The document discusses assistive technologies that can help students with disabilities access education. It begins by explaining laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that require schools to provide educational assistance and accommodations. It then outlines categories of assistive technologies and specific devices that can help students with disabilities in areas like academics, communication, vision, and hearing. Examples provided include Kindles, speech-to-text software, and magnifiers. The document emphasizes that assistive technologies promote independence and allow students to meet goals defined in individualized education programs.

1. ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
WEBQUEST
Leah Holder

2. In 2004, Federal law mandated The Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA). This law governs how state and public entities give
educational assistance to students with disabilities.
Many students with disabilities require assistive technology to
participate in and benefit from their educational programs.
In this presentation, I will present information on the range of
assistive technology solutions that are available to support access to the
school curriculum and student achievement for students with disabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_with_Disabilities_Education _Act
OVERVIEW

3. Assistive Technology includes a wide range of
technology devices designed to increase the learning
ability and independence of students with mild to
severe learning disabilities by enabling them to
compensate for deficits and build self-confidence.

4. Step 1
Collect child and family information. What is the child’s
strengths, abilities, and needs?
Step 2
Identify activities for participation. What activities is the
child involved in?
Step 3
Make observations that indicate the intervention’s success.
What is his/her current level of participation and what
observable behaviors will reflect an increase in independent
interactions?
Step 4
Brainstorm solutions. Do the child’s need include supports
for movement, communication, and/or use of materials?
Step 5
Try it out. When will the intervention begin?
Step 6
Identify what worked. What should be done differently?
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
SOLUTIONS STEPS

5.  Students with developmental delays other
disabilities may qualify for special services that
provide individualized education programs in
public schools, at no charge to the family.
 Parents and educators work together to
formulate a plan that will enable the student to
reach his or her educational goals.
 Students who have difficulties learning or
integrating socially into the mainstream
classroom may also qualify for an individualized
education plan.
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PLAN
(IEP)

6. A range of technology solutions are available to support student
performance, achievement, and independence in the following areas:
 Academics & learning aids
 Aids to daily living
 Assistive listening and environmental aids for hearing impaired & deaf
 Augmentative communication
 Computer access
 Leisure & recreation
 Seating
 Positioning
 Mobility
 Vision
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
SOLUTIONS

7. Assistive Technology Devices
 Include assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative
devices for people with disabilities and also include
the process used in selecting, locating, and using
them.
 These devices promote greater independence by
enabling people to perform tasks that they were
formerly unable to accomplish, or had great
difficulty in accomplishing, by providing
enhancements to, or changing methods of
interacting with, the technology needed to
accomplish such tasks.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
DEVICES

8. “Special Needs” can mean a mirror of such things as: children with mild learning disabilities or
those who are mentally challenged; developmentally delayed, or having psychiatric issues. Being
diagnosed as a child with can be helpful in getting the needed attention and services in order to
obtain designated goals.
Students with disabilities typically need special accommodations in order to succeed in the general
classroom. In order to ensure that these students’ needs are being met, general education
teachers must collaborate with special education teachers and parents to create support strategies
to benefit these students.
SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS

9. Students who are hard of hearing or
deaf often need assistive technology
to access information that is typically
presented verbally and accessed
through the auditory modality.
A variety of technology solutions are
available that amplify speech and
other auditory signals or that provide
an alternative to the auditory
modality.
AUDITORY DISABILITIES

10. Assistive Listening Devices are amplifiers
that bring sound directly into the ear. The
separate the sounds, particularly speech,
that a person wants to hear from
background noise. They improve what is
known as the “speech to noise ratio.”
Assistive Listening Devices that amplify
sound and speech both in the classroom and
home environment can include: text
telephone (TTY), closed captioning devices,
real time captioning, and environmental aids
that support independent living skills.
ASSISTIVE
LISTENING DEVICES

11. MILD LEARNING DISABILITIES
 Mild Learning Disabilities (MLD)
Have significant limitations both in intellectual
functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in
conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills. Specific
cognitive deficits often exist in such areas as memory,
attention or language.
 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
A Mild Learning Disability that is considered a psychiatric,
neurobehavioral disorder characterized by significant
difficulties either of inattention or hyperactivity and
impulsiveness or a combination of the two.
 Characteristics
Have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive
behaviors (may act without thinking about what the result
will be), or be overly active. Acts without thinking,
hyperactivity, trouble focusing, trouble paying
attention, following directions, functioning socially &
academically.

12. EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
LEAST RESTRICTIVE
 The spirit of this
requirement is to ensure
that children are not
unnecessarily removed
from the regular
classroom or isolated from
other non-disabled
children of their age.
 Least Restrictive
Educational decisions are
made based on children's
learning needs and vary
from child to child.
INCLUSION
 Inclusion is an educational
approach to educating
students with special
educational needs.
 Under the inclusion model,
students with special needs
spend most or all of their time
with non-disabled students.
Inclusion offers notions of
integrating and
mainstreaming.

13.  Provide an ordered, safe, predictable classroom environment.
 Make time to speak to student individually.
 Be respectful and express interest in his or her success in school by asking questions.
 Use a point system, tokens, stars, or other methods to reinforce appropriate behaviors.
 Notice and provide feedback on any improvement in the areas of behavior and academics and avoid criticizing the
child in front of others.
 Give directions in simple, concrete terms. Simplify instructions, tasks and assignments.
 Divide lessons into relatively short segments and use a variety of teaching aids such as films, tapes, computer
programs and small group work to reinforce the child's learning.
 Have all of the students stand and stretch, run in place, or do an exercise or movement activity when deemed
necessary.
 Color code paper for each subject. If available use off white, tan or light blue colored paper for written assignments.
 Create schedules, outlines, lists, and/or a homework assignment book to help the student keep organized as well as
to increase home/school communication. Tape a copy of the class schedule to the child's desk.
INSTRUCTIONAL IDEAS
For Students With ADHD

14. Teachers can help students with ADHD be successful with academic
instruction, behavioral modifications, organization, memory, time
management, and focusing on tasks by using these classroom
accommodations:
Highlighters
Index Cards
Color-Coding
Beepers/Buzzers
Digital Clocks, Watches
Headphones or earplugs to shut out distractions

15. KINDLE
Assistive Technology #1
 Ideal for students who have difficulty
holding or working with large, heavy
textbooks.
 Provides students with disabilities
the option of viewing textbook and
novels in an electric format.
 Touch screen feature for accessing
books and turning pages.
 Text-to-Speech capability for
students who have visual
impairments or disabilities relating to
speech.
https://kindle.amazon.com/

16. PROLOQUO2GO
Assistive Technology #2
 Communication software that provides
text-to-speech services for students with
speaking disabilities.
 Proloquo2Go is appropriate for students
with disabilities whose IEP may state that
the given student has a speaking disability
and is able to use such text-to-speech
software.
 Software displays buttons in the form of
words and pictures on the screen that can
be pressed by students. When pressed,
software emits a voice that says a word or
words.
 Can be used with interactive devices such
as the Apple iPad.
http://www.proloque2go.com

17. BOOST PERSONAL MAGNIFIER
Assistive Technology #3
 Perfect reading support tool for children
and adults with limited vision. Students
will see benefits in the classroom and
adults will more easily read at home or
in the community. This personal video
magnifier features a durable design and
user-friendly interface.
 May be well-suited for a student whose
accommodation for preferential seating,
in terms of visual or behavioral
purposes, does not entirely fulfill the
benefits outlined in his or her IEP.
http://www.ablenetinc.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=E3NsM8%2B%2BUWc%
3D&tabid=628

18.  Assistive Technology (AT) – Technology that promotes independence through the use of assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitation
devices.
 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – One of the most common neurobehavioral disorders of childhood that causes
inattentiveness, over-activity, impulsivity, or a combination of the three.
 Inclusion – An approach in which students with special needs spend the majority of their time in the general education
classroom with students without special needs.
 Individualized Education Programs (IEP) – A program that provides special services for children with difficulty learning and
functioning.
 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) - Law that governs how state and public entities give educational assistance to students
with disabilities.
 Least Restrictive Environment – Provides students with disabilities with the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers,
to the greatest extent appropriate.
 Mild Learning Disabilities (MLD) - Have significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as
expressed in conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills. Specific cognitive deficits often exist in such areas as memory,
attention or language.
 Special Education – Specifically designed instruction provided by the school system that meets the unique needs of students
identified disabled according to federal and state eligibility criteria.
KEY TERMS

19.  Assistive Technology for Students with Mild Disabilities: Update 2002. ERIC Digest. (2002).
Retrieved June 10, 2013, from http://www.ericdigest.org/2003-1/assistive.htm
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_with_Disabilities_Education _Act
 https://kindle.amazon.com/
 http://www.proloque2go.com
 http://www.ablenetinc.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=E3NsM8%2B%2BUWc%3D&tabid=628
 Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s). (2011). Retrieved June 12, 2013, from
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/learning/iep.html#
 Georgia Project for Assistive Technology. (2008). Retrieved June 12, 2013 from
http://wwwgpat.org/devices.aspx
REFERENCES