Adaptive and assistive technologies - Reflective Post #12

Assistive Technology

The knowledge base article on the University of Washington's website provides an overview of adaptive technology. The article defines adaptive (or, assistive) technology as, "hardware and software can facilitate computer access for people with disabilities," and was written with their students with disabilities in mind. The university wants to address the two major issues, "access to the computers...and access to electronic resources." In this case, electronic resources are anything that can be accessed on a computer such as websites through web browsers and computer applications. The article breaks down a list of special needs into the following categories; blindness, low vision, learning disabilities, speech and hearing impairments, and mobility impairments. Each section is broken down into three components that the university provides; input, output, and documentation. Input is referred to as a device(s) that an individual would use to interact with a computer. Output is referred to as the device(s) or medium in which the individual would receive information from the computer. Documentation is the instructions for these devices.

Assistive Technology: Tools that Help with Learning

The article on understood.org, discusses the assistive technology that can accommodate students with, "learning and attention issues," however the organization is concerned with finding the right solution for the student. The article defines assistive technology as, "any device, piece of equipment or system that helps a person with a disability work around his challenges so he can learn, communicate or simply function better." And by "any device" the tools can range from simple low-tech tools such as highlighters and organizers to high-tech tools like speech-to-text software.

After a brief introduction of assistive technology, the article gets interesting by introducing things such as the Individualized Education Program (IEP), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504. IEPs work hand-in-hand with IDEA which suggests that a child could receive a free education and that IDEA also states that, "the school district is responsible for choosing and purchasing the technology," and that they, "must train its staff and [the] child to use it." The article states that Section 504 is less clear but encourages schools that accommodations to be made for students with disabilities but also states that, "the school isn’t responsible for recommending, purchasing or training [the] child to use assistive technology."

Summary

Assistive technology plays an important role in society which also lends itself to the reoccurring theme of equitable access from past readings in this course. These technologies allow, or empower, people with a disabilities to use a computer application just as any other person may use them. The application, or website, should be developed in such a way to allow interaction with assistive technology. Schools, or any other organization for that matter, must make efforts to accommodate these individuals because legal action could take place.

My experiences with assistive technology is extremely limited. However, in the trainings I provide when creating content for The University of Findlay's website, I make the effort to point out examples where viewers with disabilities may run into issues. For example, photographs uploaded to webpages should include alt tags for visually impaired viewers.