NADPVIC2021: Joining the dots of inclusive practice – what is the picture now?The blurred lines between AT and productivity toolsTrevor Boland, Digital and e-Learning Officer in AHEAD

Slie 1: IntroductionsI’m Trevor BolandI work as the Digital & eLearning Officer in AHEADPrevious experiences:

Assistive Technology Officer in Higher Education Lecturer in an Access Programme Special Needs Assistant in Primary / Secondary

          Twitter  #ATHive    @BolandTrevor

Hello everyone, my name is Trevor Boland and I work in an Irish NGO called AHEAD that advocates for universal design for learning or UDL for short and here I work as the e-learning and digital officer.

In the past, I worked as an assistant technology officer in higher education and today I'm delighted to speak to you about a topic that I think is one of the most interesting topics ever and that is assistive technology.

Slide 2: The Blurred Lines of Assistive TechnologyThe educational landscape. This has changed rapidly in recent years and one of these changes involves assistive technology itself, as its possibilities have widened and are widening as AT has become not only specialised but mainstream.

As a result, AT has never been more available than now so find myself exploring these blurred lines of assistive technology and throughout this presentation, I'm going to invite you to explore this with me.

Slide 3: AT is Everywhere‘It was generally acknowledged that assistive technologies and mainstream technologies are converging … applications originally developed as AT, such as speech recognition, have crossed over into the mainstream, while mainstream technologies are being used as AT.’ (National Council for Special Education NCSE Report 2016 )

• Microsoft - 'Immersive Reader' - Reading / Readability• Online Word and Google Docs – 'Dictate’ / 'Voice Typing'

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• Blackboard Ally website – Document into an MP3If AT tools can be for all – can we call it Inclusive Technology?

So looking at AT, it can now be found all around us and this quote from the NCSE report speaks volumes to me. Assistive technologies and mainstream technologies are converging. Applications originally developed as AT have crossed over into the mainstream, while mainstream technologies are being used as AT. This evolution of AT is bringing about more AT opportunities and choices for all learners.

Examples of these include the Microsoft immersive reader tool the reads out text, so now we can both read and listen to text.This is useful for reading back essays and age proofreading. Dictation tools such as in Word and Google docs allow anyone to write with their voice and this is a useful way to turn handwritten essays into a typed document simply by reading out your handwritten notes.

Then Blackboard provides an open website that converts your document into an mp3. Useful to turn your articles into audio files and place something in your smartphone and then listen to them as you go for a walk.

So if AT can be for all, then can we call it inclusive technology? If so, would this term make AT-like tools more welcoming to both the wider student and staff body?I would like to think this would be possible.

Slide 4: AT in Education – 10 years ago

So to explain AT and the student support system in education, I'm going to use this three-tiered pyramid from an AHEAD publication about the role of the disability officer in higher education that has been modified slightly by me for the purpose of this talk today regarding AT.

It explains the considerations of specialized AT for the individual and we see these on the top of the pyramid, AT for small groups, and we see this in the middle of the pyramid and then AT for the greater student body, and this is on the bottom of the pyramid.

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And today, this is the part I'm interested in exploring.10 years ago, I worked as an assistive technology officer. There was specialised AT for students with disability but not a lot of mainstream AT-like supports. Educational apps at the time are having varied success and could be good to poor depending on the type of device you owned and the type of application you're using.

So needless to say the gap was wide between specialised and mainstream AT-like tools so options were fewer and this made it challenging as that acculturation to assistive technology was problematic at times for students.

Slide 5: Current AT Inclusion Pyramid

Well now we definitely see more choice. Mainstream possibilities of AT are now merging with specialised AT, so it begs the question "how can we all benefit from this widespread availability of AT like tools/ inclusive technology?"With this explosion of technology, have we really had the opportunity to reflect and think about how to harness connect and embed that power of AT and inclusive technology to that wider student body?

Is there potential to embed inclusive technology awareness into orientations and inductions for example - to begin embedding these in and many many other possibilities into this student culture.

So to consider promoting these tools in services, like the library for example, which is all about reading, so surely the two would complement each other.

In your own context, how can you play a role to promote inclusive technology to support those types of learners you either teach or interact with?

Slide 6: AT Hive – Raise AT Awareness

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• AT Hive is an Assistive Technology Resource, in the AHEAD website.• It aims to raise AT awareness and how to use it.• To date a collection of 50 technologies (websites, apps, browser plugins…)

about reading, writing, organisation, communication and more.Twitter #ATHiveWebsite: www.ahead.ie/ATHive

So one way in AHEAD that we are helping to guide people through this array of specialised and mainstream AT and inclusive technology is through a resource that we call the AT Hive.

