Task Descriptions and Assistive Technologies

This page covers two areas. One is task descriptions. These are the jobs that a personal assistant might do for you. Your self-assessment will help you to decide what services you need. From that you can use the Task Checklist tool to help you create your own list of tasks for your PAs.

The second area covered is assistive technologies. These are tools that help you or your PA to do certain tasks. They could be tools that contribute in other ways to your independence.

Job task descriptions

Tasks fall into two broad categories: non-personal and personal duties. You may need several of these tasks plus some that are not listed. Or you might only need help with some of these tasks.

Non-Personal Tasks

Household examples

Washing, drying, ironing, mending clothes; shopping, errands
Sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the oven, defrosting the refrigerator, Washing inside of windows
Gardening

Nutrition

Cooking/meal preparation
Planning meals, special diets
Preparing food, clean up after meals.

Miscellaneous

Communication
Childcare (not babysitting)
Banking, paying bills
Care for service animals and pets
Paperwork, writing letters;
Driving to appointments and activities and possibly other tasks.

Personal Care Tasks

Personal care tasks usually are those that involve physical contact with you.

Feeding

Feeding if you cannot feed yourself
Helping with tasks such as cutting food, buttering bread.

Grooming

Bathing
Face and body care
Hair care
Dental care
Dressing and undressing
Help with tying shoes, buttoning

Health and Hygiene

Toileting, bladder care, bowel care
Skin care, wound care
Medications, respiration

Mobility

Range of motion exercises
Positioning
Transfers and lifts
Driving and escorting
Getting in and out of bed

Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies are tools that help a person do a physical task. These can be very simple "low tech" items or highly sophisticated "high tech" items. New technologies are always emerging. Here are some examples in each category.

Mobility

Wheelchairs, canes, walkers, scooters
Lifting mechanisms for the home
Lifts on cars and public vehicles
Computer controls that do not need finger movement
Software that uses speech commands, devices that respond to speech, Rubber stamp signatures.

Seeing

Specialized eyeglasses, magnifiers
Systems that convert text to speech, Braille and other tactile forms of receiving or recording information
Cassette players, books on tape, screen reader or voice output for a computer

Hearing

Telephones that work with hearing aids; teletypewriters (TTY), by which users send and receive text messages over phone lines
Visual signaling for fire alarms
Captioning of video, closed captioned TV programs
Sound amplification systems, telephone amplifiers
Sign language interpreter

Learning and remembering

Portable systems that organize personal information and gives prompts by means of lists, graphs, and word or communication boards
Grammar-checking and word-completion software
Wandering detector

Smell/Touch

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
Furniture with extra padding to protect the skin.

Speech

Speech synthesizers that convert typed input into speech.

Assistive Devices

Assistive devices also can be considered assistive technology. The following items are arranged by areas of use. These items are different from those listed above. Some are for comfort and health. Others allow you to do certain tasks independently.

Bedroom

Special cushions and mattress pads: foam or egg crate, air filled, fluid or gel filled, water bed, low air loss mattress, alternating pressure mattress
Portable commode chair for bedside toileting, toilet or portable commode
Transfer board for independent or assisted transfer from bed to wheelchair
Mechanical or electric lift chair for help getting up from a chair

Bathroom

Raised toilet seat to assist a person who has difficulty getting up or down, toilet frame - fits over the toilet and provides supports on either side for getting up or down
Grab bars for tub and shower
Safety mat and strips to prevent slipping
Bath bench for someone who has difficulty sitting down or getting up from bottom of tub

Eating Aids

Swivel spoons for those with trouble with wrist movement
Cylindrical foam that enlarges gripping surfaces so utensils can be lifted more easily
Plate guards or high-sided dishes that make it easier to scoop food onto a spoon
Food warming dishes for slow eaters
Mugs with two handles, covers, spouts and suction bases

Dressing Aids

Button hooks that make buttoning clothes easy, dressing sticks that make it possible to dress without bending
Shoe horns that are long enough to eliminate the need to bend over when putting on shoes
Sock aids that keep stockings open while they are being put on

Devices for Summoning Help

Touch-tone phones with speed dials
Medical security response systems
Beeper for the caregiver

Go to Person Description Next

Home > Using This Site