DART2.1 – Disseminating Assistive Roles and Technology - a JISC FE & Skills Project Assessment for Assistive Technology DART Project Workshop Day 1

Welcome to Day1: Assessment for Assistive Technology QAC, Birmingham 17 th Dec 2014 DART Project Workshop Day 1

Running Order 09:30 Arrival / refreshments 10:00 Welcome and Introductions (Rohan Slaughter) 10:05 What do we mean by Assessment for Assistive Technology (Trevor Mobbs) 10:30 Intro to AT hardware (Rohan Slaughter) 11:15 Break 11:30 Intro to AT software (Trevor Mobbs) 12:15 Case Study 1: Henshaws Independent Specialist College, Mike Thrussell (Assistive Technology Coordinator, Henshaws College) 12:45 Lunch

Running Order 13:30 Case Study 2: Runshaw College, Richard Maclachlan (Assistive Technologist, Runshaw College) 14:15 Case Study 3: National Star College, Independent Specialist College, Andrew Sparkes (IT Access Developer, National Star College) 15:00 Coffee 15:15 Priorities for sector development: An opportunity to feedback and shape policy (Liz Maudslay and Rohan Slaughter) 15:45 Workshop: review of the day / things to take back to colleges (Rohan Slaughter) 16:00 Close and depart

Very brief backstory  2010/12 DART1, an LSIS funded project  Beaumont College and National Star College worked with 8 colleges, in a ‘deep support’ capacity  Beaumont and Star are ISC’s : Independent Specialist Colleges  One of those DART1 colleges was Henshaws  DART2, a JISC funded project:  Beaumont College, National Star College, Henshaws College, Colleges Scotland, NATSPEC, JISC all working together  10 deep support colleges, 2 in Scotland  3 workshops, delivered twice, once in Birmingham, once in Stirling  Research project  DART 2.1, current project  Same delivery partners  10 further deep support colleges  Workshop series  Additional research

Questions to think about For last session of the day:  1. What was new to you from today?  2. What will you do with that new info when you get back to College?  3. Who do you want to talk to when you get back? And about what?  4. Can you think of a learner that will benefit from any of this?

Assessment for Assistive Technology DART Project Workshop Day 1

 Slide credit – Margaret McKay from Jisc RSC Scotland ”achieve to find the best fit or match between the learner and the environment” Beattie R (1999) ”finding the person - environment - performance fit” Christiansen C and Baum C (1991) "asking not what is wrong with the student but what is needs to be changed within the environment” Tilston et al (1998) "avoid locating the difficulty with student but focus on the capacity of educational institution to respond to the student's requirements” Tomlinson (1997)

Why do an assessment?  To identify needs / barriers  To be inclusive  To establish how needs can be met  To discover areas of motivation  To set appropriate goals / programme  To discover whether existing information is reliable

Who to assess?  In a Specialist College – everyone!  In other contexts:  Learners with disclosed disabilities  Referrals where there is an area of concern

What is an assessment?  The aim is to implement a bespoke solution to enable the learner to access IT  More of a process than an event  Individual  Multi disciplinary where appropriate

What skills and knowledge are required?  Awareness of others therapies (OT, SaLT)  Overview of AT Hardware and Software  People skills  Observation  Record keeping / Report writing  Dissemination (plain english)

Areas To Consider  Visual / Auditory  Physical Access  Cognitive Understanding  Literacy / Numeracy  Positioning  Motivators

Any questions?

Introduction to AT Hardware DART Project Workshop Day 1

Mainstream Hardware  Accessibility ‘baked in’  Cost effective  Some adaptations needed

Touch  Motivational  Simple  Tablets  Touch Screens

AV  Cameras  Digital Voice Recorders  CD Players

Alternative Keyboards  Are many and varied, here are some examples:

Alternative Keyboards  Where to buy:  Or try mainstream suppliers like: Order Code: £23.39 for example:

Alternative Mice  Also many and varied

Alternative Mice  Again, Inclusive Technology has a great range:  Again try mainstream suppliers, even PC world:

Switches  Lots of options (once more)  Quite expensive  Specialist suppliers only: rdware/switches-and-switch- mountings/button-switches rdware/switches-and-switch- mountings/button-switches  Require a switch interface box for a computer:  rdware/switch-interface- boxes rdware/switch-interface- boxes  I like the joycable:  y-cable-2-p y-cable-2-p2565

Head Mouse / Eye Gaze  Head mouse uses a reflective dot, light emitter and a camera:

Head Mouse / Eye Gaze  Eye-Gaze has been very expensive, but the price is dropping  Market leader is pusher/business-area-footer/augmentative-and-alternative- communication/ pusher/business-area-footer/augmentative-and-alternative- communication/  PCEye Go now (only!) £1,735  myGaze £875

