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

Welcome to Day1: Assessment for Assistive Technology: Queen Alexandra College, Birmingham 14 th February 2013 DART Project Workshop Day 1

Running Order 09:30 Arrival / refreshments 10:00 Introduction & program of events (Rohan Slaughter) 10:05 What is an assessment (Mike Thrussell) 10:30 Intro to AT hardware (Rohan Slaughter and Mike Thrussell) 11:15 Break 11:30 Intro to AT software (Rohan Slaughter and Mike Thrussell) 12:15 Case Study 1: Henshaws, an Independent Specialist College – (Mike Thrussell) 12:45 Lunch

Running Order 13:30 Case Study 2: Runshaw College, a general further education College (Rohan Slaughter / Richard Maclachlan) 14:00 Case Study 3: RSC Scotland / UHI (Rohan Slaughter, with Mags Mackay & Mark Ross via video) 14:30 CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists (Rohan Slaughter) 15:00 Workshop: review of the day / things to take back to colleges (Rohan Slaughter). 15:30 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  Now we are running DART2, a Jisc Advance 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  This is the first workshop session

Questions to think about  As the day progresses...  As at the end of the day...  There will be a test .... more questions...  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

Why do an assessment?  Previous information may not be reliable  Establish needs / Barriers  To be Inclusive  To establish whether needs can be met  Motivation  Set appropriate goals / programme

Who to assess?  Learners with disclosed disabilities  Referrals where there is an area of concern  Time to assess varies

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  Physical Access  Cognitive Understanding  Positioning  Motivators

 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)

Any questions?

Introduction to AT Hardware DART Project Workshop Day 1

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

AV  Cameras  Digital Voice Recorders  CD Players

Touch  Motivational  Simple  Tablets  Touch Screens

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

Alternative Keyboards  Where to buy:  Or try mainstream suppliers like: Order Code: £25.62 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  See  Market leader is pusher/business-area-footer/augmentative-and-alternative- communication/ pusher/business-area-footer/augmentative-and-alternative- communication/  PC-eye now (only!) £3,000

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  The ‘rex’ is the first Tobii consumer product  It will even appear in cars  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 tablets for AAC at Beaumont College (more in Day 3 workshop and in software element today)

Introduction to AT Software DART Project Workshop Day 1

What is MyStudyBar?  Planning Xmind, Sunbird, Hott Notes  Reading  T-Bar, RapidSet, Vu-Bar, ssOverlay, Orato  Writing  LetMeType, Lingoes, Balabolka, TinySpell, RapidTyping,  Vision  Magnifier, Sonar, Thunder  Voice  Windows 7 Speech recognition

MyStudyBar  Where can I get MyStudyBar?   What are the TechDis Voices?   Where can I get the TechDis Voices? 

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)

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)  What follows is a list of apps that were prepared by Trevor Mobbs (Beaumont College) for an LSIS LSW initiative.

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, £13.49   Bloom – iOS, £2.49   MorphWiz – iOS, £6.99 

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

iOS  See also:  Guided Access:  Guided Access is not an app, but a new feature in iOS 6 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 

Case Study 1: Henshaws, an Independent Specialist 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 Profile Booklets / MIS

Assessment at Henshaws College  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, a general further education College DART Project Workshop Day 1

Runshaw College  Medium sized GFE (General Further Education College)  Worked with Beaumont College in ‘deep support’ capacity in the DART 1 project.  The work included:  Work shadowing  Training  Support with assessment  Recruitment Support from Beaumont for the Assistive technologist role.

Runshaw College  In their own words:   And from Richard (their Assistive Technologist): 

Case Study 3: RSC Scotland / UHI (Mags Mackay & Mark Ross) DART Project Workshop Day 1

University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI)  Using VC for needs assessment  In their own words:   UHI consists of a number of HEi's and also FE Colleges and has a wide remit in terms of numbers and geography. Although it is called a 'University' much of the provision takes place FE college - often based in very small learning centres in small towns and villages across the UHI geographical area.

University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI)  Using VC for needs assessment  Some of the learning centres are very remote e.g. Outer Hebrides - (Lewis, Harris, Benbecula) also the Northern Isles - (Orkney and Shetland). Take Shetland for example - its most northerly point is 200 miles from Aberdeen and also a mere 200 miles from Norway.  This last point highlights the benefit of this remote assessment of need as a viable option. Find out more:  Find out more:  Full write up of the UHI case study: scotland.org/?p=514http:// scotland.org/?p=514  Link to recorded webinar archive about remote DSA assessment of need:

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists DART Project Workshop Day 1

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  Ace Centre training:  Day courses  Accredited courses: unithttp://acecentre.org.uk/assistive-technology- unit  MMU courses:

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  The BRITE initiative (Scotland based, online offer to anywhere): 

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  University Opportunities, start with FAST:  Trevor Mobbs of BC is on this MSc course at Coventry:  

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  The technology companies:  AAC:  Smartbox:  Dynavox:  Liberator:  Other AT:  Inclusive Technology: consultancyhttp:// consultancy  And specific software opportunities...

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  Jisc  Jisc TechDIS:  Events:  Resources:   Jisc RSC’s:   Find out who your accessibility and inclusion advisor is

CPD from Jisc  Techdis Tuesdays  Accessibility with technology in higher education  Accessibility and usability of mobile / portable devices  Alternative formats, e-Books and synthetic speech  Xerte Fridays  RSC Events  Face to Face and OnLine

Your Jisc RSC   Events  Forums  News  Contacts  Links to other Jisc services

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  THE DART PROJECT WORKSHOPS - Day2: 24 th April 2013, QAC  This event is for managers who may wish to establish the Assistive Technologist role in their college and also for practitioners who are in this role but wish to develop it.  The event will be based on small group interactive practice / experience sharing and is intended to be kept small so that participants all get opportunities to contribute to discussion, as such places are few in number so early booking is advisable. This event will cover:  Definition of the Assistive Technologist role  Examples of Technologist roles in both ISCs and GFEs will be given, along with detailed information on the impact the roles have had (e.g. on observation of teaching and learning grades)  Training and CPD opportunities for people who are working in the role  Funding the role  The organisational structure and team relationships that can enable or hamper the introduction of this role  NOTE: ENGLISH DATE FULL, SCOTTISH DATE (Argyll Court, Stirling on 30 th April 2013) HAS PLACES:

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  THE DART PROJECT WORKSHOPS – Day3: 6 th June, Beaumont College  This will be a hands on session mainly designed for practitioners such as teachers / tutors, learning support workers/assistants and people in an AT role.  The topics on offer include:  The free ‘My Study Bar’ / ‘Edu Apps’ (AM)  The Grid 2 for computer and curriculum access (AM)  Clicker 6 (PM)  The use of tablet PC’s (iPad, Android, Windows) by people with disabilities (PM)  NOTE: ENGLISH DATE FULL, SCOTTISH DATE (Argyll Court, Stirling on 12 th June 2013) HAS PLACES:

CPD opportunities for Assistive Technologists  Informal opportunities:  ALT mail list  Jisc mail lists (ask your Jisc RSC advisors)  Karten Network Google Group

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?

THANK YOU  SAFE JOURNEY HOME  us:      Follow us: (BRITE) (Jisc RSC NW) (Jisc RSC Scotland)