Chapter 11: Reflections (and ramblings) of Assistive Technology

So in order to help you understand the comments of this chapter, I have placed the source of my ideas in this blog. It is a video playlist about assistive technology. I think watching this video will help my ramblings make more sense. Be warned, this video playlist will take about 15-20 minutes-ish to watch fully. So watch the video (if you dare), then enjoy the ramblings.

So, the first person I want to ramble about is Lukas. Lukas is just awesome. He was born with a disease with a jaw-cracking name. I'm not even going to try to pronounce (or spell) it. But this disease did not stop him from learning to play euphonium! His assistive technology was a joystick that pressed the valves of his instrument because his limbs were too weak to do so themselves. By using this technology, he was able to participate in three different ensembles. That's the kind of student dedication I like to see!

Susanna, the first person mentioned in these videos, is a more common case. She uses a voice activated system on her laptop to help her do her homework. Voice activation is one of the more common tools that can be applied for assistive technology. Susanna impressed me with her ability to referee soccer from a wheelchair. Isn't that cool?

Vishal used an on-screen keyboard to type his homework, which I think is becoming more and more common as technology advances. Years ago, touch-screen technology (which makes an on-screen keyboard possible) did not exist. I am sure that all these students are grateful for these devices, because without them, schoolwork would have been much more difficult and stressful.

I am going to skip to the second video now, and ramble about Josh. Josh just wanted to read, but lacked the capability, until his teacher showed him Bookworm, and then he rapidly caught up to the rest of his class. It was kind of interesting to see how they discovered his interests and devised methods of permitting him to express those interests. What I thought was really cool, though, was how these devices actually improved his performance in the classroom and his sociability both in the home and at school.

OK, I think that's enough rambling for now. If my ramblings made sense without the videos, great. If not, watch the videos and then come back and see things click into place in your mind.