Kate had attended a specialist school for the blind since she was five years old. She has some useful residual vision that means she can see a PC screen if she puts her face close up to it (only a small percent of people who are blind have no vision at all).  Kate can read from the screen if the font size is sufficiently increased, but she finds this very tiring and it often gives her a headache. Nonetheless, Kate found that technology has opened up her world, and she is able to communicate with friends and family and make new friends through the various blogs she used. 

Kate enrolled on an IT course, but in order to follow it she needed some assistive technology (a screen reader) installed on any PC she used.  To begin with, the education provider had some difficulties ensuring that this was provided consistently. They had the software installed on just one PC in the room normally used for the course. Some of the students and teachers complained that they were disturbed by the PC’s synthesised voice.  Also, due to pressure of numbers and/or technical glitches, the room was sometimes switched and none of the PCs in the new room had the required software installed.  

The course team thought that they had solved the problem when they succeeded in getting funding for a site licence for the software which meant it could be installed on all the department’s PCs (some of the dyslexic students valued this software too), and headphones were provided which meant no one else was disturbed by the screen reader. However, during a winter break, all the PCs were ‘cleaned’ and reinstalled but the technicians forgot to reinstall the assistive technology and Kate was seriously disadvantaged by the time it took to remedy the situation. As a result, the teacher had to arrange for an extended deadline for Kate to submit her course work; the department also noted that they needed to keep their technicians and administrative staff in the loop concerning the needs of disabled students on their courses.

Remember, the experience of disability is highly individualised, and people with the same impairment may have very different needs when it comes to making adjustments to practice. It is really important to have a discussion with the disabled person themselves about what their particular needs – and solutions – might be.