Disabled students ICT post compulsory education and employment

Disabled students, ICT, post compulsory education and employment: in search of new solutions Professor Jane Seale, Open University, UK

1. INTRODUCTION

Welcome from the UK Ed-ICT team

Housekeeping • Toilets • Food and drink • Fire alarm • Inclusive and safe place to speak and listen • Mobile phones on silent- the only ‘noisy’ technologies allowed are access and communication devices • Conference presentations available from the project website

The Ed-ICT International Network • To explore the role that ICTs play or could play in creating barriers and mitigating disadvantages that students with disabilities in post-secondary education (PSE) experience • To examine how practices of educators and other stakeholders can craft successful and supportive relationships between learners with disabilities and ICT

Ed-ICT Objectives • Synthesise and compare the available research evidence across the five countries regarding the relationship between students with disabilities, ICTs and PSE • Construct theoretical explanations for why ICTs have not achieved the dramatic reductions in discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion hoped for • Provide new perspectives about potential future solutions regarding how PSE institutions can better use ICTs to remove the ongoing problems of disadvantage and exclusion of students with disabilities.

The Five countries of the Ed-ICT • Canada • Germany • Israel • United Kingdom • United States

The Ed-ICT participants • 15 core network partners • 20+ local participants Disabled students Faculty Service providers Support and advocacy organisations • Tech companies • Researchers • •

Theme 1: Models The Seattle Symposium • Compare and contrast the range of models and frameworks that exist; • Evaluate the potential of these models and frameworks to help develop practices that can, through the use of ICT successfully alleviate disadvantage and exclusion of students with disabilities.

Theme 2: Stakeholder engagement The Montreal Symposium • Who are the stakeholders of disability and ICT related practice in post-secondary education? • How can these stakeholders be effectively engaged in the improvement of practice?

Theme 3: Design The Tel Aviv Symposium • To what extent can the lack of access to supportive ICTs or inaccessible ICTs be solved by new or better ICT designs?

Theme 4: Transitions The Hagen Symposium • How can technology help disabled students with transitions in the education system? • What are typical problems that disabled students experience with technology and the accessibility of technology during transitions? • Who are the different stakeholders involved, and do we need other or different stakeholders? • What role does technology play in the different settings of the education system?

Theme 5: New solutions and opportunities The Milton Keynes Conference • Debate and evaluate what we have learnt so far • Integrate what we have learnt with your own research and practice experiences • Identify, develop and evaluate new opportunities for research and practice in the field • Talking becomes doing • ‘Futures lens’

The ED-ICT way: A critical approach We need to question those things that are ‘taken-for granted’ as truth or fact in the field in order to give voice to new possibilities and future directions in both our research and our practice.

2. ICE-BREAKER

Future Studies: Our lens for the 2 days " Futures studies does not…pretend to study the future. It studies ideas about the future… (which) often serve as the basis for actions in the present…” (Dator , 2005) Link to paper from Dator

Individually (15 mins) • Take some time to think about your vision for the future regarding ICT and disabled students in higher education • What do you think ‘ought to happen’ or ‘ought to be’ ? • You might like to write some bullet points, draw/find a picture (on paper or your devices) or record a short video or audio-clip. • It would be great but not compulsory if you would be willing to post your ideas and pictures on Twitter using the hashtag #edict

In pairs (15 mins) • Share your visions with one another 1. Set the context- what is your role, responsibility or interest in ICT, disability and higher education 2. Discuss similarities and differences in visions 3. Discuss whether you think it is possible for each vision to become a reality

Plenary (15 mins) • What kind of responses were there to your visions of what ought to be?

Futures Lens • Bell (2010), is to 'discover or invent, examine, evaluate and propose possible, probable and preferable futures'. He continues 'futurists seek to know: • what can or could be (the possible), • what is likely to be (the probable), • and what ought to be (the preferable) • What is current research focusing on? • What should research be focusing on? Wendell Bell (2017) Foundations of Futures Studies- History, Purposes and Knowledge. Routledge Abingdon

3. BREAK Come back at 11. 45 for our keynote speaker- E. A Draffan

Who is EA and why is she here talking to us? Because she is fab AND she has broad and detailed experience in the field • Her career began as a Speech and Language Therapist spending eight years as the District Speech and Language Therapist at a group of London Hospitals. The work involved supporting disabled people with a wide range of communication difficulties. • She then worked in schools and colleges, specialising in the support of those with Special Needs whilst encouraging the use of assistive technologies (AT). • A Winston Churchill Fellowship provided the chance to see how centres of AT were set up in the United States. This resulted in ten years work at the University of Sussex, building and running a regional AT Centre • EA went on to work with JISC Tech. Dis and with Professor Paul Blenkhorn and for the last few years in ECS at the University of Southampton with Professor Mike Wald and the ECS Accessibility Team. This included working with Jane on the LEXDIS Project! • EA was a member of the committee that worked on BS 8878 and is now on the WCAG Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force. She is also the UK National Contact Person for AAATE and on the AHG, BDA and BCS committees.

5. NETWORKING AND LUNCH Comeback at 1. 45 for the Student Panel

Some preparatory work to do over lunch • We are going to run a ‘birds of a feather’ exercise at the end of the day where those that wish to can propose a practice challenge or topic around which they would like to share experiences, explore solutions etc. • For example: “ I want to set up an accessibility training course for my staff and would like to hear from anyone else who has tried this, or is thinking of trying this. ” • Anyone interested in that project/idea/challenge can join the person at their table to discuss how to develop the idea further. • In your pack you will find a Practice Birds of a Feather proposal slip- if you would like to host a table discussion around a practice challenge of interest to you, please complete the form and had to Chetz or Jane before the end of lunch.

6. Birds of a Feather: Practice Focus

Birds of a feather flock together

Pitches • Between 8 and 10 proposals will be chosen and we will invite each proposer to come and give a 1 minute pitch for the idea or challenge that they would like to discuss with others. • We will allocate each proposer a table. • If you would like to engage with a discussion with that person- please go to their table. • We will allow around 20 minutes for discussion and then offer people the chance to move to another table. ( repeat another two times). • Plenary

Plenary