Professional Development - Education
General Education
General educational requirements and identification of core competencies are specific to the individual disciplines.
AT disciplines include providers who directly assist an individual with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an AT device (e. g. health care clinicians, educators, counselors, suppliers, technologists, engineers), manufacturers of devices, researchers (who apply the results of scientific inquiry to develop new products and knowledge) and environmental resources (e. g. national and state entities addressing AT services, systems and policies).
Professional development to support competence as a provider of AT includes education to obtain knowledge, training for skill development and learning opportunities situated in practice. Professional development includes attainment of the knowledge and skills required for the provision of AT tasks and process skills to improve organizational performance.
Resources for professional development on AT devices and services are available at Conferences, Tradeshows and online. Locations and dates are posted in the Calendar.
Additional training opportunities are available from Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) and Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers (RRTC).
Consumer education is critical to assure awareness of the AT devices, services, and resources available to meet their needs.
Post-secondary education programs span curriculum for healthcare, education, engineering, and counseling among others. University programs offer assistive technology education as part of core curricula or as electives to these curricula. The student is awarded an associate, bachelor, master, doctoral, nursing, medical or other degree upon graduation. University programs also offer assistive technology certificates, requiring completion of requisite coursework.
RESNA is in the process of developing Training Modules for general educational use.The RESNA store currently offers publications in various areas of AT practice.
Certification
Certification is defined as a process in which an individual, an institution, or an educational program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards [1]. RESNA offers three certifications and defines certification of a service provider, in any field, as "the process by which a non-governmental agency or association validates an individual’s qualifications and knowledge in a defined functional or clinical area. Candidates for certification typically must meet specific requirements to be eligible for certification and those declared eligible must pass an examination."
Find out more about RESNA Certification.
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