Access All Areas: disability, technology and learning

Acknowledgements The publication of this book is the result of a collaboration between TechDis and the Association for Learning Technology who have worked together to commission and edit the contributions. Both TechDis and the Association for Learning Technology would like to acknowledge the following people who have contributed chapters for this book: The following contributed to the reviewing, copy editing or proof reading of this book and their comments and assistance are also gratefully acknowledged: There are many terms in current usage to describe disabled people. In this publication we have used the term 'impairment' to cover the range of conditions which lead to a person being disabled. An impairment is therefore some part of a person's physical being or learning ability, which does not function in the same way as most people's. This can include a wide range of visual impairments, hearing impairments (covering both deaf and hard of hearing), mobility impairments, medical conditions (for example epilepsy or asthma) and cognitive or learning issues (for example dyslexia). However, the language regarding disabilities must be carefully chosen. We have used the term 'disabled people' (or students) rather than, for example, 'people with disabilities' , as it very much changes the emphasis of ownership or cause of the disability. The term 'people with disabilities' implies that the person's impairment or condition causes them to be 'disabled' (and consequently that it is their responsibility to overcome it), whereas 'disabled person' implies that the person is disabled not necessarily by their condition or impairment, but by society and its inability or reluctance to cater effectively for that person (and consequently that society must effect change to remove that disability). Following this logically it is acceptable to refer to a 'person with an impairment' because the ownership lies with the person (a deaf person is unable to hear, that is their impairment, whereas the fact that they experience barriers to functioning normally within society is a societal problem and hence they become disabled by those barriers, not by their impairment directly). The differences between the terms may seem subtle to some people, but to disabled people they are extremely important. Different people and organisations choose different language and most have rational arguments to defend their choice. Hopefully the explanation given here shows why we have chosen the terminology that you will find within this publication. This publication provides a useful and timely resource for …