, WHO will introduce participants to Training in Assistive Products, a new WHO open access resource to support growing the global assistive technology workforce through increasing access to fit-for-purpose training.

Training in Assistive Products (TAP) aims to build capacity at community and primary health care level, to enable the workforce to recognise those who may benefit from assistive products, and to provide simple, priority assistive products safely and effectively.  TAP is free and accessible to all.

TAP can also be used to deliver AT curriculum within pre-service education, such as nursing or occupational therapy degrees, or as continuing professional development for many health professionals who wish to add simple AT provision to their skillset. Participants will learn about TAP, it’s features, functions and uses and will hear from people with experience of implementing TAP. Following this, participants will have the opportunity to interact with TAP, explore the suite of TAP resources, and ask questions.

Expected learning outcomes

1. Understand TAP: it’s structure, content, blended learning approach, resources for country implemention, and different use cases

2. Have a TAP account and be familiar with how to navigate around the TAP website