Assistive Technology Assessments Sydney
The right piece of equipment gives someone part of their day back. The wrong one ends up in a cupboard, with the funding spent and the need still there. Which of the two happens is decided at assessment, not at purchase. We assess, trial and prescribe assistive technology in homes across Sydney.
Funding buys the item. Assessment decides whether it works.
Assistive technology is any equipment or device that lets somebody do a task their disability otherwise prevents: from a shower chair to a power wheelchair to a sensor that turns the lights on before the 2am walk to the bathroom.
Funders scale their evidence requirements with the cost and risk of the item. Simple, low-risk equipment can often be purchased with little formality. Complex or higher-cost items, the ones that change lives when they fit and waste thousands when they do not, generally need an assessment from a qualified professional, usually an occupational therapist, before funding is considered.
That assessment is not paperwork for its own sake. Equipment that is prescribed without proper assessment gets abandoned: the wheelchair that does not fit the hallway, the scooter that cannot be transferred onto, the bed that suits the condition but not the bedroom. Abandoned equipment is the most expensive kind, because the money is gone and the task still is not happening.
So we assess where the equipment will live: your home, your doorways, your bathroom, your car, your day. What we prescribe has been reasoned, and wherever possible trialled, against all of it.
The equipment questions we answer
Framed as the task each piece of equipment has to give back, because that is how a funder reads a request.
Why AT requests get knocked back, and why funded AT gets abandoned
Two different failures with the same root cause: the item was chosen before the need was defined.
- The request names a product, not a functionA quote for a specific model, with no statement of what task it restores or why this item over alternatives. The funder cannot assess “reasonable and necessary” against a catalogue number.
- No trial, or a trial in the wrong placeTen minutes in a showroom proves the equipment works in a showroom. Whether the wheelchair turns in this kitchen, or the hoist fits under this bed, is only knowable where the equipment will actually live.
- The environment was never measuredDoorways, turning circles, floor surfaces, vehicle boot dimensions. Equipment returned as unusable almost always failed a measurement nobody took.
- The people around the equipment were forgottenA hoist a carer cannot operate safely, a bed a partner cannot share, a power chair with nowhere to charge. Equipment lives in a household, and the assessment has to include it.
- Progression was not planned forFor changing conditions, equipment that fits today’s function and nothing beyond it can be outgrown before it is delivered. The reasoning has to say what was considered about the trajectory.
- Training and follow-up were left outComplex equipment used wrongly is a new risk, not a solution. A request that ignores setup, training and review reads as incomplete, because it is.
The spec sheet versus the hallway
Everything on a specification sheet is true. It is just not sufficient. This is why we trial in the home.
None of these failures are visible in a clinic or a catalogue. All of them are visible in an afternoon at the person’s home, which is where we do the work.
The full method, including the evidence standard every recommendation is written to, is on our assessment methodology page.
The three levers, and where equipment genuinely wins
Assistive technology is one of three ways to close the gap between a person and a task, and the report is stronger when it shows all three were weighed.
Change the task
Sometimes the task can be restructured so no equipment is needed at all: a seated technique, a re-sequenced routine, a different time of day. Where that works, we say so, and the request gets smaller and more credible.
Change the environment
Equipment is the portable half of this lever; home modification is the built half. Part of every AT assessment is deciding which half the need belongs to, because a $400 rail sometimes beats a $4,000 device, and sometimes the reverse.
Build the capacity
Equipment should extend function, not quietly replace it. Where therapy or practice could restore the task, the report says whether equipment is a bridge or a destination, and what review point would tell the difference.
This is also where independence matters. We do not sell equipment and we take nothing from suppliers, so the recommendation has no reason to be bigger, newer or more expensive than the need it serves. A funder can read our reports knowing the only interest behind them is the person’s function.
From referral to equipment that gets used
Define the task before the item
We start from what is not happening: the shower not managed, the shops not reached, the night not safe. Referrals that arrive as a product name get translated back into a function first, because that is what any funder will assess.
