Limited awareness of disability (e.g., limitations in everyday functioning) is common clinical problem in persons with a variety of diagnoses, including stroke, dementia, mental retardation, and mental disorders. Evaluation of the client’s awareness of his/her disabilities in conjunction with his or her actual ability can therefore be important to consider, in order to target the interventions to appropriate client-centered areas and goals in a top-down approach. Such evaluation should be based on a systematic comparison between observable limitations in daily life task performance and self-described limitations in such performance.

The Assessment of Awareness of Disability (AAD) is a new and innovative approach to evaluating awareness of disability, developed by Kerstin Tham and Anders Kottorp, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. The AAD is an assessment based on a semi-structured interview, which is used in conjunction with the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS). Since the AMPS is a performance evaluation that allows the client to perform culturally and personally relevant and meaningful tasks, the AAD also takes into consideration these aspects in evaluation of awareness of limitation of performance.

The AAD was developed to be used by occupational therapists with a client-centered and top-down approach in intervention planning. The AAD can, in conjunction with the AMPS, be used to identify areas in occupational performance the client is more or less aware of, and give important information for selecting, planning and implementing different intervention strategies. The AAD may also be used for measuring improvements in awareness of disability over time.

For more information:
AAD Project
Anders Kottorp, PhD, LegOT
Karolinska Institutet
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society
Division of Occupational Therapy
+46 08 52 48 38 28
+46 70 365 67 01
anders.kottorp@ki.se