Foundations of Assistive Technology: Week 2

1. Foundations of Assistive Technology: Week 2 Damian Gordonand divers hands

2. History of AT & AT OrganisationsCook and Hussey Chapter 1

3. Last Week

4. History of AT • When do you think AT originated ? • [ ] 1980s • [ ] 1970s • [ ] 1960s • [ ] 1950s • [ ] Before that

5. History of AT • When do you think AT originated ? • [ ] 1980s • [ ] 1970s • [ ] 1960s • [ ] 1950s • [X] Before that

7. History of AT • The previous slide is the stereotypical view of 'cave man' as a brainless brute surviving on instinct alone. The following is a painting by Charles R. Knight under the direction of the palaeontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn for the American Museum of Natural History in 1925, showing Cro-Magnon cave painters illustrating their homes.

9. History of AT • Since the first Stone Age person picked up a stick to help themselves walk after an injury, assistive technology has existed. • This would have been “High-Tech” AT at the time, since it was cutting edge in terms of design and fabricated from state-of-the-art materials. • There is little structural difference between the crutch that our Stone Age friend had and the modern-day cane and crutch.

10. History of AT • Generations after the first crutch another Stone Age person picked up an empty animal horn and discovered that it can amplify the voice, and that same person may have discovered that it also helps compensates for fading hearing. • There is a big structural difference between the horn that our Stone Age friend had and the modern-day hearing aid, but they are functionally equivalent.

11. History of AT • The earliest record of wheelchairs date back to the 6th century, and were found inscribed on a stone slate in China. • There is little structural difference between the those wheelchairs and the modern-day wheelchairs.

12. History of AT • During the US Civil War great strides were made in the development of prostheses, especially for the legs. • A socket was developed by Parmelee in 1863 that is still used in modern prostheses. • Although the original was made of wood and leather whereas its modern equivalent is made from metal and plastics.

13. History of AT • The development of the microprocessor and subsequent innovations have resulted in • synthesized speech, • robotic aids, and • computer graphics.

14. Acronyms and Abbreviations

15. Acronyms and Abbreviations • AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication

16. Acronyms and Abbreviations • AT: Assistive Technology

17. Acronyms and Abbreviations • IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1990

18. Acronyms and Abbreviations • IEP: Individual Education Programme

19. Acronyms and Abbreviations • OCR: Optical Character Recognition - a type of software used in scanners. Printed material, when scanned, is converted into text in a word processing programme.

20. Acronyms and Abbreviations • OT: Occupational Therapist or Therapy

21. Acronyms and Abbreviations • MPT: Matching Person and Technology

22. Acronyms and Abbreviations • SEN: Special Educational Needs

23. Acronyms and Abbreviations • VR: Voice Recognition

24. Irish Organisations

25. Department of Education and Science • http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/generalpolicy/generalpolicy.htm • Details of the IT2000 Report also a short list of reports on special needs.

26. National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) • http://www.ncte.ie/ • 23 School Integration Projects (SIPs) have been set up for special needs. These Projects were set up in Special Schools around the country as well as Learning Support in mainstream schools. Details of these Projects are on the NCTE website under the SIP under current projects.

27. SCOILNET.IE • http://scoilnet.ie • The Special Needs section provides information for teachers, parents and students on categories of SEN, ICT advise for students with specific, guidelines on how to evaluate software and some case studies of individual children with specific impairments and ICT solutions.

28. Irish Association for Teachers in Special Education (IATSE) • http://www.iatse.ie/ • IATSE is an association of and for teachers and educators of pupils with special educational needs in Ireland. It aims to spread knowledge among all teachers involved in special education and to promote and encourage research in this area.

29. Irish Learning Support Association (ILSA) • http://www.ilsa.ie • The ILSA is a teacher organisation to facilitate the continuos improvement to the service provided to children with learning disabilities, so that these children have the access to the professional expertise of Learning Support Teachers and other relevant services.

30. Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) • http://www.crc.ie • The Central Remedial Clinic is a non-residential national centre for the care, treatment and development of children and adults with physical disabilities. Services are provided for people with physical conditions ranging from the very rare to the more familiar, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and arthrogryposis.

31. Dyslexia Association of Ireland (DAI) • http://www.dyslexia.ie/ • The DAI is an organisation which promotes awareness of specific learning disability (dyslexia) and to serve the needs of people with this difficulty.

32. EnableIreland • http://www.enableireland.ie • Enable Ireland is the country's largest provider of services to people with physical disabilities and their families.

