ATS is a community of people whose primary purpose is to enhance the availability of assistive technology devices. The independence and quality of life of people with disabilities and others with functional limitations are greatly increased with the use of assistive technology. Availability of assistive technology is currently limited to those devices which can be purchased and those fabricated on a custom basis. The limited size of the market often creates a significant barrier to the commercialization and availability of assistive technology devices. New devices, technologies and techniques of using existing technologies are continually being developed through assistive technology service delivery providers and research and development projects and most importantly by people with disabilities and their families, most of which will never become available commercially and thus not available to many people who would benefit from them. However, the information about the devices, particularly the engineering information necessary to fabricate them, is available.
ATS creates an environment that fosters the innovation of new assistive technology. It archives and disseminates information, particularly engineering information and fabrication instructions sufficient to replicate assistive technology devices with local fabrication resources.
If you have an interest in assistive technology, as a person with a disability, a family member, a professional service provider, an inventor or just someone who wants to make the world a better place, please join the ATS community and contribute to making assistive technology more readily available and increasing the independence and quality of life of the people who use it.
ATS has been made possible by a Pilot Grant from the Center for the Translation of Engineering Advances and Technology (TREAT) and supported by NIH R24HD065703 from the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institutes of Health or the TREAT.
About Our Founder
Gerald “Jerry” Weisman, M.S.M.E., ATP, RET
Assisitive Technology Solutions (ATS) has been a long standing dream of Jerry Weisman. The ATS idea 
of providing engineering information and instructions to fabricate assistive technology devices locally predates the establishment of the Internet and has its genesis in the very successful Heath kits and the kinds of instructions found for woodworkers in magazines like Woodsmith.
Jerry has been a rehabilitation engineer since starting his first consultancy as a grad student at the University of Vermont. He is currently the owner and principal of Rehabilitation Technology Services, a rehabilitation engineering consulting firm and a Senior Engineer at TREAT. He was the Director of the Rehabilitation Engineering Technology Program at Vermont Technical College. Prior to VTC, Jerry was the Assistant Director of the NIDRR funded Vermont Rehabilitation Engineering Center for Low Back Pain at the University of Vermont. Jerry, who holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Vermont, has worked in the field of rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology for more than 37 years. He has extensive experience delivering rehabilitation engineering services, and performing research and teaching in the field. Previous positions have included Clinical Engineer at the Veterans’ Administration Prosthetics Center in New York, Director of Rehabilitation Engineering at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in New Hampshire. He was the founder and owner of one of the first private rehabilitation engineering firms in New England. He has published numerous articles on rehabilitation engineering, particularly as it applies to the workplace, on occupational low back pain and disability, and on rehabilitation technology service delivery. Jerry was named a Switzer Scholar in recognition of his work in the field of rehabilitation engineering in the workplace. He was the chairman of the Work Environment and Technology Sub-Committee of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.
Jerry has contributed significantly to the development of the field of rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology. He has been a member of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) since 1982 and is presently the Immediate Past President. Previously, he served in many positions of leadership including President, Secretary, a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, Chair of the Professional Specialty Groups and Chair of the Rehabilitation Engineering Professional Specialty Group. It has been in the latter position that Jerry contributed to the effort to establish credentialing for rehabilitation engineers and rehabilitation technologists as part of RESNA’s Quality Assurance and Credentialing effort.
Jerry contributed to the development of the Technology-Related Assistance for People with Disabilities Act (Tech Act). He testified before the congressional committee in support of the Act and in support of the need for rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology services. He was instrumental in writing the Vermont Assistive Technology Project proposal that was originally awarded a grant under the Tech Act and directed a sub-contract providing assistive technology services to Vermonters.