Before we headed directly into our topic, assistive technology, we learned about inclusivity meaning inclusive teaching and learning. Being inclusive means to accept and value people as individual. So, in teaching and learning, we are to create an environment where everyone embraces diversity. Since I am participating in a club organization for people with disabilities, I can understand when it says that inclusivity can improve access to community participation and create value in people.
After that, we went into the main learning topic that is assistive technology (AT) which means the equipment and system which enhance our work and learning for person with disabilities. Since we learned about inclusivity, it was easier to get the concept of why we need assistive technology for people with disabilities. There are many importance or reasons as to why we need assistive technology for them. For instance, to increase student's opportunity for education and interactions. These ensures that people with disabilities get equal opportunity to learn like people who do not have disabilities.
We practiced some assistive technologies like screen reader, which is helpful for people who cannot see. They can use 'read aloud' to read a passage or a text. We also tried 'audio to text converter' which is very convenient for people who cannot type or control mouse. It was hard for us to use this because our pronunciation differed with the one the computer system uses or have but it was fun seeing my classmates try multiple times seriously.
Some other assistive technology we were introduced are JAWS which is developed for people with blindness. Mouth stick is used by people who cannot type or use control mouse. We went through many tools developed for people with blindness like Braille display, braille note taker and braille watch and even talking calculator. So for a teacher like us, our tutor have us an interesting and short work. We were asked to teach a child with vision loss using two assistive technologies. I was paired up with one of my classmate and we chose to use screen reader for students to get information and braille note taker to note down important key points. Every student got different ideas and it was fun and challenging.
In conclusion, I found that using ICT to teach and learn is not only for us but can be also applied or give opportunity to people with disabilities to improve inclusivity.
