Who is AT Chat

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 AT Discover.  

Our journey

Joey Harrall is seated in his power wheelchair beside the water
A woman is smiling as she walks along a footpath using her colourful walking stick. Her rollator is on the footpath behind her.

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.


The result overwhelmingly favoured an online interactive platform led by fellow AT users, with video being the preferred medium for content.  

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. 

 

A little boy works with a woman on an AAC device.

In August 2018, AT Chat conducted Think Tank sessions with the community to explore assistive technology peer mentoring. The community was overwhelmingly supportive of the creation of an AT Chat Peer Mentoring Program. AT Chat has been co-designing the Peer Mentoring Program ever since and launched the first pilot in March 2020.

These sessions would then pave the way for the long-awaited AT Portal, Navigation program, and e-learning modules. The Portal is a free assistive technology hub designed to help PwD across Australia store their AT information, get specialised peer support, and build their knowledge. 

The co-design journey of the AT Portal and Navigator service (Now AT Mentor Service) began more than three years ago and involved hundreds of PwD and AT Chat’s research partner Dr Natasha Layton (WHO, Monash Uni.) AT Chat’s co-design ethos ensured the portal, and the Navigator 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.

AT Chat - Powered by iLA

iLA logo

Established in January 2020, iLA (formerly known as Independent Living Assessment) has a focus to support people through assessment, navigation, and sector capacity-building initiatives. Our services support people with disability, older people, carers, health professionals, and the aged care sector.

AT Chat is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services through an Information, Linkages, and Capacity Building Grant. 

Visit the iLA website here.

 

A younger support worker supports an older woman in her home and they both smile.