A collaborative, team-based approach to wheelchair prescription is essential across all clinical contexts, and is particularly critical in paediatric care, where decision-making involves multiple stakeholders, including caregivers, therapists, educators, and medical providers. Funding limitations often necessitate that a single mobility device addresses a child’s diverse postural and functional needs across home, school, and community environments. While acknowledging the broader role of 24-hour postural management — including sitting, standing, and lying — this presentation focuses specifically on optimising manual wheelchairs as mobility devices that support maximal independence.

In practice, the need for one device to meet many demands frequently results in manual wheelchairs being equipped with numerous “necessary” and “just-in-case” components, particularly within seating systems. The associated increase in weight can significantly compromise a child’s ability to self-propel, limiting opportunities for independent or emerging manual mobility. Effective wheelchair prescription extends beyond appropriate selection, fit, and configuration. Intentional component choices — often beyond standard or “no-charge” options — may be the critical factor distinguishing dependence from independence and may facilitate the development of emerging manual mobility skills.

Health care and equipment providers must prioritise the goals and priorities of both the child and caregivers through clear, client-centred recommendations. Transparent discussions regarding available options, functional benefits, funding constraints, and potential out-of-pocket costs are essential.Drawing on evidence from adult manual mobility clinical practice guidelines and paediatric case examples, this presentation will examine how targeted upgrades to castors, rear wheels, tyres, and handrims can meaningfully enhance self-propulsion efficiency and support greater participation in daily activities.

In community practice, many clients spend prolonged periods seated in standard lounge chairs or basic recliners that do not align with their postural needs, pressure risk, functional goals, or home environment. Clinicians therefore work alongside clients and families to design seating solutions that function effectively in real homes, accommodating space constraints, variable flooring, thresholds, heat, cleaning demands, pets, caregiver capability, and individual preferences.

This session presents an evidence-informed clinical decision framework for prescribing and optimising alternative indoor seating in real home contexts. Participants will follow a structured pathway including referral indicators, assessment and measurement, trial and configuration, education and training, review scheduling, and escalation criteria. The framework is anchored to six core clinical domains: postural management, pressure management, comfort and tolerance, independence and function, including powered features, safety and transfer mechanics, and wellbeing and participation.

Discussion will also explore common clinical trade-offs — posture versus engagement, pressure relief versus function, and feature complexity versus sustainable daily use — to strengthen decision-making in complex presentations. Through case studies, participants will examine how intentional configuration decisions can increase sitting tolerance, reduce skin risk, improve transfer safety, support daily activities, minimise caregiver burden, and enhance participation.

Attendees will leave with structured documentation language, outcome measures, and practical strategies to optimise seating within real home environments.

This session explores a core area of posture management: standing. We will demonstrate how clinicians can intentionally design new possibilities for children through thoughtful assessment, configuration, and evidence-based decision-making. The process begins by clearly defining the child’s goals: What new opportunities, participation outcomes, or functional gains should this equipment enable? The Canadian Practice Process Framework (CPPF), used alongside the ICF, will serve as the guiding structure for clinical reasoning, helping clinicians consider the child’s activity demands and daily environments across home, school, and the wider community.

Through case studies illustrating different concepts of standing aids, the session will demonstrate how standing can be configured to support meaningful activity, promote participation, and reduce environmental barriers. This section concludes with reflection on implications for clinical practice and approaches to outcome measurement. A key focus will be the new Schuchmann dynamic standing frame trixi. This product expands what is possible in standing training. Beyond posture and alignment, trixi encourages clinicians to consider a child’s sensory experience, motivation, and engagement.

Evidence on the clinical relevance of dynamic standing and its impact on gait will be presented, alongside the accompanying app that enhances both clinical decision-making and playful interaction. A final case study demonstrates how dynamic standing can be used to intentionally design meaningful possibilities and outcomes for children.

What we want for our clients is to promote participation, inclusion and access in every area of their lives. For our paediatric clients, this also includes the need to support these children to “just be kids”. Every child loves to play, but not every child can do so independently. Adapted trikes and bikes can be the answer for these children, making therapy “fun” and turning “fun” into therapeutic gross motor gains, with a side dash of equitable participation and inclusion, as well as reducing sedentary behaviours.

A lesser-known activity that is gaining popularity and is now to be included as a serious para-athletic discipline is frame running. The premise is to provide similar benefits to trike riding, but firmly concentrated on participation — getting moving without being overly concerned with making it look “pretty”. Cycling as an intervention has been well researched to document its positive effects, providing clinicians and families with the assurance that cycling has an evidence-informed place in rehabilitation and developmental programmes. Frame running is joining this group as an activity of choice for children and adults to experience what they would otherwise not have access to — the joy of running.

