Programs in
Assistive Technology Education
for End-Users in Europe

Name of the organisation
    INSTITUT GARCHES
    Handicap
Address
    Hôpital Raymond Poincaré
    GARCHES
    FRANCE
    Telephone: +33 1 47419307
    Fax: +33 1 47410724
Key Person of the organisation
    M.me Ricord

A provider of health and/or social services whose main activities are information/advice and research. However they also carry out educational activities (begun less than 5 years ago) both for persons with disabilities and for professionals. These activities also involve independent living and coping better with disability, as well as looking at the role of AT.

The educational activities carried out over the past 5 years can be classified as follows:

  • 5 residential training courses, about which no additional information is available;
  • 1 seminar, in the form of topical workshops, without additional information;
  • 20 activities addressed to the individual, in the sole form of advice, exclusively addressed to adults with disabilities.

In these last initiatives, for which some information has been provided, the role played by AT is very important, but is confined to the issue of mobility.

TRAINING COURSES AND SEMINARS

Even if in the previous part no detailed information concerning the target and the contents of the training courses and seminars is available, a complete description of two kinds of topical workshops is contained in the third section of the questionnaire. The first is a repetition over the years of the same activity; the second varies in duration, but the modalities of organisation and implementation are probably the same, since the section has been filled in only once.
Title of the initiative
Typology
Year
Duration

(in hrs.)
Number partic.
Target
Number teachers
Le fauteuil roulant

(The wheelchair)

top. work.
1994
2
10
rehab. prof.
1
Le fauteuil roulant

(The wheelchair)

top. work.
1995
2
10
rehab. prof.
1
Le fauteuil roulant

(The wheelchair)

top. work.
1996
2
10
rehab. prof.
1
Le fauteuil roulant

(The wheelchair)

top. work.
1997
2
10
rehab. prof.
1
Le fauteuil roulant

(The wheelchair)

top. work.
1995
8
12
rehab. prof.
1

THE WHEELCHAIR

Selection

In this case the activity was requested by a group of doctors, and so no decision in the selection phase was necessary.

Organisation

The workshops, led by only one teacher, took place on the organisation's premises, in a space set up especially for that purpose. The only matter for close attention was the choice of the demonstration products.

Implementation

A fleet of 100 wheelchairs was used, and implementation involved hands-on sessions with presentation and demonstration of these products. The characteristics of the workshop were learning by doing, good presentation and a final group discussion. Neither personal information nor feedback was collected.

Further remarks

Experience over the years has shown the need to reduce the total number of participants to 10, so that the initiative's effectiveness may be increased.