Apologies for the delay - Back in the green and beautiful land!   A .rtf
file of the CSUN slides are available at
http://www.emptech.info/csun2007.php  455 dyslexic students took part in a
telephone survey, with grateful thanks to Microlink, as part of an on-going
research project at University of Manchester.  We have been discussing with
students, their views about the use of assistive technologies in their
learning environments.  I have cut and pasted the training section from the
paper we submitted for the CSUN presentation - this will also be available
on the webpage and the full paper should be published soon in "Disability
and Rehabilitation - Assistive Technology".  

"Despite the training being freely available, only 47% of students took up
the offer of training.  Students did not refuse training because they had
prior experience of the special-purpose software provided: whilst 87% of the
participants in the survey had used general-purpose software such as word
processors and web browsers prior to their assessment of needs, only 11% had
any experience with special-purpose software.  Of those that missed training
(241 participants)
.	42% indicated that they felt sufficiently competent not to need
training, 
.	17% indicated that the times, or length of sessions offered, for the
training were inconvenient
.	16% indicated that they felt that the type of training offered was
not compatible with their learning style
.	10% didn't comment on training 
.	 The remainder (15%) gave a variety of responses ranging from
accidentally missing training sessions to indicating that they expected
training on general-purpose software (e.g. Photoshop) rather than
special-purpose software (e.g. TextHelp).  

The students in our study who undertook the training were positive about its
benefits.  Over 80% were very or quite satisfied with the training they
received and a number made comments about its positive effects.

The results obtained in our survey are broadly consistent with earlier work.
Fidler (2002) found that only 45% of participants in his study attended
training and MacLachlin (1994) noted that 35% of students accepted
additional support."

Please may I also add something that I missed out in an e-mail before  -
that of course students may receive training in their Halls of Residence or
at home from trainers that come from universities or centres - I had not
added the and/or bit last time... Thank you Brenda.  :>)) 

I am sorry if the formatting for this page is disrupted by the e-mail
process. 

Best Wishes E.A.

Mrs E.A. Draffan
Assistive Technologist
Mobile: 07976 289103 
http://www.emptech.info/

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