I visited a college last week to try and help them spend a lump sum of money that they had for ‘assistive technologies’. In preparation for this visit I pulled together a collection of resources that, on reflection, might be a good starting point for those who are just beginning to think about how technology could be used to assist or enable all of their learners … or as a reminder for those who are already thinking about and doing it. So here is that list …

Accessibility in Learning - JISC TechDis approach hosted on the QIA Excellence Gateway (as blogged about by RSC Wales’ Paul last month)
URL: http://excellence.qia.org.uk/page.aspx?o=jisctechdis
Summary: Starts with the needs of the learners and then looks at the technology that could assist. Has some useful advice and guidance sheets to download

Ability Net – the factsheets
URL: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/athome_factsheets
Summary: The Ability Net website has some excellent resources but the factsheets highlighted here are particularly useful starting points

Tech Dis - Accessibility Essentials and the Assistive Technologies database
Accessibility Essentials
URL:  http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_20
Summary: A selection of 4 easy to read, downloadable publications (pdf) that help you make the most of the technology you and your learners are probably already using – Windows computers, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Adobe pdfs

Assistive Technologies database
URL: http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_1
Summary: A searchable, online resource of information and products (recommended by TechDis) available to assist disabled students and staff

Excellence in Inclusivity – from RSC Yorkshire & Humber
URL: http://inclusivity.rsc-yh.ac.uk/
Summary: Case studies of assistive technologies in use

Portable accessible applications
I also showed the college some free ‘portable’ resources that could be made available to all learners on USB sticks (or possibly via the college network). The ones that are my particular favourites are all available to download from the RSC Wales Accessibility area.

A much broader range of portable accessible applications can be downloaded from the RSC Scotland North & Eastern website. These ‘AccessApps’ have just won the ‘Excellence in Education’ award in the Open Source category at the Scottish Software Awards, so are definitely worth having a look at.

This is the end of my list for now … hopefully it is of use as either a starting point or a reminder of the technologies that are out there that can be assistive to all.

P.S. I didn’t manage to help the college spend any of their money whilst I was there but this list and the discussion have hopefully helped them make some decisions.

P.P.S. An audio version of this blog post can be downloaded by clicking here. The  audio was created by pasting the text into one of the free portable apps, ‘DSpeech’, and saving as an MP3 file.