Introduction
The focus of this book is the use of technologies by adults with learning disabilities. Its main aim is to examine what we know about past and present practices in supporting adults with learning disabilities to use technologies in order to consider implications for future practice. I am keen to examine whether we have fallen prey to the complacency that Stevens (2004: 33) warned us about:
The picture at the beginning of the twenty-first century looks as healthy as at any time in the previous three decades. There is, however, no room for complacency. If history has taught us anything about ICT and SEN, then it should be that if we take our eyes off the ball, we risk missing the goal.
With regards to past practice in the United Kingdom (UK), the history of technology use by adults with learning disabilities has been relatively ignored. In the 1990s, some well-known practitioners in the field of children with āspecial educational needsā reflected back on the previous twenty years in order to make predictions for the future. All of them concluded that more needed to be done. For example, in the last chapter of their book, Learning Difficulties and Computers: Access to the Curriculum, Hawkridge and Vincent (1992: 213) reflected back on twenty years of policy and practice in order to identify what changes were still needed in the 1990s. āIt often helps to look back before looking forwardā they note. They concluded that there has been āconsiderable progress since the 1970s, but more remains to be doneā (p. 220). In particular, they concluded that experience from the past twenty years suggested that more needed to be done to ensure that provision of technologies was led by need, and therefore, assessments were more available; teachers had immediate access to the resources they need and better co-ordination of the networks that disseminated good practice. In 1991, Peter Fowler, who directed a national government funded programme designed to promote the integration of microcomputers into schools in the UK, charted the history of the programme and what he saw as the decline of the networks and infrastructure that was created for the āspecial needsā technology field. He admitted to feeling frustrated about the future and called for the creation of a āsmall, tightly efficient and highly committed national advisory group in this areaā (Fowler 1991: 9). Larcher (1991: 40), an expert in using technologies to support communication, reflected on her eleven years of experience in the field in order to judge how far the community had come in a decade and the implications for the next decade. She concluded that technologies had potential, but only if we are āled by the needs of the individuals.ā In this book, I will offer a historical examination of whether and how adults with learning disabilities have been supported to use technologies and consider the extent to which practice of the past has provided a solid foundation on which to build on for the future.
The current practice of supporting adults with learning disabilities to use technology is relatively under-researched and unproblematised in the field of disability, technology and education. Instead, research in the field has primarily attempted to identify potential positive outcomes of using technology (e.g. Wu et al. 2005); patterns of usage (e.g. Hegarty and Aspinall 2006) and factors that influence access to and use of technologies (e.g. Harrysson, Svensk and Johannson 2004). In this book, I will offer an examination of current support practice focusing particularly on two important questions: (1) How are supporters helping people with learning disabilities to access and use technology and what is influencing these practices? (2) How can these practices be strengthened and expanded?
Through my examination of past and present support practice, I will argue that whilst we need to celebrate the past accomplishments of technology and related support practice, we also need to identify any questions that remain unanswered in order to reflect on the future journey of technology and support practice. In order to orientate readers to the content and structure of this book, in this chapter I will define and justify the terms that I will use, explain my approach to writing the book and provide an overview of the main overarching themes.
Scoping definitions and terms
Applying labels to people and things and defining those labels can be both complex and contentious, particularly in the field of disabilities. Nevertheless, I feel that it is important to make it clear to readers how I am understanding and defining certain labels, so that they can understand what falls inside and outside of the scope of my analytical gaze. In scoping my use of definitions and terms here, I am not claiming that my way is the best way; it is just a way that works for me in the context that I am writing.
Adults with learning disabilities
With respect to āadulthoodā in the context of this book, it is understood as beginning when a person leaves compulsory education, recognising that some people with learning disabilities leave school between the ages of 18 and 25. In using the term ālearning disability,ā I am guided by the definitions offered by the Department of Health (2001) and Seale, Nind and Simmons (2013). In their influential āValuing Peopleā strategy, the UK Department of Health (2001) defined learning disability as including the presence of reduced ability to learn new skills and cope independently, which started before adulthood. Seale, Nind and Simmons (2013: 1ā2) proposed that people with learning disabilities āare deemed to have some form of difficulty with experiencing and acquiring new information. Secondly, this difficulty is described as starting in childhood. Thirdly, the difficulty is said to impact on people's ability to cope independently.ā Furthermore, I also argue that the environment can play a particular role in further disabling or enabling a person with a learning disability, which is why I am interested in the role that technologies can play in mediating how a person with a learning disability interacts with their environment. In defining learning disability in this way, I hope to make it clear that I am not using the term in the same way as American scholars who use the term ālearning disabilitiesā to refer to specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. My use of the term ālearning disabilitiesā does, however, overlap with the terms āintellectual disabilities,ā āintellectual impairments,ā ācognitive disabilitiesā or ādevelopmental disabilitiesā which are used by many researchers outside of the UK, particularly in Europe.
