Situation study (research) on the current situation with the Technical Aids or assitive technology devices in Latvian educational institutions

The aim of the study is to identify general and vocational educational institutions in which primary and secondary education is obtained by children and young people with functional impairment (FI) aged 7 to 25 that have assistive technologies (AST), to assess the current situation with availability of AST and the effectiveness of applications in these educational institutions and to identify the required AST to ensure the educational process.
The tasks of the study are (1) to identify general and vocational education institutions in which there are students who have been provided with AST, (2) to assess the situation with AST provision of Latvian general and vocational educational institutions in which students with FT are educated, to whom AST have been issued, (3) to determine the needs for AST in educational process for students with FI, 4) to provide legally, administratively and financially sound proposals for an optimal organisational model of the AST educational institution exchange model.

Main results: 66% of students with special needs using AST study in special educational institutions; only 4% of students obtain education in general educational programs in general education schools and 2% in vocational educational institutions. The provision of educational institutions with AST is insufficient: in the 2018/2019 school year, only 56 out of 98 educational institutions surveyed use at least one AST for students with FI, while 42 out of 98 of the educational institutions do not have any AST. In order to improve the current situation, it is necessary to establish an AST exchange model for educational institutions which have students with FT. In the AST exchange model, it is recommended that existing technical aid, tiflo-technical and surdo-technical service providers be involved. Within the model an important role should be put in assessing functioning, educating and informing stakeholders about AST, cross-sectoral cooperation in the welfare and education sectors.