A proposal for improvement of the public support system about new communication aids with IT&UD

In Japan, many of the major assistive devices for persons with disabilities have been provided by the public support system. The systems are "Daily living equipment" and "Prosthetic appliance". Communication aids (CA) for persons with disabilities also speech and language, have been provided by these systems, too. There are two input methods for CA. One is direct input method as keyboard typing (as Daily living equipment). Another method is selecting to auto-scan cursor on screen keyboard with single switch (Japanese scanning CA (JS-CA) as prosthetic appliance). In order to select the method, it is depends on the evaluation of residual function of the upper limb (hands/fingers). But, recent CA is not limited to a single function. PC-based equipment multifunctional has been the mainstream. Therefore, the Rehabilitation society of JAPAN (RESJA) has created the appropriate guideline of selecting JS-CA. [1] However, under the current system, there is opinion that PC is not match the definition of assistive devices, because PC is a general-purpose or universal design product. Therefore, we propose the construction of a new system based the social model in current situation (living needs assessment) not only the medical model (physical function evaluation). [2].