In applying my definition of ālearning disabilities,ā the examples and literature that I draw on will exclude technology users whose primary support needs relate to social interaction (e.g. autism); physical impairment (e.g. cerebral palsy) or sensory impairment (e.g. Blind or hearing impaired). I recognise that many adults with learning disabilities have complex needs which might include social, physical or sensory impairments, and therefore, my definition would include them. However, what I am trying to do is to make an important distinction between those disability or impairment groups that in my view dominate technology and disability-focused research and practice discourses (e.g. visual impairment, autism) and those, such as learning disability, that are in my view ignored.
I recognise that the use of labels such as ālearning disabilityā is contested by some groups within the community. For example, within the UK, a nationwide network of self-advocacy groups called People First prefers to use the term ālearning difficulties.ā In contrast, however, two national umbrella organisations, whose members include People First groups, do use the term learning disability (Learning Disability England and Learning Disability Wales), indicating that there is common ground between those who use the different labels.
Finally, when reviewing the literature in the field, I will, on occasion, cite or quote the work of other authors, many of whom, because of the era in which they were writing, used terms that we now consider inappropriate (e.g. āmental retardationā). In these contexts, I will put single quotes around the labels to make it clear that it is not necessarily a label that I am endorsing.
Technology
In order to encompass the technologies that were available in the 1970s and the newer technologies of today, I am defining technology very broadly to include computers (desktop, laptops); mobile phones including smartphones and all the Apps that can be used on them; Personal Digital Assistants, iPads and other tablet devices; the Internet and email; social media (e.g. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube); assistive technologies such as communication aids; telecare equipment such as environmental control systems; virtual and augmented reality systems (e.g. Second Life); games consoles (e.g. PlayStation) and associated games; robots and artificial intelligence systems. In the literature that I will draw on in this book, some authors will name specific technologies such as I have done here, and others will use more generic terms such as Information Technologies (IT) or Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). I will use the term ātechnologyā throughout the book unless there is a particular need to refer to a particular type of technology or the authors that I cite use a different term.
Supporters and support practice
The emphasis on practice within the book means that I will use the terms supporters, support workers and practitioners interchangeably. For the purposes of this book, I will define practitioners, supporters or support workers as anyone who plays an informal or formal role in enabling adults with learning disabilities to live their life on their own terms. This might be a life with technologies, or a life without technologies. Supporters would, therefore, include parents, carers, schoolteachers and college lecturers, advocacy workers, social workers and health care professionals as well as technology designers and developers.
Support practice will be understood quite broadly to include advising or encouraging a person with a learning disability to use technology; assessing the technology needs of a person with learning disabilities and making recommendations relating to technology purchase or use; teaching the skills that a person with learning disabilities might need in order to use technology; facilitating access to the funds and resources required to purchase and use technologies; designing and developing technologies for people with learning disabilities and evaluating the impact and effectiveness of technologies for adults with learning disabilities.
The past, present and future
In talking about the past, present and future of technologies for adults with learning disabilities, I am defining the past as starting in 1970 and ending in 1999. The mid to late 70s was a period when aids such as the LightWriter were being developed to enable control and communication (Copeland 1974). Microcomputers such as RM Machines were also beginning to be introduced into special schools (e.g. Glen 1981). In the UK, the 1980s marked the introduction and domination of microcomputers. This spawned the development of a generation of microcomputer compatible educational software programmes and specialist technologies such as switches, concept keyboards and communication aids which were introduced into special education contexts (e.g. Blenkhorn 1986). The 1990s marked a period when technologies moved towards mobile devices, virtual reality and the Internet (e.g. Renblad 1999). For the purposes of this book, I am defining the present as starting from 2000 and ending at the time of the writing of this book, 2021. Within this period, the technologies that are be...
