Advancement in technology has brought about many noteworthy upgrades in lifestyle. Undoubtedly, dealing with computers is an eminent part of it. Right from contacting loved ones to purchasing something, computers come in handy with a wide range of purposes. But some people, like those with Dyslexia, may have some challenges in operating these devices. 

In areas like typing, or inferring text from the screen, these individuals can have notable issues. In this post, we will talk about the probable areas where people with learning difficulties can face challenges when it comes to working with computers. And with this idea, you can dive into working tips and strategies to efficiently deal with computers. 

Dyslexia and computers in daily life

Computers have become an inevitable part of our lives. However, working with them might not be smooth sailing for everyone. Hence, Let’s understand in what all areas dyslexics find a challenge when it comes to operating computers. Here are some insights worth noting:

1. Dealing with Typing

Typing is a basic skill that a user needs to input data into a computer. This ability needs good motor skills, bilateral coordination, spatial knowledge, and endurance. Most often, Dyslexics may not be able to type for long durations with efficiency due to the need for these features. They may need to work on ameliorating these attributes to master typing skills. 

2. Screen Glares 

Screen glares can be a common issue for most Dyslexics. Due to the plain white background, they may feel washout or swirl effects. It is observed that having colored overlays can improve the speed of screen reading. 

Lisa M. Handerson^[1] made research on both dyslexic and non-dyslexic undergraduates to see how overlays can help in better screen reading. It is outlined that these overlays can be equally useful for all learners to increase efficiency, which implies that Dyslexics can improve computer skills using overlays. 

3. Text fonts

The size and fonts of the text can make a great difference for Dyslexic computer users. There is a list of good and bad fonts for them. Choosing common options like Arial or opting for specialised fonts like OpenDyslexic can improve the usability of the device. Suitable fonts are either simple or are weighted on one side to make comprehension easier for these individuals. 

5. Writing program codes

Coding is an important skill that needs a good understanding of syntaxes, numbers, and structuring. Mastering these can be challenging for Dyslexics. But it was observed^[2] that Dyslexics bring about their creativity and problem-solving skills in programming along with some challenges like short-term memory and spelling. This means that Dyslexics can do coding but face some minor glitches in this process.

Should dyslexics deal with computers?

The above insights make it clear what it is like dealing with computers being Dyslexic. These insights point out areas where these special individuals face challenges. While most people can face initial challenges with computers, the above areas can be managed over time. 

Computers have a lot of benefits for Dyslexics, which makes it valuable for them to manage minor challenges if any. Nisha Sharan^[3] did research to see how computers are assistive for dyslexia students. In a study conducted on students aged 13-15 with Swedish as a second language, it is concluded that computers are helpful for Dyslexic students. Nisha identified computers to be handy on the following grounds:

• In improving the self-esteem and advocacy of students
• Making students independent
• Motivating them to clear doubts without feeling embraced.  

Dyslexics using computer- Tips to ponder 

From the above insights, it can be inferred that operating a computer is useful for dyslexics, but they may have a few hitches in the process. To address all of these areas, here are a few tips and strategies to make them work on computers efficiently:

1. Visual adjustments

As discussed in previous lines, screen glare can be a disturbing factor for users, especially for longer durations. There are a few solutions that can prove to be effective visual adjustments:

• Users can change the background color or text color to make it more interpretable.
• Ensure overlays to the computer screen 
• Individuals can use Dyslexia Glasses. These are color-tinted glasses that people with dyslexia can wear while reading texts to improve their efficiency. 

2. Motor adjustments

For typing and other operations on the computer, good motor skills are needed. People with dyslexia can make appropriate arrangements to better use their motor skills with computers. First, they can undergo motor planning activities. Second, they can adjust their seat and computer height to the optimal state. 

3. Make use of multisensory communication

Computers support multimedia and multiple modes of communication, inputs, and outputs. So, the user can use voice commands to enter data instead of typing. Also, instead of reading the text, they can listen to it, making comprehension easier.  

4. Join Keyboarding courses

Individuals with dyslexia can go for some special typing courses that offer quick tips and insights. With these courses, individuals can get better at keyboarding and thereby better at dealing with computers. Some of the suggested typing courses include Read and Spell, KAZ Tutorial, Rapid Typing Tutor, and Typing bolt.  

