Introduction to assistive technology

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Introduction to assistive technology

• Jeremy Ali
• Assistive Technology Officer, ISA
• x4920
• alij2_at_aston.ac.uk

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Assistive technologyIcebreaker

• Form into pairs.
• Within the pair decide who is A and who is B.
• All the A's get the document entitled Icebreaker
  - Handout A
• and a blank sheet of paper.
• All the Bs get a blank sheet of paper.
• The key rules are
• NO-ONE CAN SPEAK. "A" keeps his/her handout sheet
  out of view from B.
• EVERYONE USES THEIR "NON-DOMINANT HAND" (i.e.
  right handed people use their left hand etc)
• A can only DRAW to communicate and B can only
  write to communicate.

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Assistive technologyData gathering (!)

• Who is interested in
• Vikings
• Cats
• Led Zeppelin
• Note these figures

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Assistive technologyOverview of session

• Introduction
• Types of needs
• Types of AT
• Demonstration and hands-on
• Accessible learning materials
• Questions and comments

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Assistive technologyWhat and why?

• What is it?
• - A definition
• Assistive technologies are devices or software
  used by some people with disabilities to access
  computers, paperwork and other information. Some
  assistive technologies include text-to-speech
  screen readers, alternative keyboards and mice,
  head pointing devices, voice recognition
  software, and screen magnification software.

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Assistive technologyWhat and why?

• Why do it?
• Moral it is the right thing to do
• Legal we have to do it
• Economic more students will come

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Assistive technologyLegislation

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)
• Defines disability
• Outlaws discrimination in employment
• Outlaws discrimination in service provision
• It did not include education at that stage

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Assistive technologyLegislation

• SENDA 2001
• Became Part 4 of the DDA
• Covers all services to students
• Institution is responsible for accessibility
• Institution is also responsible for ensuring that
  any products or services it procures are
  accessible

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Assistive technologyLegislation

• Definition of disability
• A person has a disability for the purposes of
  this Act if he has a physical or mental
  impairment which has a substantial and long-term
  adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal
  day-to-day activities.
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995

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Assistive technologyNeeds

• Overview of (some) needs
• Visual impairment
• Learning disability
• Dexterity
• Hearing impairment

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Assistive technologyTypes of AT

• Overview of (some) types of AT available
• screen reader
• screen magnifier
• trackerball
• text prediction

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Assistive technologyBraille display taken from
Wikipedia
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Assistive technologyBraille embosser taken
from Section 508
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Assistive technologyDemonstration

• Demonstration
• Supernova
• textHELP Read Write
• alternative input devices
• video magnifier

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Assistive technologyAccessibility

• Accessible learning materials
• correct markup
• alt text
• link text
• subtitles
• colour
• use of language
• testing tools
• fonts!

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Assistive technologyAccessibility exercise

• Adobe Reader
• 2 files intro-test1.pdf intro-test2.pdf
• View -gt Read out loud -gt This page only

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Assistive technologyAccessibility exercise

• In Excel create a simple bar graph of who likes
  Vikings, cats and Led Zeppelin
• Paste that graph into a Word document
• Above the graph give a heading for the document,
  Assistive Technology with a lower level
  heading, Who likes what
• Give the graph some appropriate alt text
• Save it

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Assistive technologyNearly finished

• Questions and comments

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Assistive technologyHELP!

• Sources of help
• Jeremy Ali, Assistive Technology Officer, ISA
• atsupport_at_aston.ac.uk x4920
• Disabilities Additional Needs Unit
• danu_at_aston.ac.uk x4711
• AbilityNet
• www.abilitynet.org.uk
• TechDis
• www.techdis.ac.uk