It's primary aim is to raise AT awareness and impart AT knowledge and hopefully wisdom to others as currently we have just under 60 examples of AT throughout that resource.

Slide 7: AT Categories

Within the AT Hive, itself we have categorised AT into 12 sections to help you navigate the diverse world of AT and inclusive technology.

So we would love you to visit our website at www.ahead.ie/ATHive and share this with both staff and students to help those conversations flowing about AT and inclusive technology.

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Slide 8: Technology Confidence

“The present pandemic has raised our tech-confidence and widened our views of the possibilities of technology in education.”

Briefly I want to explore this statement about technology confidence so when we go back to the face-to-face classroom, full-time, can we harness this technology confidence that we have gleaned over the last year and a half and channel it into this face-to-face classroom?

If so, can we rethink, build in small inclusive technology considerations into this face-to-face classroom?

Slide 9: Smartphone for Reading Support

One way this could happen is in this student scenario regarding Emily, who's reading a handout in class. She takes out her smartphone, she opens up Google Lens, photographs the text and then puts on her headphones and then the app

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reads out the text for her. So now she can both read and listen to the text and this in turn will support comprehension and memorisation of the text.

Sounds like a good idea?

Could this tech skill be transferable into other contexts as well?

So I would think, yes.I've included a bitly link to a poster about this very topic, so feel free to go to the bitly link and download it and to use that poster in any way you see appropriate for either your colleagues or your students.

Slide 10: Assignments – think about AT!The Assignment brief. Then underneath the assignment brief you could add: bit.ly/ATparagraph:

Technologies can help you with many aspects of your assignment, so we have a few technology suggestions for you:

Reading online can be assisted with Immersive Reader – this reads information out loud. 

Reading paper-based information can be assisted with this free apps – Google Lens / Office Lens.

To write your essay you can use the dictation tool in your online Word. Then use Immersive Reader in Word to read back your essay as a proof-reading support. 

Think about converting your essay into an MP3 to listen back to it on your device/Smartphone. 

Try the Spelling and Grammar tool in Word to help you create the best version of your essay.

For Groupwork in Work click the 'Share' button and add your classmates. To practice your Presentations, try the Presenter Coach for feedback. For more tips about technology and how it can help your academic work go to

AT Hive.

Now looking at this slide, just for a moment think about this paragraph. The paragraph makes inclusive technology suggestions that can help all of your students about reading, writing, converting docs into mp3s, online group work possibilities and even ways to practice and get feedback about your presentations using the presenter coach in office 365.

So all these inclusive technology suggestions are to key aspects of any academic assignments that a student would typically get within their academic journey.

So could a paragraph like this be added to the end of every assignment you write for your students? This would then remind students of inclusive technology supports and signpost them then to these tools to promote their independent learning.Would this be an easy option to raise AT or inclusive technology awareness for all your students throughout their student journey?

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Slide 11: Is Assistive Technology Everyone’s Business? We don’t expect everyone to be an AT expert – we just want staff to point

students to AT information via the ‘AT Hive’ in our website www.AHEAD.ie  Let people explore the 'AT Hive' so they can gravitate to the AT's or Inclusive

technologies, that may suit a particular need that they identify within themselves. 

Are students willing to talk ad share their inclusive technology experiences? If so, can you capture them - add your AT insights to 'AT Hive'. bit.ly/ATHiveWrite  

I believe AT is everyone's business or, in this case, inclusive technology is everyone's business.

I would most definitely say "yes" that potentially all of us do benefit or can benefit from from inclusive technology.

So today I'm asking you, for now, just to engage with these tech tools, to think about the possibilities that can arise from promoting these tools for all your students success.

We are not expecting everyone to be AT experts on inclusive technology experts but to simply signpost students and colleagues to the AT Hive resource and explore this resource themselves.

As inclusive technology is everywhere now, can we begin to embed these tools into this education culture and normalise the conversation about AT and inclusive technology?

My last message for you is to think about just one type of AT that you can advocate for your students and enhance their learning our AT Hive resource will be a starting point for you and has many ways in which you start brainstorming about AT and inclusive technologies.

So thank you for your time today and if you do find a tool that we can add to AT Hive, just go to the bitly link - bit.ly/ATHiveWrite and we can add it to our resource.

There has never been such a good time to support the individual learner with technology and to embrace inclusive technology possibilities.

So let's begin today and think about how these can be embedded to advantage that student in their learner journey.

Thank you.

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