Module 6 Assistive Technology

1. Assistive Technology
What resources do I have in order to help me meet my student
needs?

2. Overview:
Working with Students With
Special Needs

3. Nature of the Work
• 75% of students with disabilities spend the majority of their school day in general education
classrooms.
• A small number of special education teachers work with students with a variety of
disabilities with severe cognitive, emotional, or physical disabilities, primarily teaching them
life skills and basic literacy.
• Special education teachers design and teach appropriate curricula, assign work geared
toward each student's needs and abilities, and grade papers and homework assignments.
• They are involved in the student’s behavioral, social, and academic development, helping
them develop emotionally and interact effectively in social situations.
• Preparing special education students for daily life after graduation also is an important
aspect of the job. Teachers provide students with career counseling or help them learn life
skills, such as balancing a checkbook.
• Working with students with special needs may require more “paperwork” from you but if
every child deserves a equal opportunity education.

4. SixSteps To Finding a Solution
• Step 1: Collect child and family information. Begin the discussion about the child’s strengths, abilities,
preferences and needs. What strategies have been found to work best?
• Step 2: Identify activities for participation. Discuss the various activities within the environments that a
child encounters throughout the day. What is preventing him/her from participating more?
• Step 3: What can be observed that indicates the intervention is successful? What is his/her current
level of participation and what observable behaviors will reflect an increase in independent
interactions? What changes (e.g., number of initiations, expression attempts, responses, reactions,
etc.) will you look for?
• Step 4: Brainstorm AT solutions. With the activity and desired outcomes established, you are now
ready to discuss possible solutions with educators, family members, physical therapist, and other
people with whom the child interacts on a weekly basis. Do the child’s needs include supports for
movement, communication and/or use of materials? Start with what is available in the environment
(what other children use) and consider adaptations to those materials. A range of options that address
specific support areas should be considered.
• Step 5: Try it out. Determine when the AT intervention will begin and create an observation plan to
record how the child participates with the AT supports.
• Step 6: Identify what worked. Selecting AT interventions is a continuous learning opportunity. Reflect
on your plan and discuss what worked. What didn’t work? What should be done differently? Make

5. • Inclusion-Inclusion is an educational approach and
philosophy that provides all students with community
membership and greater opportunities for academic
and social achievement. Inclusion is about making
sure that each and every student feels welcome and
that their unique needs and learning styles are
attended to and valued.
Key Phrases • Least restrictive environment-To the maximum
extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including
children in public or private institutions or other care
facilities, are educated with children who are not
disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or
other removal of children with disabilities from the
regular educational environment occurs only when the
nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that
education in regular classes with the use of
supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved
satisfactorily.
• Individualized Educational Plan (IEP)- an
individualized plan for a student with disabilities that
describes the measures teachers must take to
accommodate the learning needs of the student.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) -
is a federal law enacted in 1990 and reauthorized in
1997 and 2004. It is designed to protect the rights of
students with disabilities by ensuring that everyone
receives a free appropriate public education (FAPE),
regardless of ability.
• Mainstream- in the context of education is a term that
refers to the practice of educating students with special
needs in regular classes during specific time periods
based on their skills.

6. Assistive Technology
• Assistive technology or adaptive technology (AT) is an umbrella term that includes
assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also
includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them.
• AT promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they
were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by
providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the
technology needed to accomplish such tasks.
• Assistive technology tools can be classified along a continuum that moves from
devices that are considered “low tech,” to tools and devices that are more complex
or “high tech.

7. Categories of
Assistive Technology
• Vision - Products designed to assist with vision
• Hearing - Products designed to assist with hearing
• Speech communication - Products designed to assist with speaking and face-to-face communication
for individuals with speech disabilities.
• Learning, cognition, and developmental - Products to provide people with disabilities with access to
educational materials and instruction in school or other environments; products that assist with
learning, and cognition.
• Mobility, seating, and positioning – Products whose main focus is on augmenting or replacing the
functional limitations of an individual’s mobility.
• Computers and related - Hardware and software products that enable people with disabilities to
access, interact with, and use computers at home, work, or school. Includes modified or alternate
keyboards, switches activated by pressure, touch screens, special software, voice to text software.

8. • TouchWindow is ideal for
students who have trouble
manipulating the mouse
• Assistive technology resources
Technological Resources http://sped.peabody.k12.ma.us
to Enhance Student /assistive_technology_resourc
es.htm
Educational Experiences
• The previous link is a great
resource to help teachers find
various tools that will help in
the classroom.
• It contains information
detailing equipment, assistive
devices, and software for
reading, writing and
communication to be effective
with students in your
classroom.

9. Instructional Practice
to Meet Students Individual Needs
Differentiated Instruction
• Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs.
• Examples of differentiating content at the elementary level include the
following:
• Using reading materials at varying readability levels;
• Putting text materials on tape;
• Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness levels of students;
• Presenting ideas through both auditory and visual means;
• Using reading buddies; and
• Meeting with small groups to re-teach an idea or skill for struggling learners, or to
extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners.

10. Resources to Meet Your Students’
Individual Needs
• Assistive Technology to meet • Other approaches to meet
student needs student needs
• Vision: Tape recorder, computer • Vision: Large print books, self-
screen magnifiers and Braille sticking notes, highlighters and
printer. magnifying glass.
• Hearing: Signaling • Hearing: pictures, photographs,
devices, hearing aids, CD based objects, communication boards,
(text)books, electronic and headphones.
books, and assistive listening • Communication: writing guides,
devices. word window, pictures,
• Communication: Talking word photographs, objects, and
processing with writing communication books.
support, translating devices, and
eye gaze or eye pointing
systems.

11. References
• http://kresa.org/domain/50 • http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,s
tatute,I,B,612,a,5,
• http://www.blind.state.ia.us/educators
• http://www.readingrockets.org/article/2
• http://technewsforteachers.pbworks.co 63/
m/w/page/20252690/FrontPage
• http://www.ldonline.org/article/8088
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_te
chnology • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstreami
ng_(education)
• http://www.tobiisonoflex.com/
• http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/
• http://www.ncatp.org/Overview.html methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm
• http://www.synapseadaptive.com/edma • http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/typ
rk/prod/tw/default.htm es.aspx
• http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos070.htm • http://www.help4adhd.org/education/rig
hts/idea