Head Mouse / Eye Gaze  Eye-gaze has enormous potential for many users  Cost is coming down  Will be in consumer laptops and other devices shortly  It will appear in cars to ensure you keep your eyes on the road  It is even coming to Pizza Hut!  Head mouse type are cheaper than eye-gaze £250 / £300  If you want to know more see:  =XK1yjYSRc20 =XK1yjYSRc20

AAC Devices  Low tech:  Stored message devices  Some have layers  Overlays with symbols  Cheap

AAC Devices  High tech:  Often computer based  Sophisticated  Multiple page sets available  Incredibly expensive  Require specialist training to implement  On-going support is very important

AAC Devices  High tech mainstream:  Enter the iPad  Not the first, or most accessible tablet  Literally hundreds of apps  See:  And:  Also can use Windows 7/8 tablets and Android tablets for AAC  We use a lot of Windows 7/8 tablets for AAC at Beaumont College (more in Day 2 workshop and in software element today)

Built into the Operating System  Windows 7/8 and Mac OS X have a lot of built in accessibility options:  Windows Ease of Access Centre  Mac – Accessibility settings  Changing things visually  Changing access (mouse and keyboard settings)  Audio output – e.g. narrator text to speech  Great place to start:  Note that in order for networked windows machines to retain such changes to user settings ROAMING PROFILES ARE REQUIRED

Built into the Operating System  Windows 7:  Windows 8:  Mac OS X:  iOS:  Android (link to Google Accessibility home): features.html features.html

Introduction to AT Software DART Project Workshop Day 1

JISC Access Apps / Edu Apps / My Study Bar  Still available via:  My Study Bar – reading and writing  My Vis Bar – addresses visual difficulties  Access Apps – 60 open source / freeware Windows Apps

The Grid 2  Highly Flexible  Communication aid  Operating System  Supports all methods of access  Excellent customer support

Websites  ‘mobile’ sites (e.g. m.facebook.com)  Bespoke sites (e.g. accessyoutube.org.uk)  Mouseless Browsing (Firefox add-on)  Chrome extensions eg Chrome Speak  Voice recognition (e.g. dictation.io)

Clicker 6  See: products/tools/clicker/home. aspx products/tools/clicker/home. aspx  Literacy tool  Some free stuff too:  products/content/learninggri ds.aspx products/content/learninggri ds.aspx

Read & Write Gold  See: products/readwritehttp:// products/readwrite  Toolbar:  Reading  Text-to-Speech  Screenshot Reader  DAISY Reader  Screen Masking  PDF Aloud  Reading Support  Dictionary  Picture Dictionary  Speech Maker  Pronunciation Tutor  Translator  Writing and Self-Editing  Spell Checker  Word Prediction  Word Wizard  Sounds Like and Confusable Words  Verb Checker  Speech Input  Speak While Typing  Study Skills and Research  Calculator  Fact Finder  Fact Folder  Fact Mapper  Study Skills Highlighters  Vocabulary List Builder

iOS  Already mentioned AAC.  Great for all sorts of Education apps.  Not the only option, but best education app support?  Hard to manage (your IT team may not like to deploy Apple kit, and not without good reason:  Licencing Apps is not easy  Apple VL (Volume Licencing) does exist now, but it’s fairly complex to do (legally)  Meraki  Apple Configurator

iOS  Grid Player – iOS, FREE 

iOS  Clicker Docs – iOS, £17.99 / Clicker Sentences – iOS, £14.99   2 apps to support learners with literacy.

iOS  Dragon Dictation – iOS, FREE   Pictello – iOS, £13.99   Bloom – iOS, £2.49   MorphWiz – iOS, £6.99 

iOS  Beatwave – iOS, FREE   Koi Pond – iOS, Android. FREE   Fluid – iOS, FREE 

iOS  Guided Access:  Guided Access is not an app, but a feature from iOS 6 onwards which enables the device to be locked in to one app by disabling the home button. Here is a useful guide about how to use it : ios-6/ ios-6/  Assistive Touch:  AssistiveTouch lets you enter Multi-Touch gestures using one finger or a stylus   Switch Access: 

Android  Big Launcher:   Synapptic:   Tecla Switch Access:   Switch Access In Android 5.0: 

Case Study 1: Henshaws Independent Specialist College Mike Thrussell (Assistive Technology Coordinator, Henshaws College) DART Project Workshop Day 1

Assessment at Henshaws College  2 stages:  Initial (event)  Baseline (process)

Initial Assessment  All students  Overnight or Day  Separate from Parents  Analysis of Skills  Observation Referral Visit / Open Day Application Request reports Initial Assessment