Today, we will take a look at that evidence base from the framework of the F Words — Fitness, Functioning, Friends, Family, Fun and, most importantly, the Future — considering the implications for both musculoskeletal benefits and a young person’s whole wellbeing. Moving onto the practicalities of choice of device, suitable set-up, fit, and support level, you will be empowered to assist even the most physically challenged child.

These devices are amazing pieces of assistive technology that can open the door to childhood fun. So, come and explore the world of recreational assistive technology and see how all children can truly “just be kids”, because “play” should not be optional!

Strong seated movement — often driven by factors such as pain, limited communication, reflexive patterns, or sensory-seeking behaviour — can lead to repeated equipment breakage and reduced participation. This presentation reviews current evidence showing that dynamic seating can reduce shear, pain, injury risk, and hardware damage while improving alignment and engagement. A case to show application is included, and questions will be welcome.

By anticipating and safely channelling unavoidable forces, clinicians can create durable, responsive seating systems that support functional opportunity and long-term participation.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify three clinical indicators that signify where the use of dynamic seating might be helpful.
2. Explain the “Principle of Resistance” and how the physics of force absorption reduces peak force transfer to both the user and the equipment.
3. Identify opportunities for increased participation that arise when a user’s energy is no longer spent “fighting” a static seating system.

Seating prescription in moderate to complex presentations is rarely a single decision. Clinicians must respond to competing priorities that shift across the day and over time, including postural stability, pressure management, transfers, fatigue, comfort, participation, and the realities of the care environment. This session aligns with the Designing Possibility theme by exploring how personalised prescription moves beyond standard chair selection toward an intentional and adaptable design process.

Using the MultiAdjust Advance as a live clinical example, the presentation will examine how thoughtful configuration can support changing needs and enable more responsive, individualised outcomes. Through live chair set-up and interactive discussion, attendees will explore how configuration decisions can be guided by assessment findings and functional goals. Features such as flip-away laterals, a flip-down pommel, lateral head supports, and AutoTilt will be considered as purposeful design decisions rather than add-ons — supporting midline orientation, improving access, assisting transfers, and enabling regular repositioning.

The session will focus on clinical reasoning, trade-offs, and the importance of matching seating solutions to the individual’s presentation, routines, support requirements, and likely progression. By demonstrating how a single seating system can be intentionally configured to address changing needs, this session highlights how personalised prescription can expand possibility for the user while improving service efficiency and clinical confidence.

Attendees will leave with practical, transferable insights to strengthen assessment, justification, and prescription of alternate indoor seating in real-world practice.

In this session we will explore how design and engineering can and does have an impact on function and participation. As a therapist, understanding the key differences and how designs may differ between models can at times be difficult. In this session we will look at what is under the shroud of a Powered Wheelchair and the difference these components have on users and their ability to achieve their goals and ultimately live their lives to the fullest. 

Explore the Madita Fun with a focus on pelvic positioning and its role in supporting active participation.This session examines user selection, configuration considerations, and how pelvic support influences stability, function, and engagement.Learn practical scripting strategies for matching the Madita Fun to users requiring movement, accessibility, and structured support.

Our bodies are designed to be upright, to interact, to bear weight, and most especially to experience the joy of movement. Gait with a purpose, assisted with equipment when required, and independence where possible. As paediatric therapists, we also acknowledge the importance of “on-time” mobility interventions to provide optimal gross motor development and functional skill acquisition.

For those clients with complex disabilities, this can be difficult to achieve, with multiple factors contributing to successful gait training outcomes. However, making the best decisions in choosing the most appropriate equipment means considering a child’s physical and social development, postural support, and mobility needs.

It is, however, a changing world of advancements in standard assistive gait equipment and now assistive devices that employ the use of robotics. The latest addition to the options available in Australia, Trexo, with its combination of both traditional gait trainer use and exoskeleton robotic assistance, is one such example.

In this session, we will:

1. Review the “why” of supported gait.
2. Identify key strategies to improve functional walking skills through the application of motor learning concepts.
3. Review client presentations and standard gait trainer choice, scripting and progressions.
4. Explore how robotics can assist gait and many other measurable parameters, the emerging evidence base for its use, including present case study applications, opening the discussion on the place of robotics in therapeutic assistive gait programmes.

This course focuses on a foundational wheelchair skill and the complexity of manual wheelchair propulsion. Participants will explore a range of propulsion techniques, including variations of arm and foot propulsion, and hybrid methods that incorporate both upper and lower limb engagement. Additionally, strategies for effective dependent propulsion will be examined, ensuring caregivers and clients can optimise support while minimising risk of injury and maximising independence.

A key component of the course is optimal positioning, which plays a crucial role in maximising propulsion efficiency, reducing the risk of repetitive strain injuries, and promoting long-term musculoskeletal health. Participants will learn how to prescribe and adjust frame and seating configurations to enhance stability, maximise energy transfer, and ensure optimal positioning. Special attention will be given to the impact of posture, pressure distribution, and individualised seating solutions on propulsion biomechanics.

