Tech Bloomers 10th - - print them out. It’s made a huge difference to me. It’s made me achieve things I only dreamt of. I used to have a teacher, she’s passed away now and one day she said to me.
‘You’re going to do your Maths GCSE ( General Certificate of Secondary Education ) .’ I said, ‘No I’m not. Don’t be silly.’ I didn’t think I could do anything like that. Studying was so difficult because I had to rely on someone to type everything into a computer for me. But that’s changed now.
I can do it myself with my voice. Kim, who is the Assistive Technologist at my school, introduced me to Dragon Dictate and it has opened up the world to me. Kim showed me how to train it to understand my voice, it took a few hours. Now I use it in class and at home as well.
It has made me more independent and I am now able to study on my own. So now I’m doing my Maths GCSE. I know my teacher will be proud of me. Former President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam was concerned about people with disability and, along with his team, developed lightweight prosthetics from space-age material to enable disabled children to walk easily. I never thought I’d be able to do one GCSE in my life, but I’m going to do two. And I feel like I want to push myself even further. Kim says technology can help me do that, it is opening up the world for young disabled people like me.
There are many different types of technology that can help a young disabled person become independent. For example, if someone has very limited movement they can control a computer screen with Eye Gaze . That means when they’re reading they can move from page to page using the pupils of their eyes. They don’t need to press a button or anything.
Just one person, Kim, works with all students here at my school and helps us use technology in different ways.