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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