Assistive Technology and Support - Report Example

Assistive Technology and Support Author Author’s Affiliation Date Assistive Technology and Support Assistive Technology is an umbrella term that refers to equipment made specifically for disable individuals. Assistive technology includes all the assistive and rehabilitation devices that increase the independence and at the same time help people with disabilities to perform activities and tasks which are impractical to perform. Assistive Technology is helping the disable children all around world who suffer from physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments. Assistive technology plays a very important role in schools to help children in learning disabilities. Assistive Technology in Education The definition of assistive technology applied to education is a highly broad term that states of encompassing "any item, piece of equipment, or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (Behrmann, 1998). The potential of assistive technologies in helping disable children especially in school activities is very high. Learning disabilities can be helped with assistive technology as it cannot be cured. With assistive technologies, a child in school can learn to write, spell, read, memorize and do mathematics. The scientific devices that are used for disable children help them in maintaining and improving the functional difficulties that they face in learning, reading and writing but at the same time emphasis is also on improving the social and daily activities that help in increasing the interaction among people. A large range of assistive technology devices are present to help children with disabilities at school. These devices can be high tech or low tech depending on the purpose of use. High tech complex devices include computers, electronic equipment, or software. Low-tech devices are manually, not electronically, operated. The devices included in this group are as simple as pencil grips, mouth sticks, high lighters, color coding flies and mechanical hoists. Assistive technologies usually refer to electronic devices and computer hardware and software programs. But, now days an assistive technology tools for a disabled child can also be found on the internet that can be easily used in school. The list of tools mentioned below is a selection of Assistive Technologies that can be used in mainstream schools to support students with disability (Stanberry & Raskind, 2009). The Disabled Child’s Right To Live Every human being has a right to life, regardless of any particular circumstance that they may be faced with, including disability. But there have been several unfortunate cases in the world where disabled children have been deprived of this right. The horrendous case of Baby P, who was savagely treated with physical abuse and ultimately succumbed to brutal treatment, is an example of an extremely gross example of stealing the right of a human being to choose to live. While it is true that disabled children need extra care and special facilities must be established for them to live as conveniently as possible, their physical predicament is hardly a choice (CRAE, 2011). They may be challenged owing to having dysfunctional legs or arms, or lack other normal physical faculties, but if a positive spin in shed and efforts are made to surmount disabilities, then one can provide much joy to those who aren’t physically as blessed as others (Children's Rights Alliance for England, 2011). Universal human rights bodies have put in place several requirements to safeguard the rights of disabled children to live, be loved, and provided with opportunities to participate in life. Sadly though, these requirements are not always adhered to, and many disabled children are stolen of the privileges that have been officially granted to them. In order to better appreciate the above, it may be worthwhile to consider the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Children. This convention is applicable to all children who are aged less than 17. Divided into 54 distinct articles, this convention affords children the right to several social, economic, cultural, civil, and political issues (Jack Doyle, 2010). Considerable emphasis has also been laid on how governments should make these rights public and put them into practice. The United Kingdom endorsed the United Nations Convention on the Rights on the Child on December 16 1991. Through ratifying the components of this convention, the United Kingdom government is obligated to ensure that all children are given the rights that are stated in the treaty. The only exception is for those parts of the treaty on which the government has officially entered a special reservation. Depriving a disabled child of the right to live and partake in the experiences of life would be blatantly negating this statement, which the United Kingdom government itself has endorsed without any reservation (UNICEF, 2011). Assistive Support Technologies Following are some of the assistance technology support programs designed for such disable children: Abbreviation Expanders This software program is used with word processing. It creates abbreviations for words that are frequently used by the user. These abbreviations are also stored for reusing purpose. This tool is helpful for children at school with learning disability as it ensures proper spelling and phrases. Alternative Keyboard These programmable keyboards have the ability to customize the appearance and function of a standard keyboard. Children with learning disabilities can easily type with the help of customized keys and segregation with group of keys with the help of colors and location (Anogianakis, Buhler, & Soede, 1997). Optical character recognition This technology helps in scanning a document and converting it in to a computer document. The programs read aloud the text with the help of a speech synthesis/screen reading system. Optical character recognition is available as a software program for computers and cell phones. Electronic Math work Sheets Theses electronic math sheets are software program that help in aligning and organizing math problems on computers. Numbers that appear on screen can be read aloud and it is of a great help for children who are unable to align a math problem with the help of pencil and paper. Audio books and publication A wide range of audio books and publications are present for children with reading disability. These audio books allow to book mark any chapter and rewind in case of listening the content again. These are available in all the formats like CDs, MPS formats and audio cassettes as well. Personal FM listening systems Personal FM listening system is a device that helps the voice of the speaker, reach the ears of the listener quickly and effectively. This helps in focusing the attention of the listener to the words of the speaker. This system requires a microphone which is in possession of the speaker and an ear device which is worn by the listener. Speech Cognitive or voice recognition program This program takes the command from the user orally. There is no need to use the keyboard or the mouse. The voice recognition program has a microphone which takes order to write a text document, open applications, browse the internet