2010 press releases
Posted 28 June 2010
Assistive Technology Workshop Held at AIT
A workshop for second level teachers who work with students with disabilities has been held at Athlone Institute of Technology.
Participants tried out the range of facilities available in AIT’s assistive technology (AT) centre, which includes literacy support text-to-speech software, mind mapping software, voice recognition software and digital reading pens.
Seventeen teachers from nine schools participated in the day-long seminar, which was organised by Patricia Kearney, Disability Service Coordinator at AIT, and Caroline Donoghue, Coordinator of the SIF-funded Regional Assistive Technology Connection to Higher Education (REACH) project.
The aim of the REACH project, which is hosted at AIT, is to facilitate greater access for second level and further education students who have disabilities or specific learning difficulties to enter third level education. Under the project, a laptop, scanner and a range of assistive technology software is made available for each participating school.
According to Ms Kearney, “AIT has been a pioneer in supporting students who have a disability to not only gain access to third level, but to thrive in a higher education environment. Part of that support revolves around making cutting-edge technology available to our students, so that they can have a full learning experience and earn the best qualification possible,” she said.
“The REACH project,” she continued, “extends that expertise, as well as the AT resources, to the wider educational community. Training workshops, such as this, enable teachers to utilise the latest assistive technologies, which in turn benefits their own students. This is a powerful example of educational collaboration at its very best; collaboration which is making an enormous difference to young people’s lives.”
Follow-up one-to-one training sessions are to be held at a future date, and a number of the recent participants have already expressed an interest in taking up this offer.
REACH was established in February 2008 by Athlone and Letterkenny Institutes of Technology and is funded under the Strategic Innovation Fund.
