Forging a new future: a call for integrating people with disabilities into rehabilitation engineering

With a large portion of the population having a disability or being elderly, there is a need for more studies of assistive technology and for encouraging people to pursue careers in rehabilitation engineering. Despite the advances of the 1970s and 1980s, people with disabilities are far from fully integrated into society. Professionals need to be sensitive to issues important to the person with a disability, and to the communities in which they live. The primary issue of concern to persons with disabilities is access; access to gainful employment, access to training, access to promotion, access to health care, access to assistive technology, access to recreation, access to socialization, and most importantly, access to dignity. The challenge to society is to open the doors and permit persons with disabilities to maximize their potential.