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Our history

ARATA began as a Committee in 1993 during the first Australian Conference on Technology for People with Disabilities, hosted by the Regency Park Centre in Adelaide. Towards the end of the conference, in a brainstorming session on service delivery, participants supported the formation of a Committee to set up a national association, based on a model similar to RESNA in America.

The original Committee, which became known as the Committee for Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology (CRAT), comprised a Working Group of three people in Sydney and nine Advisors from around Australia. The Advisor's role as a sounding board ensured a broad perspective, essential in achieving the goal of a national association.

ARATA received incorporation status on 24 November 1994. The first Board consisted of five members whose primary task was to put in place the necessary procedure to call for members and to organise elections in the lead up to the first full Board being appointed at the AGM in October 1995.