Free, Open Source and Portable Technologies

Are we really going free range? E.A. Draffan

Autism in Higher Education

ECU 2010 UG Degree

ECU 2010 Other UG

ECU 2010 PG

2012 SURVEY respondents

Unseen condition 14.80% 18.90% 23.30% 16.30%

Multiple impairments 5.20% 5.80% 4.90% N/A

Autism Spectrum Disorder 1.40% 0.80% 0.70% 3.60%

Specific Learning Differences 55.00% 42.70% 40.20% 62.50%

Other conditions 9.20% 10.60% 11.80% 8.80%

DSA Survey 2011/12

Autistic spectrum disorder•Most likely group to be diagnosed before FE/HE•48% made comments about DSA helped them to overcome  issues with shared facilities (3rd highest after chronic medical / fatigue and mobility/pain)•65% made comments about helping to keep up with peers•52% made comments about the importance of accessing specialist software (one of the lowest groups)•Least likely group to take up training

Many Facets of Assistive Technology

Assist

ive

Tech

nolo

gies

Mainstream

ing

Overview• Options

• Commercial• Free and Open Source

Need to think about the

• Delivery System

• Study Strategies

a combination?

Think Strategy be STREET wise!

James, A. and Draffan E.A (2013)

Types of Technology

Each example given is one of many!

All are different!

• Text to speech• Spell checking• Graphical

mapping• Reminders• Speech

Recognition

• Scanning and OCR

• Dictionaries• Calculators• Note taking• References

Think strategy – find the tools

Text to Speech

Spell checking

Graphical mapping

Reminders

Speech Recognition

Scanning and OCR

Dictionaries

Calculators

Note taking

References

“OCR allows me to scan pages of

books and annotate them.” “…Phone which

serves the purpose of diary reminder

communication note taking etc.”

Additional useful equipment

“The smartpen... Its great fun and

works well to assist my learning”

“Noise Cancelling

headphones…”

“Inspiration.. means I can organise my workload far more efficiently and I can plan how to revise and make essays much

more easily.”

Thank YouMore strategies http://www.lexdis.org.uk

E.A. DraffanWAISElectronics and Computer Science,University of Southampton.Mobile 07976 289103E-mail: ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk

http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/