ICT helping people with special needs assignment - any help please?

[Hulababy]

Hi all

As many of you know I am a teacher. I teach ICT at secondary level. Well, I was wondering if I can ask for advice on behalf of my GCSE pupils.

Firstly is this allowed? Can I simply ask for advice to be used by pupils or do I need to request permission from the moderators, etc? If so - please ignore this. If not, any helpers?

My GCSE students have a series of reports to produce for their portfolio and the first one has just been set. They are requested to produce a report detailing the impact of ICT developments for people with special needs. This means they have to talk about how people (of any age including babies, children and adults) with varying special needs use computers to help them.

They are given this quote as a thought to get them thinking (I have no idea where it comes from though, sorry):

"Approximately 10% of people in Britain have some kind of disability. For many people with disabilities, computer technology provide a lifeline to independence and a fulfilling career. The range of specially designed computer equipment is vast, for all types of disability."

The pupils report must cover the following special needs:

• sensory impairments
• physical disability
• limited mobility
• learning difficulties
• language difficulties
• multiple disabilities

I am not sure how much anyone can help here but I would be grateful for anything such as personal experience (obviously I'd make sure no personal identifyable details were passed on to students), other sources of info I could lok at, links to websites, etc.

I am posting this under Education and Special Needs in order to ensure I aim it at the right people. Sorry for the duplication and a massive thanks from myself and my pupils for anything anyone can offer.

If anyone would rather contact me off line, please do so via Contact Another Talker

Claire

Hi Claire,

I don't have any direct experience, but I do know of this company , Inclusive Technology, who deal with exactly these kind of issues. They're the ones I linked to before for your dd's mouse, incidentally, but I would have thought that many of their products would be relevant for your pupils to look at.
HTH!

Excellent Tamum, thank you.

I will e-mail that link direct to work now. That's exactly the type of things the pupils will be looking at and trying to analyse how they help people with special needs. I haven't had chance to do much research fo r it yet at all as only got the task sheet last thing. I though of Mumsnet first!

Oh I just suggested Inclusive technology under education. Clever tamum has the link though (I was too lazy to google for it).

This may not be what you're after, but I've recently had to do some research on this from a building websites perspective.

There's a site that tests other sites for accessibility (generally speaking, whether or not they can be viewed by people using text-only or audio web browsers, but there are some other things as well) here - could possibly be used as a starting point. As it goes, some of the "standards" make websites less accessible in my opinion, but that's something for discussion!

Thanks SP. I will e-mail that link to work too. I hope to get some time at break or lunch tomorrow to go through this in more detail.

I may be able to help you Hulababy as I did some research into the use of ICT in teaching and learning at a teacher training college a few years ago. I visited a special school where technology was used. I am off to bed just now but will return.

Thanks for any help you can offer Eulalia.

I am about to launch this work next lesson at 9am and pupils will begin their research of the next couple of weeks, before writing their report.

i can offer my 'parent's' view on having an AS child who cannot wrte legibly by hand so uses laptop etc to record work wher normally he'd struggle writing. Also he struggles drawing so uses the p.c to enable him to produce 'art work' that he is proud of

???is that kind of info any use????

Have you looked at Communication Matters in Headington, Oxon? Google (as I am lazy too). I have a friend whose non-verbal ASD daughter uses a VOCA (voice output communication aid). Its a little keyboard, she types in what she wants to say, I'm not sure if letter by letter or if keys represent words, and it says them. You can get similar with PECs type pictures too. Don't forget also the role of technology in producing teaching materials that are appropriate for SEN. I think someone mentioned Boardmaker but there's also the good ol' digital camera, make your own flash cards etc etc. My son couldn't care less about the computer, can totally take it or leave it which is a shame. I know there's lots of programs that teach specific skills and have built-in reinforcment. Don Johnston might be worth looking at too.

Wracking my brain trying to remember the name of the school I visited. It has a website. I'll have to dig out the disc with all the research stuff on it or maybe it will come to me when I am not thinking about it!

Hi Hulababy

Can't remember where you're based, but if you're in London then you may already be aware of CENMAC (can't remember what the initials stand for!). I used to work in LEA SEN and we used to refer pupils to CENMAC for assessment for appropriate IT equipment. They advise on equipment for pupils who have physical disabilities (either soley physical difficulties or with additional learning difficulties). Haven't explained that at all well, but it might be worth having a look at their website here

Also, most LEAs will have advisory teachers for hearing impaired pupils and visually impaired pupils who may also be able to advise regarding appropriate equipment.

Hope this helps.

mrsforgetful - all of this is useful, especially first hand experiences. A couple of the girls are very keen to follow up the child's based aspects of the assignment so definitely so. Anything you can ofer in fab, thank you.

Thakyou Eulalia. It all helps so so much.

Kyliebump - I am in Sheffield. I will look at your link this weekend. Thank you again!

Really am very grateful for everyone's help on this.

The school is Richmond Park in Glasgow. It is a special primary school for children with physical impairments. Unfortunately their website doesn't seem to be working. This page describes the school and has a link to their home page so it may be working in a day or so.

Richmond Park School

There is an email link so perhaps you could get in touch that way. They may have brochures they could send. As I say it was about 5 years ago I visited so they should be much more up to date technogically. they were amazing though - each child has a laptop which they can take home. Some of the kids had to visit hospital a lot and they took their laptop in with them so they could do school work there. They even used video conferencing.

Here is another link which may be useful - a firm that produces educational software and products for special needs...

cricksoft

Good luck with the assignment.

All this is so excellent everyone. I have made lots of notes and have started a helpsheet to issue to the pupils.I have given them these links to and one or two others I found. Let's hope they really get into. They seemed keen last week. Thanks again everyone