INTRODUCTION In today’s society, there are many developments in technology that is making communication and educational learning easier for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are now accomplishing more due to developments in technology. However, students with learning disabilities still have difficulty creating ideas, physically writing, difficulty communicating, and difficulty spelling. Assistive technology can help students-thrive in this world- that have learning and physically challenged disabilities. It brings a feeling of normalcy and maintaining self-respect because it allows students to function independently at school, work, and home. A new door will open by applying accommodations into student’s lives that have learning and physical disabilities (Bevan, 2003). For the purpose of this paper I will be addressing the available assistive technology for students with visual, motor, and hearing impairments. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY The term assistive technology may be defined as a device or service that can aid people with disabilities or a device that can be used to increase or continue a disabled person’s functional abilities. According to the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs (ATAP), an assistive technology device is defined as any service that benefits a disabled individual obtain, select, and/or use an assistive technology (The Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs, 1997). Assistive technology devices can and do benefit individuals with visual, motor, and hearing impairments by allowing the individual to obtain a higher level of success that would otherwise not be reached. Students are able to acquire more educational opportunities and emerging adults can find more employment ... ... middle of paper ... ...e difficulties (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2010). However, it is important to note that not all assistive technology device or software program will work with all students. Furthermore, assistive technology can offer students with the capability to self-pace learning in the schoolrooms that would otherwise move to fast. The benefits to students are developed straight from assistive technology’s ability to recompense for the skill discrepancies of students with learning disabilities. Assistive technology allow students to by-pass their disability (Bryant & Bryant, 1998), to lessen the effect of the disability (Derer et al., 1996), or substitutes the ability that is either absent or weakened. For some students with disabilities, assistive technology offers a way through which students can successfully interconnect whether through communication, reading , and/or script.
In this paper I will discuss two different case studies. The first case study involves a 35-month old girl named Kim who struggles with meal time, potty training, and play time with others. I will discuss four assistive technology devices, that would work for Kim. These devices will assist Kim with balance, mobility and undressing. The second case study involves a school age child name Billy, who struggles with benchmark objectives. Billy is in the fourth grade and use Assistive technology devices reading and math. I will discuss different AT devices that can be used to assist Billy with reading and math.
“The purpose of the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) is to provide a comprehensive and thorough assistive technology assessment process” (Barbara, n.d., para. 14). WATI consists of an Assistive Technology Consideration Guide that is made like a table. Horizontally the table entails tasks that the student might be expected to complete in the classroom. Vertically the table asks if the student completes the tasks with special accommodations or AT devices. It also asks what new assistive technology the student will try (Marino, 2006). The ultimate goal of the WATI is to consider different types of AT, and to ensure that the student receives the best services and accommodations. Which will allow the student to learn the curriculum to his/ her full potential and meet the IEP and IFSP objectives (Barbara,
As societal pressures for higher education increase, more emphasis has been placed on the importance of a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. This has led to the increased enrollment of students with learning disabilities over the past decade. According to a recent survey from the National Clearinghouse on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, one in eleven full-time first-year students entering college in 1998 self-reported a disability. This translates to approximately 154,520 college students, or about 9% of the total number of first-year freshmen, who reported a wide range of disabilities, ranging from attention deficit disorder to writing disabilities (Horn).
Just like in basketball their are people who play that our not disabled and those who are at the end of the day they are both on the same playing field just like students who are not disbaled and those who are should be at college campuses.Rachel Adams wrote a piece called ‘’Bringing down the barriers Seen and unseen’’,which was published on November 6,2011 in the chronicle of education.In this article Adams argues that disabled students are not treated fairly on college campuses despite their being a Disabilties act.*which prevents professors in schools from discriminating against college students.Adams wants all students to be treated fairly and not looked as different.She begins to build a strong effective argument by using her own personal
There are many “tools” that could be considered for a student who has trouble listening and understanding instructions. Sometimes, just an adjustment of where the child sits fixes the problem or eliminates the barrier. Other times, assistive technology is needed. Today, the options for assistive technology are endless. In Samanthas case there were many options of assistive technology I could provide her with to help her be successful in the classroom.
