THE GOVERNMENT has missed a golden opportunity to ensure children with special educational needs benefit from assistive technology, says the British Assistive Technology Association.
Under the biggest shake-up of the SEN system for 30 years, parents are to get a new legal right to buy in specialist care for their children.
But BATA, which represents leading assistive technology organisations, professionals and users, believes that the Department for Education has failed to recognise the benefits assistive technology can bring. Mark McCusker, chairman of BATA, said: “The paper essentially overlooks the potential for assistive technology to enhance lives and improve educational outcomes for children with special needs.
“BATA, however, welcomes the proposal that augmentative and alternative communication aids (AAC) may become a core responsibility of the NHS Commissioning Board.
“If this brings better provision for children with severe communication difficulties that will certainly be valuable, but this is a tiny fraction of those who can benefit from more standard, mainstream assistive devices and software,” said BATA council member Ian Litterick.“Often this technology is quite low cost.”
