RESNA's Rehabilitation Engineer and Technologist Professional Specialty Group (PSG 4) is requesting public comments on a draft white paper that seeks to define the current roles and responsibilities of the following AT practitioners: Rehabilitation Engineers, Rehabilitation Technologists, and Rehabilitation Technicians. The deadline for comments is July 29, 2015. 

 

Rehabilitation Engineering is the application of science and technology to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. The rehabilitation engineering profession includes rehabilitation engineers, rehabilitation technologists and rehabilitation technicians throughout the world. Rehabilitation engineering professionals primarily work in the fields of assistive technology (AT), rehabilitation technology (RT) and universal design (UD).  As these fields have advanced, so has the role of rehabilitation engineering in providing more educational, social and vocational opportunities.

 

Initially, rehabilitation engineering professionals (REP), which for the purpose of this paper includes engineers, technologists and technicians, focused on research, design and fabrication of custom devices in clinical settings.  As more AT and RT devices have become commercially available (figure 1), and more consumer products are desigened using universal design principles,  the role of REPs have evolved. REPs now have a greater role in AT and RT, which include the following areas.

The advancement of the AT and RT fields has lead to a change in the practice of rehabilitation engineering. In order to address this change, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA), Rehabilitation Engineer and Technologist (RE&T) Professional Specialty Group (PSG) commissioned an ad-hoc committee to generate this white paper. 

 

 

Please submit all comments using this downloadable comment form. Send this form as an attachment to: resnapositionpapers@gmail.com. The deadline is July 29, 2015.