Beyond positioning, the course will provide an in-depth look at wheelchair features that influence propulsion mechanics. Topics will include frame design, rear wheel placement, and component selection. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of how these factors contribute to mobility efficiency, user independence, and injury prevention.

Additionally, this course will cover how to teach different propulsion styles, ensuring that clinicians and caregivers can effectively instruct wheelchair users on safe, efficient techniques tailored to their abilities and goals. Through case studies and real-world applications, attendees will refine their ability to match propulsion techniques with the user’s functional abilities, lifestyle, and mobility goals.

Age-appropriate adaptive standing enables positioning for participation and health from the early years of development throughout childhood. As an essential intervention for specific diagnoses, standing assures musculoskeletal health and social participation. This presentation establishes standing as physical activity, examines positioning for postural control, and explains how hip abduction positioning translates to contracture management.

This course will provide examples of how active participation in the sit-to-stand transfer can be achieved and explores how the clinician can create opportunities for social engagement through participation in adaptive standing. Evidence-based information is provided to justify the intervention of adaptive standing in the early years for physical development, health, and biopsychosocial outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe measures of physical activity achieved with adaptive standing.
2. Discuss common skeletal asymmetries and recognise specific postural management considerations, including hip abduction positioning.
3. Name outcomes associated with improved trunk control and improved sit-to-stand independence.
4. Identify key elements of positioning in standing to enable social participation.

Paediatric tilt-in-space wheelchairs play a critical role in supporting children with complex mobility and postural needs.This presentation explores the unique challenges of working with growing children, including changing body structures, developmental variability, and evolving clinical requirements.

It examines the clinical indications for prescribing tilt-in-space, such as pressure management, postural control, and functional participation, while addressing common barriers including cost, transport, usability, and growth. The session also outlines seating strategies for complex disabilities and highlights key design, engineering, and material considerations. Emphasis is placed on achieving optimal outcomes by balancing the needs of the child, caregivers, and environment through thoughtful wheelchair set-up and design.

For 30 years, manual wheelchair propulsion has been the subject of hundreds of scientific studies. However, a critical area of risk has been largely overlooked: braking. Despite its known link to upper limb injury, braking in manual wheelchairs remains mostly under-researched.
The DREEFT® clinical study changes that, delivering a real-world evaluation of dynamic braking and its impact on safety, performance, and long-term user satisfaction.

The study is centred on DREEFT® by Eppur, a breakthrough wheelset with an integrated, hub-based braking mechanism. By eliminating hand friction by 100% and reducing upper limb strain, DREEFT® redefines how users control speed and direction.

The study revealed significant gains in satisfaction, performance, and confidence, and led to the full coverage of DREEFT® by France’s National Health Insurance System. The DREEFT® study marks a pivotal shift in understanding and users’ approach to dynamic braking in manual chairs.

Posture is not a fixed set-up, but a time-based performance under load. Yet postural management is often approached through static, single-orientation interventions, overlooking how risk accumulates across lying, sitting, and standing throughout the day.

This presentation explores an evolving clinical approach that simplifies complex postural assessment into a structured decision-making process. Using case-based reasoning, clinicians analyse their client’s time spent in asymmetrical and high-risk positions across orientations, then intentionally weight intervention based on clinical goals, functional priorities, and exposure to injury risk and postural deterioration.

The SPINE framework, used as a decision-making matrix — Story and Situation, Postural Drivers, Injury Risk and Protection, Necessary Function, and Evolution — supports a more holistic assessment and strengthens goal-aligned, outcome-measured, and adaptable clinical decisions. This decision-making process extends beyond the wheelchair, guiding how support is introduced across orientations to optimise function, pressure care, comfort, and long-term health.

By considering posture across the full 24-hour day, clinicians can plan for change over time rather than a single point-in-time solution. This future-focused approach enables clinicians to move beyond static prescription toward integrated 24-hour postural care, building participation, reducing deterioration, and creating sustainable, transferable clinical outcomes.

This session walks through the steps of translating postural assessment findings into a functional seating and mobility prescription for our more complex clients. When that typical textbook wheelchair solution is not possible, we must have a Plan B. We’ll investigate how to develop and determine appropriate compromises. During this case study-based session, we’ll provide practical tips and ideas during the decision-making process, ultimately preparing you for a successful equipment trial with the supplier and the client.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe and analyse three common postural asymmetries and provide possible postural supports to either reduce or accommodate this posture.
2. Participants will be able to match two client criteria/goals to the most appropriate seating support strategy.
3. Participants will be able to provide clinical rationale and evidence to support postural intervention.