Assess the person in their environment
Function, strength, balance, cognition and how the person actually performs the task now, in the home, with the doorways, floors, vehicle and people the equipment has to work around measured while we are there.
Shortlist against the whole picture
Options are shortlisted against function, environment, the people who assist, maintenance realities and, for progressive conditions, where function is heading, not just where it is today.
Trial where the equipment will live
For significant items we arrange trials in the home wherever practicable, because an hour with the real equipment in the real hallway answers questions no specification can. Trial findings go into the report as evidence.
Prescribe, justify, and quote independently
The report sets out the recommendation and its clinical reasoning, with supplier quotes obtained on the specification we wrote, not the other way around. Delivery is usually within 2 to 3 weeks of the final visit.
Set up, train, review
Once funded and delivered, we can configure the equipment, train the person and their supporters, and review after a settling-in period, which is where small adjustments rescue big investments.
What the AT report gives the funder
How progression-aware prescription works
The situation
A man in his fifties living with motor neurone disease is finding transfers from bed increasingly unsafe. His wife assists, and both have had near-falls in the past month. Their GP has suggested “a hoist and a hospital bed”, his support coordinator has a supplier brochure, and the couple are overwhelmed by options and by what the equipment seems to say about where things are heading.
What we would do
Assess at home, in the bedroom the equipment must fit: his current transfer method and what is failing in it, his wife’s capacity and technique, the room’s dimensions and floor surface, and the rest of the day’s transfers while we are there, because the bed is rarely the only one. Because MND progresses, we would assess against the trajectory, not just the current picture, and talk plainly with the couple about equipment that fits both. Where trials are practicable, we would arrange them in the room itself.
What the report would set out
The transfer risk as observed, for both of them; the recommended bed and transfer equipment with the reasoning, including why equipment sized only for today’s function was rejected; the configuration that lets the couple keep sharing the room, which matters and is routinely ignored; training for his wife in the equipment’s use; and a named review point tied to functional change rather than a date. The consequence section would state what continuing without the equipment means: an injury to either of them ends the current care arrangement entirely.
Why a funder could rely on it
Because the recommendation is anchored to an observed transfer in the actual room, the alternatives and the progression question are addressed before anyone asks, and every element, from the equipment choice to the review trigger, traces to something seen or measured rather than asserted.
When you do not need us, and what we hand to others
How assistive technology gets paid for
For NDIS participants, funders generally scale evidence with the cost and complexity of the item: simpler equipment may be purchased flexibly from existing funding, while higher-cost or configured items usually require written assessment and quotes before a decision. We take referrals funded through the NDIS (plan-managed and self-managed), Home Care Packages, CHSP, Medicare (GP referral) and privately.
The assessment itself is charged at the NDIS occupational therapy rate of $193.99 per hour for 2026-27, with expected hours quoted before we start. Whether a specific item is funded is always the funder’s decision against its own criteria, and AT funding rules and thresholds change: treat anything you read, here or anywhere, as a starting point, and confirm the current position with your planner, package provider or support coordinator. Our guide to what evidence AT funding needs covers the detail.
Assistive technology guides
Plain-English guides for participants, families and support coordinators.
AT assessments across Greater Sydney
We are a mobile team: assessment and trial happen where the equipment will actually be used.
AT assessments: your questions
When does equipment need an OT assessment, and when can I just buy it?
Why does the trial happen at home rather than in a showroom?
Do you sell equipment or get commissions from suppliers?
What if my condition is progressing?
Can you help after the equipment arrives?
Will the NDIS fund the equipment you recommend?
Do you assess AT for older people outside the NDIS?
What does an AT assessment cost, and how long does it take?
Refer for an assistive technology assessment
Send a referral or an enquiry below, or call 1300 316 664. If an AT request has already been knocked back, send us what was submitted and we will tell you honestly what is missing.
Equipment that earns its place in the house
Talk to our mobile OT team about an assistive technology assessment anywhere in Greater Sydney. We assess and trial where the equipment will actually live.
Make a referral or call 1300 316 664