An Investigation of the Assistive Technology Supports
and Transition from a Third-Level Environment to the
Workplace
Andrew Costello
Assistive Technology Officer
Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research Context – Need ?
My role as the Assistive Technology Officer for Trinity College Dublin is
to introduce Assistive technology as an aid or to overcome a task of
difficulty in a particular area
TCD Disability Student numbers
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research Context – why ?
• Disabled users are 2.5 less likely to gain full employment to enables
users , NDA, 2014
• 33% of people with disabilities of working age are employed,
compared to 66% of nondisabled people, CS0, 2012
• However most disabled young people see work as vital to their life
as it gives them status, independence and choice and allows them
achieve “adult status” (McGinty & Fish, 1992)
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research Context – why ?
The level of people with a disability working in employment is
disproportionate compared to the able-bodied population
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
• Via a 1:1 needs assessment each student in need of assistive
technology is to ensure such support allows the student gain
independence not just for their academic journey but for their
working life
• This research aimed to investigate barriers in such transition and
effectiveness of such supports from an academic phase to an
educational phase and look at the development of exit assessment
for students to undertake to build confidence in their assistive
technology use after leaving a supported environment; such as
college
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research Context – What did the Literature say ?
Not as simple as just giving a loan:
• Lack of use of the WEAG grant the Workplace Equipment Adoption
Grant out of a budget of €198,000 only €48,000 was distributed
• Lack of use of Universal design principles in every day IT systems –
Bjork 2009
• The benefit of such an UD approach leads to improved quality of
life and to the reduction of barriers to services and environments.
– Joines, 2009
• Lack of expertise support – Tobias 2003
• Increased Organisational culture needed– Bryan 2007
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Assistive Technology assessment
models :
• Matching person and technology
(Scherer 2004)
• International Classification of
Functioning, Disability and
Health (ICF)
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Assistive Technology assessment
model:
HAAT - Human Activities Assistive
Technology – Cook & Hussy
QUEST - Quebec User Evaluation of
Satisfaction with
Assistive Technology (Demers 2002 )
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Present Employability Law & Implications
In Irish law, there are 4 statues:
• Disability Act 2005 - De Wispelaere and Walsh (2007) reiterate this
view; the act is a missed opportunity in the construction of disability
rights within Ireland
• Employment Equality Acts 1998-2011 - prohibiting discrimination on
nine grounds – Buckley 2000 - the term “reasonable” is open to
interpretation”
• Equal status Act 2000-2011 & Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act
2005
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Research methodology
• In my role of Assistive Technology Officer I had agreement from my
Service to interview eight participants
• 4 current final year undergraduate students
• 4 graduates from TCD who have worked in full time employment
• All interviews took place within the library complex of The Ussher Library
in Trinity College, Dublin. The location of the interviews chosen by each
individual participant.
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Participant Breakdown :
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Qualitative Research / Life time history approach-
• Research aims to make a connection between the users’ events in the
use of technology and activities in which the technology has been used.
Hatch and Wisniewski (1995) state that the life history approach “places
narrative accounts and interpretations in a broader context – personal,
historical, social, institutional, and/or political”.
-
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• Themes were identified using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is
described by Braun and Clarke (2006) as: “Identifying, analysing and
reporting patterns (themes) within data. It minimally organises and
describes your data set in (rich) detail. However, frequently it goes
further than this, and interprets various aspects of the research topic”.
• Analysis will outlined the use of a five pass process as outlined by
Auerbach (2003).
• The themes will be coded using a variety of colour to allow ease of
identification and examination of key patterns from each participant to
form the results from this investigation
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Red =
Green =
Research Themes analysis
• From and from the analysis
of the text indefinable
themes were extracted.
These themes were extracted
from patterns of responses to
the semi structured interview
process based on the HAAT
model
• Organise Sub-themes by
Grouping Repeating Ideas
into Coherent Categories
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A Supportive Environment
Assistive Technology Design &
Procurement
Purple =
Independence and Ability
Sky Blue =
Assessment of Need
Grey =
Awareness of Irish Law
Results – 5 main Barriers to AT Transition
1. The need for support Environment
The Support topic highlighted benefits of expert assistive technology
support available to the participants while in an educational environment,
following this, in a work setting, a lack of expert support results in
frustration that curtail the transition and satisfaction with assistive
technology.
SF1: “I needed to be able to use the technology. The support I received in
college was a huge factor in enabling my use; if something went wrong I
could ring and get support. I learnt unless I did something really stupid I
wasn't going to actually break it unless I dropped it”
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- The comparison to the Working environment :
- GF3: “I'm only anxious in my working environment because I'm not
sure what response I’m going to get, they generally do not know what
I'm talking about”
- GM2: “you have to go through enormous hoops to persuade the IT
department to allow you to install it. It worked perfectly at home, but
in a work environment it is impossible.”
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2. Assistive Technology Design and Procurement
All eight participant themes commented on the usability , high cost cost
and use of low tech supports such as mobile apps in breaking down
barriers in accessing information in an accessible format
GM2 comments: “I've always felt it would be much better if the
technology I wanted to use would be more mainstream. In some ways it's
become like the iPhone or the Apple laptop…you don't need to buy
anything separate. The trouble with separate things is historically it's a
bolt-on, it's an afterthought, it does not interface well.”