33. National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) • http://www.ncbi.ie • The council seeks to encourage the economic, social and intellectual independence of members through the provision of a range of services such a mobility, daily living skills, library services, telephony skills and rehabilitation training.

34. Muscular Dystrophy Ireland (MDI) • http://www.mdi.ie/ • MDI provides support to persons with neuromuscular conditions and their families through the provision of a range of support services.

35. USA Organisations

36. USA Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) • http://resna.org • RESNA is an organisation for those engaged in the research, development, and application of assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering. RESNA's purpose is to improve the potential of people with disabilities to achieve their goals through the use of technology. RESNA serves that purpose by promoting research, development, education, advocacy and provision of technology; and by supporting the people engaged in these activities. Run in conjunction with the University of Florida

37. USA AbleData • http://www.abledata.com/ • ABLEDATA is a federally funded project whose primary mission is to provide information on assistive technology and rehabilitation equipment available from domestic and international sources to consumers, organisations, professionals, and caregivers within the United States.

38. USA Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) • http://www.ataccess.org/ • The mission of the ATA is to increase the use of technology by children and adults with disabilities and functional limitations. ATA encourages and facilitates the empowerment of people with disabilities to participate fully in their communities. Through public education, information and referral, capacity building in community organisations, and advocacy/policy efforts, the ATA enables millions of people to live, learn, work, define their futures, and achieve their dreams.

39. USA Family Center on Technology & Disability • http://www.fctd.info/ • The Family Center on Technology and Disability (FCTD) is a resource designed to support organisations and programs that work with families of children and youth with disabilities. FCTD offer a range of information and services on the subject of assistive and instructional technologies.

40. Australian Organisations

41. Australia Australian Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission • http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/standards.html • The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 requires equal access on the WWW for people with a disability in employment, education, provision of services, banking, entertainment, public transport, activities of voluntary associations.

42. Australia Australian Rehabilitation & Assistive Technology Association • http://www.arata.org.au/ • Open to a wide range of people, including those who are working with or using assistive technology, as well as individuals who have a general interest in the use of assistive technology for people with disabilities. Australian equivalent of European AAATE.

43. European Organisations

44. Europe The Disability Intergroup • http://www.disabilityintergroup.eu/ • The representative organisation of persons with disabilities in Europe. The Disability Intergroup of the European Parliament is an informal grouping of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from all nationalities and most political groups who are interested in promoting the disability policy in their work at the European Parliament as well as in the national contexts.

45. Europe European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education • http://www.european-agency.org • This body aims to collect and process information and knowledge that is available in individual countries and make them available to other countries that may need them. The information is about special needs in 18 participating countries as well as innovative measures, research and development at the national and European levels.

46. Europe The European Disability Forum (EDF) • http://www.edf-feph.org/ • The European Disability Forum (EDF) is an independent European non-governmental organisation (ENGO) that represents the interests of 65 million disabled people in the European Union and stands for their rights. EDF is the only European platform of disabled people, which is run by disabled people or the families of disabled people unable to represent themselves.

47. Europe France - CRPF • http://www.cos-crpf.com/ • Centre de Readaptation Professionnelle et Fonctionnelle de Nanteau-sur-Lunain (CRPF) offers state of the art vocational training facilities to people at risk of exclusion, including people with disabilities.

48. Europe UK - British Educational and Communications agency (BECTa) • http://schools.becta.org.uk/index.php?catcode=ss_tl_inc_02&section=tl • The Inclusion and Special Needs Section of this web site investigates a series of issues on SEN and ICT in schools, research projects, information sheets on different areas of SEN and impairments. The site also has an extensive directory of organisations that can provide information to teachers, parents and students on the implementation of AT.

49. Europe Sweden - CERTEC • http://www.english.certec.lth.se/ • This is a division of Rehabilitation Engineering Research, Department of Design at Lund University, Sweden. It provides research and courses to contribute to improve opportunities for people with disabilities by developing more usable technical devices, new design concepts and new individual methods of learning and searching. A rich resource of case studies, research papers, publications and strong theories and methods behind the research.

50. Europe Belarus – Society of the Deaf • http://www.wfdeaf.org/members.aspx?l=B • Belarussian Society of the Deaf is a member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), an international, an international, non-governmental, central organization of national associations of the Deaf. WFD's large membership reaches across many continents and emphasizes removing barriers to communication and improving the situation of sign language.