THE LIVES of people who have a disability are often vastly improved by the adaptations and changes that can be made in their environment.
In the Information Age it is not surprising to find that computers and other technologies are at the heart of a lot of the resources available. The term ‘assistive technology’ has come to describe the combination of computer hardware, software and other modified equipment that has developed to meet the almost infinite range of needs faced by disabled people.
However simple or complex the resources used, assistive technology is as important to someone who relies on it as spectacles are to those who use them. To be suddenly without the support it gives could be upsetting, even devastating.
Unfortunately, even when adaptations are easy and cheap to implement, they are not always made available or used because most people lack the knowledge and experience of this specialised area.
Assistive technologists An increasing number of disabled people, and the professionals who work with them, are now aware that specialised resources are available. A small number of people have gained expertise in devising, assessing the need for and in setting up assistive technology. These people, who we call assistive technologists, come from a wide variety of backgrounds – and not all of them are technicians or engineers!
Some, perhaps, will be speech and language therapists who started by working with communication aids for children or adults who have no speech or who have speech and language difficulties. Occupational therapists will have worked with people who have physical disabilities and who need devices positioned differently for their use.
Faced with the need for a different kind of activity, the occupational therapist may have tried using a computer and devised an adapted programme for their patient to follow.
Teachers who have tackled access to the curriculum will have used computers widely over the past 20 years and benefited from the kick-start given to developments in the 1980s.
Many of them now advise and devise for children and adults at home as well as in learning. Psychologists, especially those from an educational background, will be working with all ages of people to enable their participation in all aspects of life.
At present there are no universal qualifications for assistive technologists, although there are now some post-graduate courses at enlightened universities. The British Computer Society (BCS) is looking at how more assistive technologists can attain Chartered Information Technology Practitioner (CITP) status on the basis of their work in assistive technology. This project will aim to complement and extend the validity of courses and degree-level qualifications already under way and to draw on the very practical and wide-ranging experience that assistive technologists bring to their work.
Real-life problems
Some assistive technology solutions can be as simple as changing the height or angle of a piece of equipment or the colour of the background on the monitor screen. Others may require carefully configured software and specially adapted hardware.
Over years, the range of solutions has changed, expanded, become more flexible, more easily programmed and more responsive to individual needs, but always it has become more effective in how it helps the client. At the same time that some resources have fallen dramatically in price others have remained at the same level. What is a common feature is that resources have been developed and adapted to meet a real need. Stories of the ‘accidental’ discovery of how an existing resource can be ‘re-purposed’ are many and varied, each an inspiring example of lateral thinking.
Learning disabilities The patience of computers which have been well programmed is valuable for people who have learning disabilities because they will often need to work at their own, often slower, pace and to have materials and information presented many times using a variety of modes.
The intensity of interaction possible through using carefully designed software can provide the motivation to succeed, and can often present aspects of life which the learner might not meet otherwise. Modifying the access available in ‘ordinary’ software is a positive way of ensuring that people who have learning disabilities are not excluded from the activities their peers take for granted.
Physical disabilities
People who have physical disabilities may need modified or specially designed input or positioning devices, such as roller balls or joysticks, to replace the mouse; extra-large keyboards to give bigger targets and key guards to stop; multiple key presses, touch screens and interactive white boards for direct input; switches to bypass the keyboard; overlay keyboards that use images instead of words; and even eye gaze for those who cannot move their arms or head.
Watching a predictive typing program guessing what word is being typed after only a few key presses is amazing.
Specialised software can replace the keyboard with simple switches, yet still produce written work indistinguishable from any other word processing. By using a printer, sending email or with synthetic speech can mean that people can communicate with other people, even in different languages, when this would have been nearly impossible without the technology.