SF3: “Things should go is towards integration, where assistive technology
features are inbuilt, this stops you from having a cumbersome device. I'd
be more positive towards technology that is geared towards the
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The University
of Dublin
mainstream,
and
ergonomically
better”
2. Assistive Technology Design and Procurement
The use of open source software also breaks down barriers as it allows
the user to adapt the software as required :
GM3 says: “At the moment I use NVDA, which I find is very good. It's free
and open source. The fact that it is open source has been a great benefit, I
was able to facilitate NVDA to display in Irish, so it's not just that it's free,
but it's open source, so I can contribute to it as well and it benefits the
system. That type of software has changed my views; you can actually
influence it by working on it”
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
3. Ability and Perception
• These themes centred on the independence gained from engagement
in such technology, Exclusion and perception factors that prohibit the
disclosure of such need and how their non use of their AT creates
barriers
• SF1 commented: “When I go further in whatever direction I go in
technology is an essential part of my life. Technology is essential on a
daily basis for me, I will always use it. I think asking for support enables
me to become more independent and I have had to learn a lot”.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
SM2: “My own perception would be a barrier, for example,
embarrassment associated with the terminology. When it is dyslexia,
people might dismiss it as being nothing. All of those issues were coming
to play”.
GF3 said: “A lot of the time there are parts of my work that aren't
accessible and the solution largely is that I would get one my teammates
to do it. I said to them. "That's fine in the short term", but my personality,
which is largely independent, and I don't like people doing stuff for me.
Plus everybody else is doing their own work. I don't think that is fair to
disrupt them because the setup is not correct”.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
4. Assessment of Need
Results shows the advantages of such a formal process to set expectations
and build supportive relationships for further training as needed. Results
from graduated participants highlight the non-existence of a similar
process in an employment environment and the barriers that occur as a
result
SM4 comments: “when I came to college I was definitely accurately
accessed. I was sat down and was shown different machines and different
PCs that could benefit me.”
GM2: “It puts the onus back on the individual, like myself, it's more a
person without a disability does not have to do. But I felt I had to do it
myself. It would honestly be far better if there was somebody in the
organisation who would be proactively realising this third party
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of Dublin
application
has The
anUniversity
accessibility
issue”
5. Legal Provisions
• The lack of awareness of these provisions by the younger participants
strongly contrasted with a greater knowledge and use from the mature
participants. The sentiment of a lack of enforcement and available
loopholes were also noticeable.
• SM2: “I didn't really understand that if somebody is in employment
then they should be reasonably accommodated. I didn't know it was
enshrined into law. I would expect it would be. I have a vague
understanding of it.”
• SF3: “I know the college access policy for sure. Irish law? No, not all, I
know better equality and all that, that's all”
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Results – Quest Quantitative
Additionally each student
completed a modified Quest
tool evaluating their
satisfaction under two main
areas service and the device
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Results – Quest Quantitative
Quest Results - Students
5
4.75
4.5
4.75
4.75
4.08
4.25
4
4.5
4
3.5
3.5
3
3.1
3.75
3.66
3.65
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
SF1
Device satisfactionSM2
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Support Satisfaction SF3
Overall
SM4
Results – Quest Quantitative
Quest Results - Graduates
5
4.5
4.75
4.62
4
3.5
3.66
3.41
3.25
3.08
3
2.75
2.5
2.25
2
1.91
1.5
1
1.5
1
1
0.5
0
GM1
GM2
Device satisfaction
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GF3
Support Satisfaction
Overall
GF4
What was the output from the research ? - Development of the MEP
• From the result gained via the interview & quest assessment a draft Exit
assessment for use by students looking to transition to a working
environment was constructed
• MET assessment tool is designed to be a concise assessment allowing
both the exiting student or current employee to highlight areas of
concern for future use of assistive technology that may have been
previously used within an educational environment
• The MET also aims to provide a potential link to external resources, which
may be a government agency or educational disability service for expert
help if needed by the employer.
• The MET highlights the potential use of open source software, either free
or low cost, as an alternative, and to eliminate the barrier of cost.
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Development of a Transition to Employment Support
Transition
Planning Tool
Career Pathways
Service &
Resources
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• Building personal strategies
• Enabling and Building your Career
• Disclosure & RAs
• Fit
• Advice for Students & transition
to work
• Enabling the Work Environment
(Nolan & Gleeson, 2015)
1st draft of the of
the MET:
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Development of
the MET:
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Online –E-Portfolio integration
• Aims to support students in:
• Gathering work experiences
• Reflecting upon possible disability needs
in the workplace.
• Exploring career options.
• Developing work relevant skills
• Developing strategies to manage their
disability in the workplace.
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Pebblepad
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Pebblepad
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Online –E-Portfolio integration
• Collaboration with other HEIs; UCD,
DIT, DCU & Marino Institute of
Education.
• 110 Current Students and 10
Graduates engaged this year so far
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Development of the MET
Review of the MET by Technology Professionals
Dell Ireland – True-ability office
•“I think it would benefit us to raise awareness of what assistive
technologies have been used before, it would save time and
resources in going through assessments. It would be great at
that time to have some history on the person, obviously it
would be good to keep in touch with previous employers or
support organisations that have looked after that person. This is
why it is much easier to go through an employment process
with a government agency like WAM because they have been
looked after by them and they know there are issues”.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Development of the MET
Assistive technology officer- DCU –Henry Langton
“It's not that the employers, say “I have an employee with a disability”.
It's “How can I support this user?”, it's not a case of fear , it a case
have not been able to provide accommodations for that reason, some
employers are reluctant to hire staff with disabilities because they feel
that they do not have the appropriate skills”.
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Future Work:
•
To get further feedback on the effectiveness of the Matching Employees with
technology (MET); a future roll-out and piloting within an existing
employment area could be looked at. This further work could engage fully
with the respective management structures and view current existing
employment policy along with any potential employee requesting or
presently using assistive technology accommodations.
•
Future work coming from this investigation would be an extended pilot
involving a greater cohort of students across separate higher education
institutions. Increasing the use of the MET amongst a greater cohort of
current education students would increase validity of the study and allow for
a greater integration of the MET amongst a wide range of disability cohorts.
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Questions ?
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin