Glossary

General WEP terminology

Advanced-level posture support needs: Children and adults who use wheelchairs, with complex, fixed postural deviations. Depending on the deviation, these users may need modifications or postural supports added to an appropriate manual wheelchair or may need a postural-support wheelchair.

Appropriate wheelchair: One that meets the user needs, provides fit and postural, is available and reparable in the context at an affordable cost, and it is durable.

Basic wheelchair service: Service of wheelchair provision for children and adults who can sit upright without additional postural support. 

Basic-level posture support needs: Children and adults who use wheelchairs, and who can sit upright and balanced without any postural deviations or tendencies. They use manual wheelchairs with an appropriate seat depth, seat width, backrest height, armrests and footrests. They do not need modifications or additional postural supports.

Educator: An individual affiliated to an academic training program or regional training center who leads the planning and implementation of a course.

Integration snapshot: A document created by an educator that briefly illustrates and describes their program or training center experience integrating wheelchair education.

Intermediate-level posture support needs: Children and adults who use wheelchairs, with mild to moderate postural deviations and tendencies and who need additional support to sit upright or balanced. These users need modifications or postural supports added to an appropriate manual wheelchair or may need a postural support wheelchair. 

Open-access resources: Materials that have been made available to the general public, free of charge.

Regional training center: A program of education specific to wheelchair service provision offered through institutions or organizations outside of the academic context, normally in areas where academic programs are not available, including but not limited to health care institutions (e.g., hospitals, rehabilitation centres) and non-governmental organizations (e.g., ADR Dominican Republic). 

Wheelchair: A device providing wheeled mobility and seating support for a person who has difficulty in walking or moving around.

WHO 8 steps for wheelchair provision: User-centered service approach that wheelchair service personnel need to carry out to provide an appropriate wheelchair:

1. Referral and Appointment: a person with a mobility impairment who may require a wheelchair is identified and referred to a wheelchair service. The wheelchair service schedules an appointment for the person to be assessed.
2. Assessment: the person’s individual and contextual requirements are assessed through a user center and culturally appropriate manner.
3. Prescription: an appropriate wheelchair and cushion are prescribed according to the requirements identified in Step 3 and with the person
4. Funding and ordering: the funding process and ordering for the new wheelchair is put in place
5. Product preparation: the new wheelchair and cushion are prepared before handed to the person
6. Fitting: the wheelchair provider ensures that the new wheelchair and cushion match the person’s needs
7. User training: the person receives training on how to handle, use, and maintain the wheelchair to maximize independence.
8. Follow up, maintenance, and repair services: the person receives follow up and maintenance and repair services are performed to the wheelchair.

The following terms are from the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

1. Body Functions: physiological functions of body systems (including psychological functions). 
2. Body Structures: anatomical parts of the body such as organs, limbs and their components. 
3. Impairments: problems in body function or structure such as a significant deviation or loss. 
4. Activity: the execution of a task or action by an individual. Participation is involvement in a life situation. 
5. Activity Limitations: difficulties an individual may have in executing activities. 
6. Participation Restrictions: problems an individual may experience in involvement in life situations. 
7. Environmental Factors: physical, social and attitudinal environment in which people live and conduct their lives.

The following terms are from the Advocating portion of the WEP

Academic training program: A university or college program leading to a degree in occupational therapy, physical therapy or prosthetics and orthotics, which may also offer a Continuing Education Program in these fields. 

Advocacy: def 1: to actively support, defend, promote, and recommend the integration of wheelchair service education into professional rehabilitation academic programs and regional training centers as a sustainable appropriate wheelchair workforce development strategy. def 2: “Raising awareness of the need for wheelchair service provision education into the professional rehabilitation curricula for approval of wheelchair-specific course”.

Advocate: 2n individual who promotes the integration of wheelchair education in academic programs or/and regional training centers. An advocate could be an educator, a community leader, a student, a clinician, a practicum placement coordinator, and many more. 

The following terms are from the Planning and Teaching portion of the WEP

Andragogy: Methods and principles used in adult education.

