Why Study Mastery of Assistive Technology

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Why Study Mastery of Assistive Technology? Summary: The article describes the evolution of research in mastery of assistive technology (AT) conducted by Georgia Tech's Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI). A study that featured individuals with disabilities who were “power users” of AT, identified 20 indicators of AT mastery. This became the foundation for the Continuum of AT Mastery (CATM), which was developed to assess individuals' progress. Ongoing research seeks to explore CATM's applications in both educational and workplace settings.

I first encountered the question of mastery of assistive technology (AT) in 2012, shortly after I began work at what then known as the Accessible Materials Access Center (AMAC) at Georgia Tech. Today it is the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) and is part of the College of Design at Georgia Tech. CIDI serves post-secondary students with disabilities throughout the University System of Georgia (USG) by providing accessible educational materials (AEM) and software to support their academic work. The Customer Support (CS) team at AMAC has long enjoyed a reputation for providing effective support for students who encounter difficulty applying AT. But in that school year (2012-13), they encountered an increased number of students who were having difficulty achieving academic success. The support team provided AEM and AT, as well as training and follow-up for these students. However they found that an increased number of students were not succeeding academically - despite the team’s best efforts. The post-secondary experience for the majority of students with disabilities is very different from high school. Not only are students on their own from an organizational standpoint, but they

are also presented with a mountain of readings and assignments all at once. Reading and working through these assignments unaided quickly becomes overwhelming to those who are not strong text users. It is at this point that students tend to reach out to our center, if they have not done so prior to the start of their first semester. It became clear to the CS team that some students were better prepared than others. As they worked with the students, what stood out as different was not their level of effort or intelligence, but their knowledge of AT and their ability to use it. The CS team noted that they were able to get better traction when helping students who had familiarity with the AT they used. The idea that greater familiarity with AT should be associated with better academic performance seemed obvious, but when we consulted the research literature to learn more about this phenomenon, we found little to help us. Based upon these observations we launched a research project in which we engaged students with high incidence disabilities who came through the University System of Georgia over a three- year period (2013-2016) and who received AT supports through

BEN SATTERFIELD , is a Research Associate II at the Center for inclusive Design & Innovation (CIDI) in the College of Design at Georgia Tech. He has 41 years of experience in the field of Assistive Technology (AT) as the CEO of two small businesses that developed AT software/hardware solutions and consulted with educators on AT implementation. He was also an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Georgia, teaching the master’s level course in Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) in the Department of Communication Sciences & Special Education from 2012-2023. Ben and his wife, Pat, are parents of Blake, a young man with Down syndrome, and prior to that, were host home providers for Kathleen, a young lady who also was born with Down syndrome. Ben holds a Doctoral degree from Nova Southeastern University in Instructional Design and Distance Education. He currently serves on the Research Committee of the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) and is an Associate Editor for the Assistive Technology Journal and Assistive Technology Outcomes & Benefits Journal.

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our center. We asked questions to discover: 1) what percentage of students came to postsecondary education comfortable with assistive technology, 2) how the academic success of these students who came prepared to use AT compared to that of students who come not yet comfortable using AT and 3) what kinds and how much they used AT in high school? Unsurprisingly, our study found that in a comparison of grade-point averages in high school to those at the end of the first year of college, students who had learned to use AT before beginning their post-secondary education demonstrated a greater likelihood of being successful academically than those who did not. (Satterfield, 2018) Another relevant discovery that impacted my personal thinking about mastery came from the opportunity to observe two individuals with whom I worked over several years - who were themselves persons with disabilities. These two individuals were both effective administrators who directed organizations with several employees, sizeable budgets with important contracts, and were involved in many business relationships. Over time I noticed that both of them were using the same software to assist them with their business communications. They were kind enough to meet with me and to describe how they used their software. What was surprising was that, while each one used the particular software to help them read and write, their approach to using the tool and the way in which they applied the features of this tool were different. The outcome for both was successful business communication, yet they each approached the software differently. This suggests that each of them had customized a strategy that worked uniquely for them. In another study, we tested this observation with high school students who were using AT to support their literacy skills. We found that each of them was engaged in a search for a way to employ their AT in a fashion that worked for them (Satterfield, 2023). These experiences pointed out for us that successful AT users labor and experiment with their AT to formulate a personalized approach. As we contemplated the results of these studies, we wondered what processes might be at work here. Why were some students achieving “mastery” of AT, and others not? Was it simply a matter of a student’s access to AT? Or is there more to this personal customization and approach to AT that we observed? One of the questions we had asked in the 2018 study was about what AT students were exposed to in high school. Our results suggested that in the period from 2010 to 2016, AT was becoming more available and more widely used in the high schools our participants attended. As many students were still arriving at postsecondary institutions unprepared to use AT to their advantage, we wanted to find out what was missing, or what might be required for mastery. A research team at CIDI obtained a seed grant in 2020 to begin studying mastery of AT. Whatever mastery of AT was it appeared to us to be part of the lived experience of the individuals using the AT. Thus, examining these questions would only make sense if viewed from the perspective of the persons using the AT. We

