RESNA brings tech focus to ISS

ARLINGTON, Va. – RESNA, for the first time, has its own track of 10 sessions at the upcoming International Seating Symposium. 

“The purpose is to talk about the convergence of technologies,” said Andrea Van Hook, executive director of RESNA. “We know ATPs who are working in seating and mobility today need to know more than seating and mobility.”  

ISS, organized and hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, is scheduled to take place Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. 

Sessions in the track address everything from how to train caregivers to use available technology to what “basics” ATPs need to know about alternative and augmentative communications to how seating and mobility interplay with smart home devices.  

“In the power wheelchair world, anything you do in terms of repositioning someone can affect their access to their communication device and their smart home device,” Van Hook said. “It can be a problem.” 

In addition to technology, the track addresses ethics, an area of focus for RESNA this year. 

“Ethics is always important and is the bedrock of the ATP program,” Van Hook said. “But what we’re finding is, as ATPs are retiring and we’re losing that first generation of ATPs who developed our code of conduct and practice guidelines, we need reinforcement, because they’re not on the job anymore telling new ATPs, ‘No, you can’t do it that way.’” 

The RESNA track at ISS has been in the works going back to 2019, but because the conference has been rescheduled a number of times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will make its debut in 2022. 

“We’ve always wanted to do this,” Van Hook said. “So, we pulled together a subcommittee, recruited presenters and submitted, and they got chosen.”