Learning modality:  The strategy selected by an educator to deliver class content; it can be face-to-face, blended, and online learning.

Pedagogy: Can be defined generically as the “science and art of teaching”. 

Pedagogical framework: Conceptual overview that can help educators select specific teaching methods and strategies; the awareness of a range of frameworks can promote productive experimentation and diversity of skill set.  

Student’s evaluation method: The strategy selected by an educator to evaluate the students’ knowledge or skills.

The following terms are from the WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework

1. Learning Objectives: “Assessable units of learning which, in aggregate, reflect the attainment of a behaviour or task.”
2. Behaviour: “Observable conduct towards other people or activities that expresses a competency. Behaviours are durable, trainable and measurable”.
3. Competency: “The observable ability of a person, integrating knowledge, skills, and attitudes in their performance of tasks. Competencies are durable, trainable and, through the expression of behaviours, measurable”.
4. Knowledge: “The informational base of competencies and activities”.
5. Skills: “A specific cognitive or motor ability that is typically developed through training and practice”.
6. Task: “Observable units of work as part of an activity, which draw on knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. Tasks are time-limited, trainable and measurable”.
7. Activity: “An area of work that encompasses groups of related tasks. Activities are time limited, trainable and, through the performance of tasks, measurable”. 

The following terms are from the Evaluating portion of the WEP

1. Clinical impact: The impact a course or program has on the students’ experience or performance in a real clinical setting
2. Course-level assessment: Evaluation of change implementation on student competency within a course.
3. Logic model framework: Is a graphic depiction (road map) that presents the shared relationships among the resources, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact for your program. It depicts the relationship between your program’s activities and its intended effects. It is a tool to assist with developing and implementing programs.
4. Program-level assessment: Evaluation of change implementation on the competencies of the students graduating from the program
5. Sustainability: The characteristic of a course that allows it to be effective, efficient and of high quality over time. Involves long-term planning that incorporates the resources required (time, financial, knowledge/expertise of those delivering, equipment, etc.) to continue delivery in the future. Sustainability requires both continuing to be able to deliver the changes as well as having the resources/processes in place to revisit and institute further changes/improvements in the future as the evidence changes

• Effective: Successful in producing a desired or intended result
• Efficient: Is the ability to optimize resources such as materials, energy, efforts, money, and time

[1] WHO. Guidelines on the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs in Less Resourced Settings. 2008

[2] WHO. Wheelchair Service Training Package - Basic level. 2012

[3] Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Advocacy working group

[4] https://libguides.cmich.edu/web_research/oa

[5] Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Advocacy working group

[6] WHO. Wheelchair Service Training Package - Basic level. 2012

[7] WHO. Wheelchair Service Training Package - Basic level. 2012

[8] The WHO Guidelines on the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs define an appropriate wheelchair is one that meets the user needs, provides fit and postural, is available and reparable in the context at an affordable cost, and it is durable.

[9] International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). 2001

[10] Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Advocacy working group

[11] Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Advocacy working group

[12] Karen Fung, Taavy Miller, Paula W. Rushton, Mary Goldberg, Maria L. Toro, Nicky Seymour, Jonathan Pearlman & The International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (2019): Integration of wheelchair service provision education: current situation, facilitators and barriers for academic rehabilitation programs worldwide, Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology

[13] Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Advocacy working group

[14] Oxford Language dictionary.

[15] WHO, eLearning for undergraduate health professional education: a systematic review informing a radical transformation of health workforce development. 2015

[16]https://www.cmich.edu/office_provost/CIS/Pages/Explore%20Teaching%20and%20Learning/Exploring%20Instructional%20Methods/Theoretical-Frameworks-for-Teaching.aspx

[17] WHO Rehabilitation Competency Framework. 2021

[18] https://www.bloomstaxonomy.net

[19]  Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Implementation & Improvement working group

[20]  Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Implementation & Improvement working group

[21] https://www.cdc.gov/eval/logicmodels/index.htm

[22]  Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Implementation & Improvement working group

[23]  Developed by the Wheelchair Educator’s Package Implementation & Improvement working group