My Active Life Program Evaluation
About My Active Life
My Active Life (MAL) is a government-funded initiative managed by TAD Australia/Solve Disability Solutions Inc. This national program is developing open-source, bespoke solutions that improve autonomy, access and enable participation in other areas of sport and recreation in communities across Australia.
Our team partnered with TAD/SOLVE Australia to conduct a 2 year evaluation of the My Active Life program, specifically:
- Freedom Wheels Custom Bicycles. The Freedom Wheels service is delivered by seven TAD organisations across Australia. The aim of this service is to provide modified or customised bicycles to children and adults with disabilities at low cost. Services are delivered by allied health therapists, volunteers and staff.
- Custom Assistive Technology Solutions. TAD organisations across Australia provide a customised AT service where assistive technology is custom made or modified to meet the unique needs of an individual user. Services are delivered by allied health therapists, volunteers and staff.
We worked closely with a Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) to undertake this work. The research comprised a longitudinal survey of MAL service user outcomes, combined with in-depth interviews exploring the experiences of assistive technology users and local recreation providers who are connected with the MAL program.
Please view our reports and project resources on this page.
Inclusive Research
We are pleased to share our co-designed research protocols and tools with other teams conducting Assistive Technology research.
You can learn more about our participatory research process and insights in this short report: Impact of and Factors Supporting Collaboration and Participatory Design.
Please see our Doing Inclusive Research page and Guidelines for Inclusive Research for more information about our inclusive research strategies.
You can also learn about our co-designed participant consent process on this page.
For more information, please contact our team via [email protected].
Meet the Project Team
DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
Ms Valerie Watchorn and Dr Kate Anderson – Principle Investigators
Dr Danielle Hitch, Dr Joanne Watson, Mr Pearse Fay, Ms Sally Logan – Associate Investigators
Mr Dion Williams – Project Manager and Research Assistant
Ms Stephanie Sorraghan – Research Student
Mr Jerry Lai – eResearch Consultant
TAD/ SOLVE AUSTRALIA
Therese O’Beirne and Glenn LeBeau – External Project Managers
Lived Experience Advisory Group – Members of this team guide the My Active Life program implementation and are co-researchers on the evaluation project. Drawing on their lived experience of using assistive technology, they consult on the design of our research methods and materials, assist with data analysis, and are co-author our team’s research publications and knowledge translation materials.
Project Funding
This research has been commissioned by TAD/SOLVE Australia, within the My Active Life – Recreational Participation and Freedom Wheels Regional Development program. The MAL program and its associated research is funded by the 2020Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Economic and Community Participation Program Grant Round.