 Curriculum Staff  Therapists  Including separate AT assessment  Access; physical and cognitive  ICT skills  Motivators Report Generated Sent to commissioners, parents, careers adv., social workers

Baseline Assessment  6 week programme  Review initial assessment  Setup Roaming Profiles  Develop IT access methods inc. GridSets  Discover motivators  Disseminate through Support Plans / MIS

Continuing Assessment  Ongoing / Continuously reviewed  Multidisciplinary  Prepare for transitions  Cost effective, transferrable solutions  Work with external agencies  Disseminate information

Lunch! DART Project Workshop Day 1

Case Study 2: Runshaw College Richard Maclachlan (Assistive Technologist, Runshaw College) DART Project Workshop Day 1

Assessment Case Study 3: National Star College, Independent Specialist College Andrew Sparkes (IT Access Developer, National Star College) DART Project Workshop Day 1

Coffee DART Project Workshop Day 1

Priorities for sector development: An opportunity to feedback and shape policy Liz Maudslay and Rohan Slaughter DART Project Workshop Day 1

Natspec Research Project The Natspec sponsored research project ‘Assistive Technology in Further Education Organisations’ (now published on Jorum: was conducted via online questionnaire / telephone follow up, and sought to: Inform the content of the workshops (give the sector what it required in terms of AT related CPD) Define key themes around what is working well (or what is not working well) with respect to Assistive Technology in all types of FE College A summative DART2 project presentation took place at the JISC RSC NW annual conference on 26 th June 2013: northwest-annual-event.aspx northwest-annual-event.aspx For more information please see

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes Over half of the providers who responded to the questionnaire had a person (either full or part time) in a designated ‘assistive technology’ role. This was positive, although there were also indications that the level of awareness about assistive technology was very mixed with some college’s way ahead of others. Very often positive developments had occurred as a result of one particularly committed individual.

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes Respondents felt overwhelmingly that a co-ordinated approach which brought together different college departments was a key to successful assistive technology support. Most providers felt there were good relationships between those providing assistive technology and learning support departments, but worryingly many felt that their relationships with IT departments were less good.

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes Assistive technology was funded in different ways in different organisations. Some students were funded through an individual allocation of money. While this was positive in that it allowed for an individual to receive the hardware and software he or she required, respondents were concerned that this restriction to a specific individual made it difficult for them to try out possible creative solutions for their full range of disabled students. It also could prevent them from ensuring that assistive technology is available across the college for all students

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes There were very mixed responses to the question about whether students owned and could retain their specialist equipment when they left college which indicated that this is a complex issue which deserves further exploration both at local and national level.

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes On the whole providers felt most confident about the assistive technology support they were giving to students with dyslexia and to students with a visual impairment. They were less confident that they were providing the most appropriate assistive technology support to other groups of students, particularly those with more complex learning difficulties.

Natspec Research Project – Key Themes Respondents recognised the need for on-going training and support and for easier ways to keep abreast of new developments in the area of assistive technology.

College structure and relationships between teams  The technology strategy in a College stands or falls based on:  Relationships between teams  The College Structure  Relationship of the IT/Technology team with:  Teachers  Therapists (where present)  Supporting staff  People in the AT role

Discussion  Overview of the Jisc / Natspec Dart 2 Research Project  Did you see the original report and if so how does it compare with your own experience?  Has anything changed in the intervening eighteen months?

Discussion Your provision  What in your experience has been most useful in setting up assistive provision for students?  What is working well and where are the gaps?  Have you created an assistive technology role, if so  How was the post holder appointed?  How was the post funded?  Which section of the college is it based in?  What training did the post holder receive?  What have you done to try and ensure that assistive technology becomes embedded across the organisation, e.g. training other staff, teaching and support staff?  How do you fund assistive technology equipment?  What software do you find most useful?

Discussion Training needs  How did you find out about this day and what do you hope to get out of it?  What kind of training and support in this area of work do you think is most effective? Advice for others wanting to improve their use of assistive technology to support students in GFE and ISC.  What would be the advice for other colleges in terms of:  Creating and funding an assistive technology role  Assessment of students  Effective training and support for other staff, teaching and support  Most useful equipment  Most useful apps, especially free apps

Discussion We hope that this phase of research will result in a handbook/toolkit for colleges  What sort of handbook/toolkit might be most useful for those seeking to improve their assistive technology support?  Have you got specific examples of practice you feel works well and would you be happy to be contacted in a telephone interview with the researcher to talk about these in more detail?

Workshop: review of the day / things to take back to colleges DART Project Workshop Day 1

Questions to finish  1. What was new to you from today?  2. What will you do with that new info when you get back to College?  3. Who do you want to talk to when you get back? And about what?  4. Can you think of a learner that will benefit from any of this?

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