AMANDA HYNAN FINAL THESIS PDF

supports the findings of Harris (2010) who explored why devices are sometimes
abandoned by people with disabilities. He concluded that the role of advanced
technology should be to
“enhance independence and provide mainstream solutions that disabled people
request”. (p.427)
As discussed within the previous chapter (sections 4.5.3. & 4.5.4) and within this
chapter (sections 5.3.3; 5.4.4.; 5.4.6. & 5.5) collaborating to use the internet and
online social media is a hugely complicated issue for: educational settings to address,
personal staff to facilitate, parents to manage and young people to navigate. Young
people need to navigate the challenges for finding suitable partners to collaborate
with. They have to negotiate balancing issues of privacy against being able to
communicate with family and friends through a third party. The young people also
have to negotiate the lack of knowledge of potential collaborators as reported by the
SLT in the raw data, one participant was teaching her personal staff about signing,
VOCAs and computers. There are numerous resources produced by local authorities
and government departments illustrating the strict guidelines on personal social
contact between care staff and their clients. One such example is the ‘Guidance for
safer working practices for adults who work with children and young people within
educational settings’ published by the Department for children, schools and families
(DCSF, 2009).
“Communication between pupils and adults, by whatever method, should take
place within clear and explicit professional boundaries. This includes the
wider use of technology such as mobile phones text messaging, e-mails, digital
cameras, videos, web-cams, websites and blogs. Adults should not share any
personal information with a child or young person. They should not request,
or respond to, any personal information from the child/young person, other
than that which might be appropriate as part of their professional role. Adults
should ensure all communications are transparent and open to scrutiny” (p.
16)
The educational settings within the current research were keen to support their staff
within this area and as discussed in section 5.3.3. are actively working on many levels
to navigate their way through the factors of introducing the internet and online social
media into settings and supporting young people who use AAC. Colleges can draw
much support from JiscTechDis (http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/home), a UK
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