Msc Educational Assistive Technology: Training a New Professional Group

Introduction:
The MSc Educational Assistive Technology (EduAT), (University of Dundee, 2022) is relevant to Communication Matters (CM) members due to the valuable contribution that the emerging assistive technologist profession can make to the assessment, provisioning, and ongoing support of AAC and allied AT (Assistive technology) systems. It is fitting to document the creation of the MScEduAT in the CM journal due to the pivotal role the CM conference played. At CM2014, Trevor Mobbs and Rohan Slaughter (first author) presented on the Dart project (Slaughter & Mobbs, The Dart Project, 2015). Following this presentation, Professor Waller (second author) discussed the assistive technologist training method, known as ‘the Dart curriculum’. Based on that initial conversation at CM2014, development of what would become MScEduAT began. This article follows the presentation given at CM2022. It points to a definition of the assistive technologist role and considers how MScEduAT was developed. The article continues by considering how this MSc fits into a wider AT training ecosystem, noting whom the MSc is for. This is followed by an overview of the curriculum developed to train assistive technologists, concluding with a summary of what has been learned over the two years that the MScEduAT has existed, alongside summarising research plans.