WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?
British Assistive Technology Association define AT as:
“...any product or service that maintains or improves the ability of individuals with disabilities or
impairments to communicate, learn and live independent, fulfilling and productive lives”
http://www.bataonline.org/further-assistive-technology-definition
WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?
Could take the form of computer software
• Text-to-speech (ClaroRead or TextHelp)
• Speech-to-text (Dragon)
• Visual planning / mindmapping (Inspiration)
• Research tools (e.g. ClaroCapture or Mendeley)
• Screen reading software
Or hardware/equipment:
• Ergonomics
• Page-turning devices
• Hearing aids
WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?
Could take the form of computer software
• Text-to-speech (ClaroRead or TextHelp)
• Speech-to-text (Dragon)
• Visual planning / mindmapping (Inspiration)
• Research tools (e.g. ClaroCapture or Mendeley)
• Screen reading software
Or hardware/equipment:
• Ergonomics
• Page-turning devices
• Hearing aids
And:
Sonny the
Guide Dog
THE ASSISTIVE TECH CHALLENGE!
Can I show you three strategies with three ‘Assistive’
Technology packages in three minutes each?
CURRENT MODELS OF AT PROVISION
Disabled Students’ Allowances
On-site at HEIs
•
Great once you get it
•
Free of charge
•
Can take up to three months (or six)
•
•
Provides needs-assessed software
free of charge on a new or existing
computer/laptop
Training provided through
workshops/drop-ins/1:1 tutorials
but resource for 1:1 is limited
•
Offers the flexibility of ‘little and
often’ but is often a one-person
band
•
‘Specialist’ AT training delivered by
vendors or training company,
increasingly this is done via remote
desktop.
•
Usually delivered in up to 6 x 2 hour
blocks, over up to six weeks at the
start of a student’s course / DSA
receipt
WHAT WAS AND WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Considering its usefulness, low uptake / high resistance?
Teaching why, not what
 Students adding images and other media themselves in my previous
workshop
Labelling theory
 “This technology is for disabled people”
 “I am not ‘disabled,’ I’m just…”
 Feeling ?unworthy of additional support
Definition of disability is vague/precise, according to the need of the definer
Fixed versus growth mindset
The outsourcing of vulnerability to ‘the disabled’ rather than acknowledging
differences in every individual
• Then does it become the responsibility of the disabled person to bear the
weight of the vulnerability of the non-disabled?
SO WHAT DO WE DO TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT WITH AT?
Disability as non-binary
 At what point does a non-disabled person become disabled?
 At what point does a disabled person become non-disabled?
 In what world does a non-disabled person never experience a single
difficulty?
SO WHAT DO WE DO TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT WITH AT?
•
•
Embracing shame / removing shame from using technology
Embracing shame/ removing shame from disability
• ¡Contradiction klaxon!
• Perhaps we are too keen to steer away from a deficit model and towards a development model…in
doing so are we taking away some power from the voice of people with disabilities?
• E.g…. Is it meaningful to say “Don’t worry, you’re not bad at writing essays, you just
need to work on your understanding the question, gaining automaticity in breaking
down the stages of research and writing, vocabulary, clarity, coherence, referencing, research
process…”
• Are we at risk of intellectualising and by proxy dispossessing the reality of someone’s difficulty?
• By making ‘developmental’ assumptions of ability (“just work on your skills”), are we infantilising
students with disabilities / all students?
REBRANDING ‘ASSISTIVE’ TECHNOLOGY
• Can you think of any different terms for ‘Assistive’
Technology?
REBRANDING ‘ASSISTIVE’ TECHNOLOGY
• Rebranding ‘Assistive’ Technology
 Learning technology?
 Study tools?
 Tool kits?
REBRANDING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
•
•
•
“Technology that means you can get stuff done quicker, better, and (potentially) in a
potentially and marginally less painstaking manner”
“Thinking on paper”  Thinking on screen
Some resistance to this (including my own)
SO WHAT CAN ‘NON-ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGISTS’ DO
ABOUT IT?
...on an individual level?
...on an institutional level?
...on a political/social/economic level?
INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
• Role modelling an approach that acknowledges the vulnerability we all
experience
• E.g. appropriate self-disclosure
• Embracing ‘shame’ and therefore ‘de-shaming’
• Connecting up with AT provision in your institution
• Promoting Digital Accessibility to colleagues
INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL
• Does your institution have an Assistive Technologist?
• Are there more creative ways to embed AT provision throughout your institution?
• Make use of Birkbeck For All
• FREE and Open Source
• ‘Pick and mix’ advice
• Making accessible learning resources
• Contact me! [email protected]
www.bbk.ac.uk/birkbeck-for-all
CONCLUSION
•
Rather than thinking of a dichotomy between a deficit model and a development model…
Deficit model
•
•
•
Developmental model
Is it possible to create an entirely new perspective that honours and respects the disabling aspects of a
person’s disability whilst also honouring the disabling aspects of a person’s environment…
In psychotherapy, we might call this the ‘analytic third’
• I.e. not ‘just’ what the client brings (‘transference’),
• not ‘just’ how the therapist responds (‘countertransference’)
• But rather some entirely new creation in the space in the middle.
It is never just some of column A (individual’s disability) and column B (environment) but the dynamic
interaction between the individual’s disability and the environment i.e. Column C
BIRKBECK FOR ALL