Speaker: Professor Jane Seale (University of Exeter) - Title: A betrayal of potential? Fighting for a place for adults with learning disabilities in 'The Digital Future

For thirty years technologies have been positioned as innovations having the potential to transform learning for people with learning disabilities. Belief in this revolutionary potential began in the 1980s when microcomputers were hailed for their ability to present stimulating visual and auditory learning materials, provide immediate feedback and adapt instruction depending on performance and record and monitor progress. As technologies have become more sophisticated; belief in their inherent potential has remained largely unaltered. But have the lives of people with learning disabilities been altered for the better and are we as a society particularly concerned about whether technology has enabled them to reach their full potential or not? By analysing what we do and do not know about both the 'digital past' and the 'digital present' of adults with learning disabilities I will consider whether adults with learning disabilities are conceived as having a legitimate place in 'The Digital Future' that we as a society imagine for ourselves.