Transcript

Assistive technology is any technology that either improves, maintains or enhances functioning of a person who has a disability. So it's really what we see in the area of intervention as a compensatory intervention. It doesn't fix the problem like mediation does but it bypasses the problem. So for example, if someone was unable to use their legs and they wanted to get from point A to point B, before we invented the wheelchair you had to pull yourself across the ground, a very effortful task. Or, they would have to ask someone else to pick them up and move them from point A to point B, meaning that they were very dependent on others. With the advent of the wheelchair, suddenly the person was able to move from point A to point B much more efficiently and to do it independently. 

The same thing in education today is that we have new tools, new technology tools, that are allowing individuals to become much more independent in their learning and be able to do tasks that would otherwise be very effortful for them to do, doing it much more efficiently.