Could you tell us a little bit about your background?

I am currently completing a Degree Apprenticeship in engineering at Dyson, but I also strongly considered training to be an Access Consultant instead. I am passionate about accessibility, both in the built environment and the digital world. Like what we are doing here with advocating about assistive technology. Outside of education, I love doing anything creative and outdoorsy.

What barriers to education have you have had to overcome?

I have gone through the education system with a learning difference and disabilities that have had a huge negative impact on my access to education. I have Autism, Dyslexia and had selective mutism among other things. I have been through many different educational settings, mainstream and specialist, as I have battled with SEMH challenges associated with finding the right setting to get my educational needs met.

Despite my extremely bumpy journey through education -and having at least one of every acronym/plan/worker: EHCP, ILP, IHP, TA, LSA, ELSA, Statement, CIN, TAC, …- I left school with top grades and most of the skills I needed to get to the next stage.

How did you first learn about assistive technology?

I had been given various types of AT software in secondary school -and even some in primary- like Dragon Naturally Speaking which is a speech-to-text program, but I didn’t know how to use it in lessons. Because I come from a strong line of dyslexic people I got introduced to these tools really young (8-10 years old) as my dad used them and showed me how to use them. I never really managed to get the hang of it, and didn’t see the benefits.

If I was going to give anyone advice on introducing speech-to-text assistive tech in primary school, I would encourage the adults supporting the child to model using it as often as possible. Parents helping their children with homework should be encouraging them to use it for written questions or use it to write messages to grandparents for example. At school, if a student is going to effectively use AT as part of their normal way of working, teachers need to be supporting using the tech as well. This could be by allowing the student to leave the classroom to go somewhere else -like learning support- when they want to use dictation software. No student is going to want to dictate whilst other students are writing quietly.

When did you see the benefits of assistive technology?

I started using assistive technology effectively when I went to college. Up until that point I had always been heavily supported by a human (a TA or learning support assistant) who supported me by adapting my class materials and scribing my work.

I was very lucky to have this support to get me through GCSEs. However this is a very dependent model of learning and, as I transitioned into college I started using more and more assistive technology to replace the support I needed from a 1:1. I worked with my tutors to change the format that they gave homework in to make the PDFs with questions into word documents and to use Google lens to change the homework questions which were written on the whiteboard into text. Overtime this enabled me to be more independent in my learning and allowed me to study outside of college hours because I didn't need my TA to be there. This was absolutely vital around exam time and put me on a far more even playing field with my peers.

What difference has assisted technology given you?

My ability to learn independently has been an amazing skill that has enabled me to go forward into my degree apprenticeship and continue learning in my new workplace with less reliance on human support.

Learning to use assistive technology in college has given me skills for life as so often the support available to adults with disabilities and learning differences is tech-based and it can be a challenge to pick up how to use these as part of your normal way of working if you're not already familiar from using it at school.