Who we are
AT Chat is an online peer-led community and service providing assistive technology (AT) information, support, and advice for people with disability and those who support them.
Our passion is helping you discover assistive technology (AT) that enhances your independence!
What we do
AT Chat’s mission is to increase the capability and confidence of people with disability to make assistive technology (AT) decisions through access to peer support and peer-led information.
Peer support is delivered through co-designed online platforms and services including Western Australia’s first dedicated AT Mentor service. AT Mentors are people with disability who are qualified AT advisors dedicated to helping their peers discover and purchase AT with their NDIS funding.
Individuals are further supported on their AT journey through connection to their peers through AT Chatterbox. A private Facebook community of over 1,300 highly engaged members which provides AT users from around the world with a safe online space to share information, lived experiences, and ideas about AT.
For those seeking further information and support, our AT Portal provides a library of co-developed videos and articles showcasing how their peers use AT to live, play, work. Individuals can also increase their AT knowledge by accessing peer-led modules on our e-Learning platform.
Our journey
AT Chat started as a group of AT users interested in exploring how best to work with the community of AT users in Australia.
We commenced our co-design processes in April 2017 by conducting a survey of how people with disability (PwD) in Western Australia like to access information about assistive technology.
In response to these findings AT Chat launched @atchatwithus on Facebook to host peer-led content and discussion about assistive technology. We also created AT Chatterbox which is a closed Facebook group for AT users to share information, experiences, and ideas around the topic of AT.
Peer Mentor Services
AT Chat has been co-designing the Peer Mentoring Program with the PwD community since 2018.
Through a co-design journey involving hundreds of people with disability and AT Chat’s research partner, Dr Natasha Layton (WHO, Monash Uni), we’ve created a unique assistive technology peer mentoring service as well as the AT Portal and e-learning modules. Our co-design ethos ensured the portal, and the peer mentoring service are a holistic, person-centred, AT decision-making support model that is based on three building blocks of evidence: co-design, a peer support model, and research.
The AT Portal is a free assistive technology hub designed to help people with disability across Australia store their AT information, get specialised peer support, and build their knowledge.
News