Ms Anne O'Rourke:

Assistive technology is in all of our hands and our phones. There is so much stuff there. It can be such a useful educational tool for children in the classroom setting. For a child who might be slow at handwriting, if he or she can take a photo of the work from the board and start writing, they would still have the photo when they go home to do homework. There is so much low-level stuff such as reading pens, calculators and spell checkers. That low-level stuff should be normalised. I would love to see the normalising of the use of that type of low-level technology because for the child who is slow at handwriting, using an iPad to take a photo of their work from the board is as essential as another child wearing a pair of glasses. If every classroom had half a dozen reading pens on the teacher's desk, all the children could go up to the desk and use them if and when they needed to or wanted to.

Again, a lot of assistive technology for schools has been funded by the Department of education for individual students, but schools do not have the time or the training to actually set the kids up to use it as effectively and efficiently as they could. Sometimes there is an issue where a child cannot use an iPad now because if he uses an iPad then he will not be able to type his exams in the junior certificate or leaving certificate or they are afraid to use it. When kids go from sixth class into first year, they do not want to be different.

Inclusion is not about fitting in; it is about a sense of connectedness and belonging and if everybody could use whatever technology they need. You would never tell a child in a wheelchair that they could not use a wheelchair, yet children are very self-conscious about using assistive technology in the shape of iPads or tablets in secondary school. Phones, for obvious reasons, are pretty much a non-starter. As an educational tool, assistive technology has a huge role, particularly for dyslexic children who tend not to get the same attention in relation to that.