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Training in Assistive Products (TAP)

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WHO/Emma Tebbutt

Overview

WHO’s online Training in Assistive Products (TAP) is designed to prepare primary health and other personnel to fulfil an assistive technology role. This may include identifying people who may benefit from assistive technology; providing simple assistive products such as magnifiers and dressing aids; or referral for more complex products and other services. Appropriate to a broad range of contexts, TAP is targeted at primary health care and community workforce, as well as those providing services to people who need assistive products within other sectors.

TAP is a practical tool to support countries to respond to the recommendations in the Global Report on Assistive Technology.

Modules are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Georgian, Malayalam, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Ukrainian.

A brief introduction to TAP

Expanding the scope of personnel through TAP

Trained personnel are essential to effectively provide assistive products. Proper assessment, fitting, user training, and follow-up are vital; without these four key steps, assistive products are often of no benefit or abandoned, and may cause physical harm. In many contexts, however, there is a severe shortage of trained personnel to provide assistive products, or they are not accessible to the whole population. TAP supports existing primary health care and other community-level personnel to expand their scope of practice to safely and effectively provide a range of basic assistive products.

TAP content

TAP includes a range of assistive products to support cognition, communication, vision, hearing, self-care, and mobility from WHO’s Priority Assistive Products List. TAP has a modular structure; personnel may select the modules that match their role and the needs of the local population. For each assistive product, an introductory and product-specific module will together cover key learning content to support the acquisition of skills to safely and effectively provide that product, through a four-step process: select, fit, use and follow up.

TAP delivery

TAP is a flexible, modular training resource that can be tailored to support local health systems and training for assistive technology provision. This is achieved by blending online learning with clinical practice, supported by local mentors to build competencies for the referral and provision of assistive products:

Online learning on the TAP platform: self-paced modules that learners complete on their own or as a group; interactive elements and a discussion forum or local message groups;
Face-to-face learning: local mentors adding context and local knowledge such as referral pathways, interactive group work, and role-play practice;
Supervised practice, supported by local mentors until a learner is ready to practice independently.

TAP delivery requires service systems to be in place, including a supply of assistive products. The TAP platform includes supporting resources for managers and supervisors, to support the implementation into existing services.

To date, TAP has been implemented in 11 countries (Fiji, Ghana, Georgia, India, Iraq, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Ukraine) and more than 300 health personnel have been trained.

TAP in countries

Two men squatting to adjust the height of a walker that another man is holding in his hands

TAP in India

TAP was implemented and field-tested for the first time in India. Primary healthcare workers trained on mobility and vision modules, and provided feedback on TAP acceptability, feasibility and learning materials. The effectiveness of each module in facilitating skills uptake and TAP methodology were also evaluated, to inform further implementation.

Man wearing mask and headset in front of a computer.

TAP for COVID-19 response

In response to COVID-19, WHO worked with in-country partners in India, Iraq and Papua New Guinea between 2020 and 2022, to implement a project to strengthen local capacity for community-level assistive technology (AT) services, at the same time developing a model of remote-support to the in-country teams. The project addressed access and distance to services as a key issue highlighted by COVID-19 disruption. Central to the remote-support model was the use of TAP, including modules in vision, mobility and self care.

A woman sitting outside in a wheelchair talks with several female health personnel sitting and standing in front of her

TAP in Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, nurses and nurse assistants in primary health facilities were trained using TAP to screen their patients for vision, mobility and self-care needs and how to provide simple assistive products. With the support of national tertiary-level services, these primary health care personnel are now equipped to provide reading glasses, walking aids, toilet and shower chairs. They also have a better understanding of referral pathways and are able to refer on people who would benefit from tertiary level rehabilitation, vision or assistive technology services.

TAP in Fiji

TAP was used to train primary health workforce in Fiji, alongside new WHO rehabilitation training modules. This combined training was part of a pilot project to integrate assistive technology and rehabilitation into noncommunicable disease management within primary health care. The project focused on prevention and management of complications due to noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetic foot ulcers, as well as supporting improved independence, function, and quality of life for people living with noncommunicable diseases.

A young woman is seated on the floor doing up the strap of her knee ankle foot orthoses, a health worker is observing

TAP in Tajikistan

In response to the identified need to strengthen Tajikistan’s AT sector aligned with the Tajikistan National Programme on Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (2017–2020), WHO supported the government to pilot an initiative integrating AT into health services in Dushanbe and an adjoining district.