ICTS Trainers and Administrators : Profiles
 Dr. Stuart Aitken
Email address:
stuart.aitken@inclusive.net
Senior Research Fellow, CALL Centre; Principal Officer
(Research & Practice) Sense Scotland
Stuart is a Chartered Psychologist and has been a member of
the CALL Centre team since 1987, when he also started with Sense Scotland, a
voluntary organisation working with people who are deafblind. The joint posts
reflect Stuart's particular specialisms in visual impairment and multiple
disabilities, on which he has written several books and numerous articles in
these and related areas.
After completing his Ph.D. - a study into perceptual
development in blind babies using an electronic sensory aid - a Medical
Research Fellowship was awarded to work at the University of California at
Berkeley. Tempered with all this theory followed a grounding in practical
application in the role of outreach family support worker/ psychologist with
the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh for 3 years. A Winston Churchill Travelling
Fellowship award in 1986 offered exciting opportunities to learn about
approaches to visual assessment and service delivery in centres of expertise
across Europe.
The mid '80s witnessed the wholesale uptake of BBCs in
schools across the UK and the opportunity to work at the CALL Centre was
seized. Like other CALL staff, Stuart visits schools in local authorities
across Scotland to undertake assessment support in ICT, and to offer training,
information and advice. Schools visited include mainstream primary and
secondary, special units and special schools. Pupils seen include those with
physical disabilities, sensory impairment, learning and communication
impairment.
Working with Sense Scotland presents a wide range of
operational, policy, information and development opportunities in the area of
deafblindness and multisensory impairment.
Recent and current research projects include investigations
into optimum font characteristics for low vision pupils who are undertaking
formal qualifications; approaches to speech recognition; listening to the views
of children with severe communication impairment (a joint Sense Scotland/CALL
Centre project).
ICTS Trainers and
Administrators |