As power wheelchairs advance, clinicians face a growing challenge: understanding not just what a chair can do, but how well it performs in the real world. Two power wheelchairs may both offer tilt, recline, or an anterior reach function — but how often do clinicians look beyond the feature itself and compare the underlying specifications to inform their clinical reasoning?
This session shines a light on the often-overlooked specifications that truly influence function. Through case examples, we’ll unpack which variables matter most, how to interpret them clinically, and how to ask the right questions during assessment.

You’ll leave with a clear framework for evaluating power seating systems and power wheelchairs — not by brand or marketing claims, but by the specifications that directly impact your client’s goals and outcomes. Join us to strengthen your clinical reasoning and discover the “invisible variables” that can make or break complex mobility prescription.

Learning Objectives:

1. Articulate the difference between a feature and a specification, and explain why this distinction matters for clinical decision-making.
2. Use practical strategies to compare specifications across different wheelchair models and apply this information to match equipment recommendations to your client’s goals.

Safe motor vehicle transport is a critical yet complex area of practice for occupational therapists and physiotherapists supporting people with disabilities and medical conditions.

This presentation explores how MACA’s whole-of-system model is delivering measurable improvements across assessment, clinical confidence, and access to appropriate restraint solutions.

Drawing on recent national research, it highlights increased assessment and review practices, reduced barriers, and improved use of evidence-based resources.

The session will connect these practice changes to broader system reform, including national road rule and standards reviews, and evolving regulatory frameworks.

It will also reflect MACA’s expansion from children to adults, and what this means for clinical roles.

Attendees will gain practical insight into navigating and influencing a rapidly changing system to improve safe and meaningful participation outcomes.

Dynamic sitting posture control can be quite challenging for some children with neurodevelopmental disorders, as their capability to fluctuate and manage their centre of gravity within their base of support is minimised by factors such as incorrect muscle recruitment, muscle tightness, and a lack of correct motor planning development.

This course will examine some of the root causes of poor sitting balance and postural control in these children, to help the clinician use adaptive seating as a therapeutic tool to facilitate improved gross motor performance in children with cerebral palsy. These therapeutic approaches can then be used to encourage active sitting, improve participation in school, community and home settings, and reduce caregiver stress.

Session Objectives:

1. Summarise postural challenges that result from atypical neurodevelopment.
2. Identify therapeutic benefits that result from adaptive seating positioning.
3. Recognise functional outcomes associated with adaptive seating use.

Power mobility users with complex movement profiles may experience fatigue, tone, asymmetry, pain, or progressive change that makes standard joystick driving unreliable. While clinicians may recognise that an alternate control is required, the bigger challenge is translating assessment findings into a set-up that is safe, efficient, and adaptable across real environments.

The first half of this session will cover the clinical theory underpinning alternate control prescription, including assessment workflow, observation and trial strategies, positioning priorities, and key considerations such as endurance, range, consistency, error tolerance, minimising inadvertent activation, and planning for progression. Case studies and real-life examples will show how assessment findings translate into scripting and configuration choices that shape performance, including sensitivity and acceleration tuning, mode selection and changes, seating functions, and access integration.

We will then shift into a hands-on component where clinicians can trial different alternate controls and experience how adjustments impact effort, accuracy, and driveability. Clinicians will see how intentional scripting can improve driving consistency, reduce cognitive load, support safer community mobility, increase confidence for users and teams, and enable more reliable access to essential functions and connected technology.

This 60-minute session includes Q&A and small-group practice.

Clinicians will trial several alternate control set-ups, compare performance and effort, and practise key adjustments using guided prompts. Takeaways focus on a practical decision-making workflow linking presentation and goals to control selection and scripting, with transferable strategies for tailoring set-ups to function, environment, and change over time.

The NDIS is undergoing significant shifts, with new rules, funding structures and planning approaches changing how supports are defined, delivered and funded. For clinicians and suppliers, these changes are already impacting everyday practice, from what can be funded under Section 10, to how funding periods under Section 33 influence service delivery, and the emerging role of Support Needs Assessments in shaping participant budgets.

This session will break down the key changes and explore what they mean in real-world practice. Through practical examples and case scenarios, participants will examine how these shifts are influencing assessment, documentation, service agreements and decision-making.
The session will encourage audience interaction and discussion, supporting attendees to reflect on their own experiences and adapt their approach in a rapidly evolving system. Attendees will leave with clearer insight into current changes and practical strategies to navigate them with confidence.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the key changes to the NDIS framework, including Section 10, NDIS supports; Section 33, funding periods; and emerging Support Needs Assessments, and how these influence funding decisions.
2. Analyse how recent changes are impacting real-world practice, including service delivery timing, assistive technology recommendations, and risk of non-payment.
3. Apply practical strategies to align assessment, documentation and service agreements with current NDIS requirements using case-based examples.
4. Evaluate common clinical and operational scenarios to determine appropriate approaches within the evolving NDIS environment, including identifying risks and opportunities.