began our exploration of Mastery of AT by gathering a panel of people with disabilities who were recognized expert users of AT. We also invited practitioners who had helped many others to become successful users of AT. We asked them to tell us what they thought mastery of AT was all about and how people came to be “power users”. Our panel identified a set of 20 indicators or predictors of AT Mastery. These characteristics of mastery clustered around four constructs (see Figure 1): 1) Experience (Access, Opportunity for Use, etc.), 2) Knowledge (Functional, Technical Knowledge, etc.), 3) Proficiency (Technical Skills, Troubleshooting, etc.), and 4) Personal Connection (Self-Advocacy, Motivation, Independence, etc.).

Figure 1. Four Constructs of AT Mastery

Our panel affirmed that coming to mastery was a personal “journey”. The panel suggested that this journey involved four stages through which an individual passed in their pursuit of AT Mastery (see figure 2): 1) novice, 2) context-dependent user, 3) transitional user, and 4) empowered user. They indicated that the progress was not always even and that journeys were seldom identical. While for some the path to mastery was rapid and compressed, many experienced longer and sometimes inconsistent progress toward their goal.

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Figure 2. Stages of AT Mastery

These stages and constructs and characteristics were incorporated into an instrument known as the Continuum of AT Mastery (CATM). The CATM is a tool to help assess an individual’s current position and identify progress on their journey toward AT Mastery (Satterfield, et al., 2021; Satterfield, et al., 2024a). A second study explored the applicability of the CATM to education, including a field test of the CATM in four K-12 settings (Satterfield, et al., 2024b). It is the fourth construct, the personal connection to AT, that appears to set the CATM framework apart from traditional views of technology literacy and other perspectives on measuring the outcomes of AT use. Through these two studies, our focus groups and field test participants continued to affirm that AT users who achieve mastery come to see the AT they use as an extension of themselves. As we explored these questions related to mastery of AT, it became clear that we were also addressing questions related to personal mastery. Personal mastery refers to the sense of agency or control that an individual feels they have over the circumstances and decisions that affect their lives. Physical limitations, cognitive challenges, and environmental barriers can constrain choice- making for people with disabilities (Pearlin and Schooler, 1978). Individuals with disabilities frequently perceive themselves as “not being in control” in the midst of things happening around them (Schieman and Turner, 1998). Thus, the development of personal mastery may be an uphill struggle for many. Improvements in personal mastery have been associated with better heart health, improved mental well-being, and a reduced likelihood of serious illness (Pearlin etal., 1981; Schieman & Turner, 1998; Roepke & Grant, 2011; King et al., 2018; Moreira et al., 2022). The development of a sense of personal mastery contributes to the maintenance of functional ability and enhanced participation and activity in people with disabilities (Kempen et al., 1999; Cuskelly et al., 2013; Martin Ginis, et al., 2017). With these insights in mind, we wonder how the development of mastery of Assistive Technology might impact the sense of personal mastery for people with disabilities? How might the sense of agency emerging from such control influence individual health outcomes over time? Our study of the AT Mastery in K-12 education suggests that the CATM instrument could be very useful for tracking individual progress of their use of AT. The CATM was seen as potentially

