Natspec

At , there was a mix of fundamental practice as well as looking to what the future might bring. Fil McIntyre reflects on the breadth of practice on display in the latest Natspec blog.

"The obvious zeitgeist was AI, but to focus too much on this would be to deny some of the fundamentals that people are still learning about in education and care settings. Those fundamentals include switch access, which is often misunderstood and oversimplified as an access method. The subject of switch use was covered in two highly contrasting presentations: one describing how Treloar College enables adults to explore their s*xuality through adapted s*x toys, the other setting out the Pace Centre’s formalised system called the “Seven stages of switch development”.

Two of the conference presentations did cover the use of AI for greater accessibility - firstly by the Open University who have designed virtual assistants (also known as chatbots) to support disabled students. The Open University also have exciting plans to co-design systems which will support knowledge sharing between students and staff. The second AI themed presentation gave delegates a chance to try out a range of tools and see how these might benefit disabled students."

TechAbility Conference 2023 – balancing futuristic and fundamental - Natspec Fil McIntyre reflects on the TechAbility conference and the breadth of discussion happening amongst delegates.