“ On at least one North Carolina Campus, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number of LD and ADHD students seeking eligibility for accommodations has almost doubled since 2002 and has grown eightfold since the 1980s. What’s more, the rate of growth is still accelerating.” (Vickers, 2010). The need for accommodations for LD and ADHD college students remains controversial due to the diagnoses being perceived by some as not legitimate. Today, the academic challenges faced by college students with LD and ADHD are improving due to support provided by coaching and positive phycology approach (Costello & Stone, 2012). Even though the two disabilities are categorized in different groups they share methods that can be integrated such as having counselors, peer tutors, and other services that will meet the student’s individual needs and future achievement. Colleges are looking for ways to better attend the rapidly growing population of students who have learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and figuring out the best ways to facilitate their student’s success. With technology advancing everyday, college students have to know how to use a variety of advanced learning technologies to advance in their education. Students who are struggling with LD and ADHD can stumble across obstacles to equal access to these devices and successful learning in this new technological society.
Schools in today’s society are rapidly changing and growing striving to implement the best practices in their schools. Nonetheless, before a school can implement a program in their school, they need reliable evidence that the new program will work. A new program that schools are aiming to implement is inclusion in the classroom because of the benefits inclusion could bring. The implementation of inclusion is strongly connected by people’s attitudes whether they are positive or negative. However, while inclusion is being widely implemented, there is comparatively little data on its effectiveness. It may be that inclusion benefits some areas such as reading and social skills, more than it does others.
Several assistive listening devices can improve the communication ability of deaf children. According to IDEA, every child with a disability is entitled to have access to assistive technology (California Department of Education, 2004). The California Department of Education (2004) outlines IDEA’s definition of an assistive technology device. It explains that this device consists of “any item, piece of equipment or product system…that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability” (California Department of Education, 2004, p. 1).
Abstract: Assistive technology is one way that individuals with learning disabilities have been able to overcome the difficulties with comprehension that they possess. This form of technology comes in many forms, ranging from low to high technology devices.
Students without learning disabilities face problems like these, but these areas become increasingly difficult when you have trouble interrupting such everyday subjects. Since, a majority of these men were alive before a time when learning disabilities were a documented problem, most of them fl...
Malala Yousafzai (n.d.), the youngest person to be nominated for a Noble Peace Prize and education activist stated that:
Technology has advanced our school systems and provides many new and helpful products into the classrooms. Technology has also provided specialized products for students that are hearing impaired. There is no lack of opportunities for the deaf and hard of hearing in the school system. There are many ways to innovate the way they learn.
... CLD info sheets: assistive technology. Council for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved on April 24, 2005, from http://www.cldinternational.org/c/@CS_yKIo7l8ozY/Pages/assistive.html
Bowser and Reed [1995] as cited by Bryant et al [1998] argue that as a child progresses through the Education System, their requirements change and this may necessitate a need for different devices. This is not limited to those children with a physical disability but is relevant to all children with SEN as they progress and the Education System places additional burdens upon them. For children with a visual impairment ICT can provide support in various ways; tools to support communication, to improve access to information and as a means of producing learning materials in alternative. There is a wide range of devices and software, which can
Education is a profession which requires a teacher to be able to communicate with a multitude of students on a variety of levels. There is not a class, or student for that matter, that is identical. Therefore, teachers must be able to identify and help educate students from all different types of backgrounds and at different levels. Teaching a singular subject presents difficulties, but teaching students with disabilities should not be one. There are three main teaching areas that need to be focused on when teaching a student with a learning disability. Teachers need to focus on the strategies that will assist students with reading comprehension skills, writing skills, and maintaining appropriate behaviors in a classroom setting.