assistiivinen

Assistiivinen is an adjective used in Finnish to describe anything related to assistance or to assistive technology and services that enable people with disabilities or functional impairments to participate more fully in daily life. In Finnish discourse, the term is often used as a broad umbrella for devices, environments, and practices that compensate for or reduce activity limitations.

The scope includes assistive devices such as mobility aids, prostheses, hearing aids, and augmentative and alternative communication tools, as well as digital technologies such as screen readers, speech synthesis, and adaptive input devices. It also covers services like assessment, training, and support to use these tools effectively, and environmental adaptations in homes, schools, and workplaces.

Purpose: increase independence, safety, accessibility, and social participation; support inclusion in education, work, and community life. Implementation typically involves professionals such as occupational therapists, rehabilitation specialists, and accessibility consultants, and decisions are guided by user needs, usability, and interoperability with other systems.

In policy and design, assistiivinen approaches align with universal design and accessible information principles, and are influenced by national healthcare and social welfare provisions for assistive devices. Standards such as international classifications of assistive technology are used to categorize devices and services.

See also: assistive technology, universal design, accessibility, rehabilitation.