The Celtic Tiger has taken more than a minor pummeling in recent weeks, and the information technology sector, in particular, is reeling from the change in fortunes. But despite the bruised state of the industry, one spin-off determinedly resistant to the vagaries of the Nasdaq is the burgeoning Assistive Technology sector, where talk is less of share-price indices and more of alternative access, ground-breaking software developments (such as voice recognition products) and, at long last, a plethora of mainstream products designed with universal access in mind.
Assistive Technology enables people with disabilities (or maybe just "different abilities") to make the most of what technology in general has to offer. Whether it's a simple electronic door opener or a funky alternative music synthesiser, AT's task is to optimise everybody's independence, focusing on ability and harnessing the user's own resources.
To date, Assistive Technology advice has been hard to come by. Apart from a handful of voluntary agencies providing information and evaluation/advice, (such as Enable Ireland, the Central Remedial Clinic and some universities), those interested in furthering their skills in the field have had limited access to ongoing training.
Enable Ireland, a national voluntary agency providing services to people with disabilities, recognised this gap and sought to redress it with an initial two-week training course for service users and staff. Andrea Hanson, Enable Ireland's National Director of High Tech Assistive Technology and Postural Management, is quick to highlight her motivation for developing such a course.
"Technology has the potential of influencing all our lives," she says. "How effective it is depends on the choice of technology we make and the time we invest in learning about its functionality." Before delivering their first two-week course in Cork earlier this year, Enable Ireland sought support from Ability Net in the UK, a national organisation which provides computer access advice and assessment to people with disabilities. Ability Net's David Banes explains the potential of technology to transform the way differing abilities can be harnessed.
The exponential effects of intensive training have already been highlighted, as Sylvia Thompson, Speech and Language Therapist in Enable Ireland's Kerry centre notes. "I'm already working in AT," she says, "and I feel my clients deserve the best, and I feel that just because we work in a centre that's 'down the country', our clients should still be able to access a reasonable, if not more than reasonable service here."
The AT training courses designed by Enable Ireland have benefited from the organisation's corporate partnership with Microsoft in a very tangible way. With two Microsoft employees busily engaged in designing a website to accompany the course (with pre-course material including video footage, stills and web-links to useful AT resources on line), the synergy is making an impact across the organisation as service users and staff benefit from the IT skills which Microsoft brings to the table.
The first week of Enable Ireland's second AT training course is being delivered this week in EI's Sandymount Centre, with a follow up week in November.
slong@irish-times.ie