5. Use dyslexia-friendly software 

There are multiple software available to make comprehension easy for Dyslexics. These can be text -to speech programs or Writing to Spelling Programs. Text-to-speech programs convert any piece of text into audio format letting the user listen to the text. This software can work on all types of files, making it easy for Dyslexics. Writing to spelling programs spell any word written/typed appropriately to teach these individuals the right spelling of the word. 

6. Video games assist

Video games are often perceived as a mode of recreation, but they have developing effects on crucial personality attributes like short-term and phonological memory and visual-to-auditory learning. 

Sandro Franceschini^[4] made research to see if action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory memory in English children with Dyslexia. The results of the test showed that not just action video games but all other games also improve these crucial attributes. Accordingly, indulging in video games for disciplined time intervals can have a positive effect on people with dyslexia while dealing with computers.  

Concluding thoughts

Devices like computers are made to make life easier. With the wide variety of utilities it offers, these handy companions ease our life. Even if people with Dyslexia have a few issues operating them, there are working solutions, tips, and tricks to manage. Accordingly, any learning disabled individual can look into fitting tips to resolve or manage their hitches. Traverse through the insights and strategies elucidated above to see how these can help you or your loved ones to operate computers effortlessly. 

References

1. Henderson, L. M., Tsogka, N., & Snowling, M. J. (2013). Questioning the benefits that colored overlays can have for reading in students with and without dyslexia. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 13(1), 57-65.
2. Powell, N., Moore, D., Gray, J., Finlay, J., & Reaney, J. (2004). Dyslexia and learning computer programming. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, 3(2), 1-12.
3. Sharan, N. (2014). Computer: A tool for assisting students having dyslexia.
4. Franceschini, S., Trevisan, P., Ronconi, L., Bertoni, S., Colmar, S., Double, K., … & Gori, S. (2017). Action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting in English-speaking children with dyslexia. Scientific reports, 7(1), 1-12.

Dr. Deepak K.

Dr. Deepak Kansal, MBBS MD (Psychiatry) is currently working as Nodal Officer of the District Mental Health program at Civil Hospital Sangrur for the last 3 years. Apart from psychiatry and substance use patients, Dr. Deepak also treats children with neurodevelopment disorders including Intellectual disability, specific learning disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and other psychiatric disorders. His research work involved studying psychiatric comorbidities in cancer patients. You can follow him on Linkedin

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This arrangement is provided by assistive technology. Knowledge of AT devices is essential because now it has become a legal obligation to provide disabled or differently-abled with accommodations, and is the right of the people to ask for these for better learning or participation.^[2]

Assistive technology is a broad term. It does not cover devices only. According to the WHO fact sheet 2018, it is an umbrella term for a continuum of systems, services, and strategies designed to complement the individualized needs of people with abilities to ensure their better participation in learning and at work; also, it helps improve the quality of life. Approx. 1 billion people require assistive technology and the gap between requirement and correct device advice needs further research.

In this post, we will be covering:

1. Tracing the history of assistive technology
2. Types of assistive technology
3. Benefits offered

So, let’s start!

Tracing the history of Assistive Technology

The world got the initial hang of Assistive technology before 1900, an era considered the Foundation Period for technological transformations. However, its real application plan to improve the situation at educational institutes and at work was drafted with the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA, which mandated the offering of assistive devices to people recognized with learning disabilities^[3]. This reauthorization broadened the implication of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, which validated the use of AT to enhance the quality of life of Americans.

Initially, the AT devices and systems were low-tech and mostly provided mobility aids. These comprised crutches to hold a pen or audio recorders for listening to the spoken words. Gradually, research revolved around how to make AT devices easier to apply for invisible disabilities too. It coincided with the introduction of AI-enabled software, screen readers, and other soft solutions that offered higher quality replacements for lack of ability to read, write, or speak.

Types of assistive technology

Disabilities can be in-borne or a result of a traumatic impact on the body or mind. Some of these impact movements adversely, others hamper communication, and a few others interfere with learning abilities^[4]. Accordingly, the assistive technology space is broadly differentiated into:

• Mobility aids
• Communication aids
• Learning aids

Here is a brief description and examples of each of these.

1. Mobility aids

If the disability does not allow walking like normal or affects the gait, the subjects can employ mobility aids. Their function is to help affected individuals rehabilitate and find ways to become self-dependent as much as possible.

Examples include wheelchairs, escalators, walkers, crutches, motorized tricycles or bicycles, etc. If there is difficulty in walking or maintaining balance while standing or moving, walkers and crutches help. In case of complete disability to move or stand on feet, wheelchairs, escalators, and motorized bicycles are required.

