Supporting Neurodiversity and Students with Sensory and Communication Impairments Using Mainstream Mobile Technologies

This presentation outlines our current understanding of mobile technologies and their use in the support of neurodiversity and students with sensory and communication impairments. This cafe will also discuss a project that developed college wide support for students at the London School of Economics (LSE) using online and , and summarises protocols, possible apps and the management of technologies to provide support. The presentation is relevant to the event themes as it addresses issues of social justice for students with disabilities and special needs in higher education, it addresses the OEB audience as it shows management strategies for supporting students with disabilities through the use of mainstream mobile technologies, and it addresses the purpose of OEB, as it shows how mainstream mobile technologies support people with disabilities. This presentation outlines the challenge of supporting higher education students in mainstream classes, where they study alongside their peers using mainstream technologies. The key take-aways are that neurodiversity and sensory and communication impairments are often overlooked in higher education or people are afraid of addressing issues related to these issues. However, good management strategies using mainstream technologies can often address many of these fears and the hurdles presented during teaching and learning. This presentation will stimulate thinking and prompt discussion and debate by developing informal workshop-style activities and discussion as well as critically examining the LSE project. This proves an innovative approach as traditional support has focussed on traditional assistive technologies and providing prescribed support for students, with little management of this support having been considered.