or use the main menu of the computer (Scherer, 2011). Graphic organizers and outlining This program is useful for children at school who are unable to represent information on a certain topic in an organized way. The user can collect academic information in any unorganized manner; this program will give a perfect outline to the assignment and represent the information in the most comprehensive way. Refreshable Braille displays This program provides a tangible output of information on the screen. As Braille “cell” comprise of a sequence of dots. These patterns of dots and various combinations of cells are used to represent letters. Braille display which is refreshable lift small pins on these dotted patterns. The user while touching these pins can read the text of the document on the Braille screen. Once the text is read, the user can refresh the screen to read the nest text in the same way. Light Signal Alerts Light signal alerts help those children who are unable to pay attention in many directions. For intimation of any notification, a certain light will start blinking on the computer which will allow the user to take its notice. In this case, a light can flash to inform that certain command is performed. Talking and large-print word processors This program takes verbal commands using the speech synthesizers and then represents the text in large font. Children at school can benefit from this program as the user does not have to increase the size of the font. Printing processors print the document in large fonts. Talking calculators Taking calculators are a great help for students who are unable to complete a math problem. Talking calculators inform the user using the speech synthesizer, of all the digits that are typed and the symbols and operations. This auditory feedback helps the child to check the input of digits and operations before transferring the information on paper. The use of the above mentioned Assistive technology programs will help children with learning disability to make fewer mistakes in their work. The independence level will increase and the children will not ask for help as much as they required without these programs. With the availability of these programs, children will set goals for themselves and will be motivated to achieve more for themselves (Hersh & Johnson, 2010). Recommendations for Teachers and Parents of children with Disability A child with special needs or with any known disability requires extra attention by the parents and teachers. A parent is asked to learn about his disable child as much as possible to help the child live a normal life. On the hand, the teachers have to take extra responsibility of the student whose needs are special. The rule of provision of uniform education to all students is followed in many countries all around the world. To provide proper guidelines to parents, many organizations are working tirelessly to help the disable children. The first step in this situation is the awareness of the disability the child is facing. Following are some of the support organizations that help parents accept and then help a disable child. National institute of learning disabilities has an extensive online website in guiding the parents to how to be their child’s advocate and helping him. Parent centrehub.org provides information on how to deal with disable child from being an infant to toddler, child to youth. Researched-based information on effective practices, programs and services is also provided to the parents. Through a looking glass (TLG) is a nationally recognized institution that has pioneered research and training session and services for parents who has a disable child. Their online web site gives handy guidelines for parents, motivation for keeping a disable child and guiding donors to donate in this worthy cause (Seligman, 2000). All experts.com is a website where experts answer the questions of parent of a disable child. The experts work as volunteers, this website also provide detail information about Autism, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia etc. It is important for the parents of the disable to child to learn the laws made in favor of the child by the government. A child with special needs has been promised to receive free education in many states within a school catering to normal children. Each year, a large amount from the budget is allocated to fund the education system and to guide the teachers with workshops and trainings sessions. National institute of learning disabilities provides the following guidelines for teachers: The teachers are guided to help children at school with reading disabilities. These children are taught to use self-monitoring techniques. Teachers should be present to focus the attention of the child on the relevant information and help them in finding the relevant theme of the studies. The teachers have to bear in mind the individual needs of the special child. The special attention can be paid to disabled students with the help of assistive technology and special attention of “modification and accommodation”. Student with reading disabilities should be motivated by the teachers in improving the skill. Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) was designed especially for students to eliminate the difficulties in learning. Groups are made which work together to complete tasks given by the teacher. The strategic instruction manual (SIM) model is developed for disable students in helping them in decoding the basic meaning of passage from a text book. Application of this model also helps in word recognition (Cimera, 2002). References Anogianakis, G., Buhler, C., & Soede, M. (1997). Assistive Support Technologies. IOS Press. Behrmann, M. (1998). Assistive Technology for Young Children in Special Education: It Makes a Difference. Edutopia. Children's Rights Alliance for England. (2011). United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from crae.org.uk: http://www.crae.org.uk/rights/disability-rights-convention.html Cimera, R. E. (2002). Preparing Children With Disabilities for Life. R&L Education. CRAE. (2011). United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved October 24, 2014, from crae.org.uk: http://www.crae.org.uk/rights/disability-rights-convention.html DOYLE, J., & MARTIN, A. (2010). Let down by everyone who should have cared: Report reveals appalling failures that led to Baby P's brutal death. Retrieved from Mail Online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323804/Baby-P-report-reveals-appalling-failures-cared.html Hersh, M., & Johnson, M. A. (2010). Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired and Blind People. Springer Science & Business Media. Jonathan Metzl, A. K. (2010 ). Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality. NYU Press. Scherer, M. J. (2011). Assistive Technologies and Other Supports for People With Brain Impairment. Springer Publishing Company. Seligman, M. (2000). Conducting Effective Conferences with Parents of Children with Disabilities: A Guide for Teachers . Guilford Press. Stanberry, K., & Raskind, M. H. (2009). Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities: An Overview. Reading Rockets. UNICEF. (2011). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/crc/ Read More