Compare methods

	Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale	Wheelchair Skills Test
Field	Disability Studies	Disability Studies
Family	Latent structure	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2002	2002
Originator	Jeffrey Jutai & Hy Day	R. Lee Kirby and colleagues (Dalhousie University)
Type	Assistive-device psychosocial-impact measurement scale	Standardized wheelchair-skills performance assessment
Seminal source	Jutai, J., & Day, H. (2002). Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS). Technology and Disability, 14(3), 107-111.	Kirby, R. L., Dupuis, D. J., MacPhee, A. H., Coolen, A. L., Smith, C., Best, K. L., Newton, A. M., Mountain, A. D., MacLeod, D. A., & Bonaparte, J. P. (2004). The Wheelchair Skills Test (version 2.4): measurement properties. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 85(5), 794-804.
Aliases	PIADS, Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale, Assistive Device Psychosocial Impact Measure	WST, Wheelchair Skills Test, Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire, WST-Q
Related	3	3
Summary	The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale (PIADS) measures how an assistive device affects a user's quality of life, not whether they are satisfied with it or what it lets them physically do. Developed by Jeffrey Jutai and Hy Day, the 26-item self-report scale captures the device's perceived effect across three dimensions: competence (feelings of efficacy and usefulness), adaptability (willingness to try new things and take part), and self-esteem (emotional well-being and confidence). Each item is rated on a bipolar scale from a strong decrease to a strong increase, so the instrument registers whether a device improves, leaves unchanged, or harms the user's psychosocial functioning — a distinctively quality-of-life-oriented assistive-technology outcome.	The Wheelchair Skills Test (WST) is a standardized, objective assessment of how well a wheelchair user can perform a graded set of individual wheelchair skills, from basic maneuvers like rolling forward and turning to advanced ones like descending curbs and performing a stationary wheelie. Developed by R. Lee Kirby and colleagues at Dalhousie University and validated through a 2002 pilot and a 2004 measurement-properties study of version 2.4, the WST scores each skill for whether the user can perform it and how safely, then summarizes performance as a percentage of skills passed. It turns the diffuse notion of wheelchair mobility into a reliable, comparable, and trainable outcome.