Assisitive Technologies

In Higher Education, assistive technologies can be helpful in a number of areas - covered in this learning element including:

• Reading
• Writing
• Maths
• Organisation

Typical barriers or difficulties that assistive technologies can help people overcome include:

• Sight
• Text decoding
• Distractibility
• Hearing

This learning element includes information on:

• Examples of Assistive Technology by Domain
• Apps for Mobile Devices

This table shows the relevant domains of potential AT application by disability. People with particular disabilities are more likely to require particular assistive technologies.

How to use assistive technologies like screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, Narrator), scanning/text-to-speech tools (Kurzweil 1000 & 3000), screen magnification software (ZoomText), and voice recognition systems (Dragon Naturally Speaking) to help visually impaired students navigate digital content, edit documents, and interact with computers efficiently.

Induction loop and real-time captioning systems.

Voice recognition software, adapted ergonomic keyboards and alternative mouse controls.

Mind mapping software and reading, and writing tools.

Links to the built in accessibilty settings in iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows.

An interesting slider presentation of assistive technology advances between the first typewriter in 1808 and Microsoft's developments in 2015.

A set of databases of Assistive technology including:

• The EastIn database of EU assistive tech
• Australia's National Equipment Database
• UK Open Assistive  - Open software and hardware
• Belgium - Database of AT for HE
• Southern Africa AT database