2. Communication aids

Communication aids can compensate for weaker listening, poor to nil vision, and deferred speech. Aging, neurological defects, and neuromotor diseases show up in the victim’s inability to communicate. Hence, these aids can be of a supplementary nature or may completely replace the act such as speaking.

Examples include hearing aids, voice recognition command tools, text-to-voice conversion tools or apps, etc. All these arrangements assist in presenting ideas to others in a comprehensible manner.

3. Learning aids

Problems like the inability to understand words or numbers or write them have been classified as learning disabilities. Since these inabilities don’t allow people to absorb basic skills and force them to abandon their academic endeavors, the emphasis is on providing these aids compulsorily to students. The assistive devices that promote learning facilitate reading and writing and sometimes augment these with other modes of presenting ideas.

Learning aids can provide assistance of several types. These may bolster the grip on a pen to enable writing, amplify sounds for clearer hearing, or may also restrict the spread of text, or highlight it on a digital screen to enable easy reading. A few examples include:

• Crutches to hold pen
• Page turners
• Computerized software for dyslexics
• Alternative keyboards and mouses
• Touch control devices
• Word prediction programs and processors
• Concept mapping supports
• Graphic organizers
• Reading pens
• Note-taking pens or voice recorders
• Text-to-speech synthesizers, etc.

Learning needs intelligence and talent. Those born with learning difficulties have both. The only support they need is an assistive facility that helps them work around the lack of basic skills.

Apart from learning aids, there are a few cognitive aids like alarms, phones, and alerting devices that make up for hearing and cognition loss and help the needy person acknowledge the stimulus. Devices studded with alarms or doors with alerts are examples of cognitive aids.

Benefits offered

AT is the constructive use of technological innovations, to say the least. Machines are growing in intelligence due to AI, deep learning, and predictive modeling features. These innovative tools sometimes offer ease of humanoid interactions, a feature useful in replacing or augmenting human-like skills like reading, writing, talking, singing, etc. The idea behind the introduction of assistive technology in people’s lives is to make learning, communicating, commuting, and working on various endeavors easier. All these objectives are easily accomplished because of the benefits, such as:

• AT is designed to integrate seamlessly into the spaces of work, living, or study. Thus, these remove interpersonal and people-cosmos hindrances.
• ATs allow better participation and help people with high IQ but limited reading and writing abilities to get the opportunities they deserve.
• A very significant contribution of assistive technology lies in mental health maintenance. Since people with certain intellectual disabilities suffer from poor self-confidence, or inability to express themselves, they tend to catch depression and other psychological problems. ATs can help prevent the build-up of negative emotions by offering the disabled a way around intellectual disabilities.
• Assistive technology has brought people with disabilities to join the mainstream economy by enabling them to take up roles of higher responsibility and accountability.
• With assisting devices and systems, children can improve their language skills and learn to do calculations. Adults and seniors live a life of self-dependence and reduce expenses on healthcare issues. Also, they can learn to stand up for themselves and practice self-advocacy in matters of career and branch of study choices.

Adding more quality to life and solving problems are the two main deliverables of technology use. These deliverables are reasonably utilized in designing and developing ATs. The space is yet to be enriched more as innovators are trying to improve form and functionality to bring more sophistication in assistive solutions.

Conclusion

Technological interventions prove their utility better when these support an inclusive model in societal arrangements. With assistive technology in hand, those who felt ‘left-outs’ or were denied education and job opportunities can now have better leeway to join the mainstream. The bigger challenge now is to fill the unmet demand, which is actually an outcome of cost considerations and limiting access to these facilities developed. So, it is right to assume that it is just the start; AT has a long way to go and will be reaching more needy people in the ensuing times.

References:

1. A report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Review Sept 2020.
2. Johan Borg, Stig Larsson & Per‐Olof Östergren (2011) The right to assistive technology: for whom, for what, and by whom?, Disability & Society, 26:2, 151-167
3. Federal Legislation and Assistive Technology, AT Resource Guide, Ocali.org library, 2013, p.25
4. Americans With Disabilities: 2010, Report Number P70-131, United States Census Bureau, Matthew W. Brault

Pratiksha Bhatt

I am Pratiksha Bhatt, Bachelor of Life Science, and Masters in Management Studies. I have done certification courses in early education counseling. I am a writer, a mother of a child with spelling difficulties which drove me to alternative resources of education like manipulatives and participatory activities. My areas of expertise are learning difficulties, alternative learning methods, and activity-based learning.

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