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It requires a great deal of money to fund the use of assistive technology in schools. There are training costs, teacher’s salaries to be paid, and the expenses of constantly upgrading technology. It also requires a great deal of testing to figure out what students have disabilities and what the best course of action would be to aid their learning.

For students that attend school in a low income neighborhood, the facilities they are exposed to are most likely not up to par with the standards of higher education, or at least can not compete with the technology in schools in higher income neighborhoods. People with higher income live in better areas and they pay more in taxes, which, in part, goes to the schools their children attend. These schools are more likely to have teachers that are sufficiently trained in the different technologies used to help the students. The socioeconomic stand point also highlights the fact that people with more money will have more resources outside of schools to help their children receive the best education possible. Whether it be hiring tutors, investing in computer programs or just going over the children’s homework with them, it is often easier for families with higher income to provide these resources to their struggling children.

Teachers must be well trained in the uses of the technologies needed to help the students in their classrooms. Mull and Sitlington stated in a 2003 journal article:

Successful integration of computer technology and assistive technology into special education programs depends on the training of the professional required to use it, and they cannot be expected to teach students how to use the technology if they themselves have not been properly taught its uses. (pp. 26-32)

If teachers are poorly trained, or not trained at all, students receive little or no useful assistance with their learning.

There are many different kinds of technologies used to help students perform better in the classroom. There are proof reading programs, spell checker, speech synthesis (Bryant, Bryant & Raskind 1998), Braille calculators, printers and typewriters, as well as electronic readers (Bryant & Rivera, 1995). Also useful are tutors, interpreters and note takers, to name a few.

Some other techniques that proved helpful in the classroom setting, as stated by Bryant and Rivera’s (1995) study, are instruction and modeling, grading, rewards, materials and resources, activity structure and roles, and both individual accountability and collaborative/social skills.