contributing to Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings by helping make abstract discussions about AT use more concrete. The capacity to quantify questions around AT use - to which many other individual IEP goals are often related – may help clarify the source of student learning challenges (i.e. Is the problem related to intellectual capacity or instructional approach - or do we have an issue with the AT that has been provided?) The team has recently launched its third study on the topic. This comes as part of a 5-year Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The overarching grant is called Accommodations, Employment Supports and Success for People with Physical Disabilities, or ACCESS-PD. In this study, we are asking questions about the role of the CATM in the workplace. How might Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counsellors, job coaches, employers, and job candidates use the CATM to overcome barriers and to improve workplace outcomes? We also want to explore how factors such as the employee’s work tasks, level of disability, and types of AT used might impact the application of the CATM? There are many such questions that have been raised in the course of our studies into Mastery of AT. Our research team is holding as tentative any specific conclusions about positive applications of the CATM as we expand our studies to see how the CATM applies to other disabilities and the broader range of technologies. For now, the CATM provides a framework for deeper discussions about AT Mastery. The instrument also provides a means to quantify mastery of AT in such a way that relative improvement might be monitored and noted. Our research team hopes to encourage a dialogue among those in the field who are exploring outcomes of AT use. We welcome use of the CATM in a variety of situations and encourage feedback. Those who would like to explore the CATM further are invited to do so by visiting: https://cidi.gatech.edu/research/ ATmastery . We welcome your feedback and comments. We trust and expect that constructive critique of the CATM will strengthen this instrument. These discussions will result in new questions for further research and lead to a deeper understanding of what is happening in the process of mastery of AT. Most importantly, this is all about individuals growing and developing – and reaching their full potential. We hope that the CATM will

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help people navigate their path to mastery of the AT they use.

Continuum of Mastery of AT. G. I. T. SMARTech Repository.

Satterfield B., (2023). What Users of Assistive Technology Wish Developers Knew About Their Literacy Experiences. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits. Vol. 17. https://www.atia.org/atob-volume-17/ Satterfield, B., Milchus, K., Griffiths, P., LaForce, S., Walker, B., DeStefano, L., & Blake, M. (2024a). Mastery of assistive technology: What is it? How do we measure it? Assistive Technology, 1–12. Satterfield, B., Walker, B., Milchus, K., LaForce, S., Griffiths, P., DeStefano, L., Blake, M., (2024b). TECH Report: Mastery of Assistive Technology in K-12 Education. G. I. T. SMARTech Repository. https://hdl.handle.net/1853/75449

REFERENCES Cuskelly, M., Gilmore, L., & Carroll, A. (2013). 16 Self-Regulation and Mastery Motivation in Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: Barriers, Supports, and Strategies. In Handbook of self-regulatory processes in development (pp. 381-402). Psychology Press. Kempen, G. I., Sonderen, E. V., & Ormel, J. (1999). The impact of psychological attributes on changes in disability among low-functioning older persons. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 54(1), P23-P29. King, V., Wickrama, K. A. S., Klopack, E. T., & Lorenz, F. O. (2018). The influence of mastery on mother's health in middle years: Moderating role of stressful life context. Stress and Health, 34(4), 552-562. Martin Ginis, K. A., Papathomas, A., Perrier, M. J., Smith, B., & Shape-Sci Research Group. (2017). Psychosocial factors associated with physical activity in ambulatory and manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury: a mixed-methods study. Disability and rehabilitation, 39(2), 187-192. Moreira, M. T. C., Gomes, C. S., & Pinto, J. M. (2022). Influence of personal mastery on mobility disability among older adults: A systematic review. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 102, 104750.

Schieman, S., & Turner, H. A. (1998). Age, disability, and the sense of mastery. Journal of health and social behavior, 169-186.

Pearlin, L. I., & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. Journal of health and social behavior , 2-21.

Pearlin, L. I., Menaghan, E. G., Lieberman, M. A., & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social behavior , 337-356. Roepke, S. K., & Grant, I. (2011). Toward a more complete understanding of the effects of personal mastery on cardiometabolic health. Health Psychology, 30(5), 615. Satterfield, B. (2018). Mastery of AT in High School and College Achievement. Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) National Conference, Orlando, FL. Satterfield, B. (2020). Mastery of Assistive Technology in High School and Post-Secondary Performance. Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits, 14, 52-76.

Satterfield, B., Walker, B., & Milchus, K. (2021). TECH Report:

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