Assistive Technology (AT) is one part of the inclusive education/education for all approaches that we manifest in education. Much has been written about AT for inclusion and well-being for students (and staff), not only in terms of its power to access and create content, but also its personal and motivational benefits from AT too. In all these technology conversations and articles, there is less written about the identities of these AT specialists and how they see themselves and how educational institutions see them too - are these identities aligned? In this session, I want to explore my own identity as an Assistive Technology Officer in Irish Higher Education and how this manifests in my role, contributing to my AT practice and professional role. Do we, as AT specialists, explore our roles in this way and if not, let's explore it in this presentation. Finally, I want to share key AT takeaways that I advocate in Ireland - happy to share them with the wider Education community.

Key Takeaways 

As Assistive Technology Practitioners do we explore our AT identities? I would guess not - we are too busy for that but lets take a moment to do this. Our identities can be complex - are we technicians, administrators, pedagogists, teachers or learning designers or more? Do our identities align with how our workplaces see us? I want to invite you to an presentation and conversation about this matter.