1. Click to learn more about each technology
Use of Computer Technology
To Help Students with Special Needs
Supported eText: Assistive Technology
Through text transformations
Technology Speaking: Impression Assistive Technology
Background Picture: http://impact.books.officelive.com/images/AssistiveTechnologyDevices.jpg

2. Assistive Technology Articles
• Use of Computer Technology to help students
with special needs by Ted S. Hasselbring and
Candice H. Williams Glaser
• Supported eText: Assistive Technology through
text transformations by Lynne Anderson
Inman and Mark A. Horney
• Technology Speaking: Impressive Assistive
Technology by David Dorman

3. Use of Computer Technology to Help
Students with Special Needs
• There are many technologies out there to help children
with special needs. This article is about explaining who
these children are and what technology is out there to
help. According to the article using technology is a way
to help the students do better in school such as
Microsoft Word, students would rather edit
information on Microsoft Word than on a hand written
document. Word prediction software is a way of
lowering the number of keystrokes one has to use, that
is something you cannot do with a hand written
document, this allows students with curtain disabilities
to do better in the classroom.
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4. • I learned something new from reading this
article. Even though students with disabilities
are very diverse, characteristics suggest that
over half of students with disabilities are
male, most are in elementary or middle
school, and most are not obvious disabilities.
Knowing these things can be helpful in the
future as a teacher using assistive technology.
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5. Something Else...
• One thing this article did mention is that this
is the first generation to be in the “digital age”.
It is important to make sure that students with
special needs are learning about these
technologies as well.
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6. Supported eText: Assistive Technology
Through Text Transformations
• One way to make reading easier is too shift it
to text from a written document. This can
used on several items such as
iPod, phone, computer, or a LeapPad. This can
change the readers world entirely because
changing it the words to text can change the
font size, color, or font face. The text can be
read aloud, terms can be explained through
hyperlinks, or images can appear to explain a
topic more clearly.
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7. • The use of text to speech is also growing
rapidly for use of the blind or visually
impaired, by using digitized speech
technology. But in recent years it has been
noticed that this type of assistive technology
can also be used for other reading difficulties.
This helps to improve the reading rate and
comprehension rate of many students who
have problems reading or students with
dyslexia.
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8. More To Know
• We are going into a world where advanced
technology is being used in almost every
classroom. To stray away completely from hand
writing is not plausible and in my opinion should
not happen, but it is also necessary to know how
to read and write on a computer. There are so
many more options when reading text, to help
students with special needs, or really anyone
grasp concepts. Whether it is learning to read for
the first time, using hyperlinks/dictionaries to
find the meaning of words, or having visual
images to learn.
Home

9. Technology Speaking: Impressive
Assistive Technology
• Technology is growing rapidly, that is including
assistive technology, which is something most
people do not think about. One very
impressive new assistive technology is a unit
that sits under a keyboard that acts as a cursor
and Braille reader. This acts as a keyboard and
mouse while using the computer. This
technology is used to help blind use the
internet.
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10. • Why don’t we use this technology in schools
for the blind and colleges where people need
them? Well the answer to that is they are very
expensive, I was surprised to find out one
Accessibility Pavilion cost $10,000. Another
question is how does this help even with the
Braille reader, well it helps the person to hear
what the computer has to display.
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11. A Few More Thoughts
• Assistive technology is adapting to the needs of
more people everyday. One of the problems we
face today is having the funds to actually make
use of these technologies. In the article
“Impressive Technology” David Dorman says “It
was five minutes into the demonstration before I
noticed the vendor rep, who was navigating
around windows and various application
programs like a hacker, was blind.” Hopefully
someday this technology will grow into
something even more amazing, and more of the
population will be able to use it.
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12. Conclusion
All of these assistive technologies are useful in teaching in
any classroom. Technology keeps advancing and it is
important to keep up with it, because any teacher
should not be teaching students who understand the
technology the teacher does not. Assistive technology
is especially useful because it helps students learn no
matter what their curcumstances.
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