Venture Opportunities and Challenges
The Global AT Market
Some of the reasons for this growth include:
COVID-19 made it necessary to find new ways to connect with individuals with learning disabilities
increased awareness of learning disorders
increased education and advocacy for human rights
government directives/initiatives like the Accessible Canada Act or the ADA.
The National Center of Education noted that in 2019-2020, there were 7.3 million US students aged between 3 and 21 who received special education. This statistic highlights the large opportunities the AT industry see's going forward, which is further emphasized and highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the pandemic, the demand for assistive technologies is only likely to increase. (Retrieved from Research and Markets, 2021)-https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5439788/assistive-technology-for-students-with-learning
Allied Market Research, 2021
Allied Market Research predicts the number of students with Learning Disabilities to steadily increase by 2030 and the Dyslexia market to have the largest opportunity for growth within the industry. This is in large part due to the increased access and motivation from an institutional level to offer online learning platforms for students, which handle more students with less cost(s). With this in mind, students will need more, market ready, tools to continue to access curriculum and find success in all levels of education.
Challenges
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a limiting factor for those that need assistive technology is the lack of policies in place which leaves many that need AT without. It is also highlighted that the current AT market is catered only to the higher-income markets, without state or national funding which slows or limits R&D and availability to smaller markets. (WHO, 2018).
Appropriate training in both pedagogy and tool use is paramount to student and educator success. While technology moves at a rapid pace, the training to support the use of these tools; AI, chatbots, TTS, STT, neurodivergent technologies, etc., needs to be just as quick in order to have the most meaningful outcomes.
Now that you’ve had the opportunity to review, and interact with various assistive technologies as they may be used in the K-12 classroom, it’s time to reflect. We have learned that assistive technologies help to intervene when students are having difficulty in a particular function or performative measure in the classroom, not just for students with learning disabilities. We have also learned that the market ripe post COVID-19 pandemic for expansion. We have also learned from previous OER’s of students in ETEC522 about the abilities of chatbots, wearable technology and AI, how do you think each of these will interact with one another in the future?
