Establishment of resource portal of assistive technology in Taiwan.

PURPOSE

To establish an Assistive Technology (AT) resource portal for users, professionals and policy-makers in Taiwan to provide a new and versatile information network for AT popularization.

METHOD

The Centre for AT Resources and Popularization (CATR@P), integrated the resources primarily from five AT Resource Centres of the Ministry of Interior in Taiwan. CATR@P invited representatives of organizations for people with disabilities, AT specialists and policy-makers to join the task force. A web company was responsible for website software design and collaboration with CATR@P, which included planning portal functions, all user-friendly interfaces and pilot testing.

RESULTS

The Resource Portal of AT was officially online in October 2006. The portal was structured with 19 main functions and the contents of this new portal are versatile and multifunctional. It contains vast amounts of national and international resources such as archives of AT centres, AT products, a professionals directory, websites linkage, full text of the AT Companion Journal, E-paper, on-line consultation services, frequently asked questions, and on-line questionnaires.

CONCLUSIONS

Integration of Taiwan AT resources in conjunction with the internet technology has made resources more available for people with disabilities and society.