Assistive Technology

Margaret P. Barringer

ED 505

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is any item or piece of equipment that is used to increase or improve the functional capabilities or performance of children with disabilities (Assistive Technology: An Overview) .

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/at/cresource/what-should-ms-adelaide-know-about-assistive-technology-and-how-it-is-used-by-students-with-disabilities/at_01/

Laws of Assistive Technology

There are multiple federal laws on assistive technology. These include:

Assistive Technology Act of 1998

This law provides federal funds to programs that address the assistive technology needs for individuals with disabilities (Assistive Technology: Federal Law and Regulations)

Find other laws relating to disabilities at http://ndrn.org/en/issues/assistive-technology/292-assistive-technology-federal-law-and-regulations.html

Hearing Impaired Assistive Technology

There are multiple options for assistive technology hearing devices.

FM Systems: A wireless transmitter broadcast a signal throughout a specific are. The teacher wears the transmitter and the student wears the receiver. This allows the student to hear everything the teacher says (Classroom Assistive Listening Devices).

https://sites.google.com/site/coreandcare/home/environmental-factors

Hearing Impaired Assistive

TechnologySound Field Systems: The teacher wears a microphone and her voice is broadcast over loudspeakers in the classroom. This benefits all students (Classroom Assistive Listening Devices).

CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), uses a transcription machine to record all spoken text, and the text is displayed on a computer (Classroom Assistive Listening Devices).

http://www.californiaearinstitute.com/hearing-device-center-listening-device-classroom-bay-area.php Classroom Assistive Listening Devices

Vision Impaired Assistive Technology

There are different levels of blindness and assistive technologies depending on the degree of vision impaired.

Students with slight vision impairment can use glasses, large print books, and calculators with enlarged buttons (Assistive Technology to Meet K12 Needs).

Students with severe vision impairment will need more extensive assistive technology including braille books, books on tape, screen readers, braille translator software and a braille printer (Assistive Technology for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired).

Vision Impaired Assistive Technology

Vision impaired students can also benefit from operating system special-accessibility options including screen enlargement, adjustment of keyboard, sound, display, and mouse (Assistive Technology to Meet K12 Needs).

http://www.christal-vision.com

Assistive Technology for Learning Disabilities

There are multiple assistive technologies for students with a learning disability:

Books on tape for students that cannot read or understand what they read.

Proofreading programs to proof read text from a computer, which also helps with spelling on assignments (Assistive Technology for Children with Learning Disabilities).

Electronic Dictionaries are available.

They help students with spelling difficulties and the student can see and hear the word to better understand it.

Graphic organizers and brain storming maps help students organize their thoughts and ideas (Assistive Technology for Children with Learning Disabilities).

Assistive Technology for Learning Disabilities

http://spring12ell.wikispaces.com/Graphic+Organizers

Assistive Technology for Learning Disabilities

Another great assistive technology is Optical Character Recognition.

Optical Character Recognition reads textbooks, worksheets, etc. to students and allows them to follow along as it reads.

This is a great program and device for students that have reading disabilities. This program allows students to scan their work and then it will read the information to them so they can complete all assignments correctly (Assistive Technology for Children with Learning Disabilities).

Assistive Technology for Physically Disabled Students

Students with a physical disability can use multiple assistive technologies including:

Touchscreen computers or iPads and modified keyboards and calculators to help with motor skill disabilities (Meeting the Needs of Students with Physical Disabilities).

http://store.apple.com/us/buy-ipad/ipad-mini-3

Voice recognition to do things on the computer is another great assistive technology.

Using a computer is usually easier for a physically disabled student that may not be able to write.

With voice recognition the student can tell the computer what to do without having to use their motor skills (Meeting the Needs of Students with Physical Disabilities).

Assistive Technology for Physically Disabled Students

References

Assistive Technology: An Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/at/cwrap/

Assistive Technology: Federal Law and Regulations. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://ndrn.org/en/issues/assistive-technology/292-assistive-technology-federal-law-and-regulations.html

Assistive Technology for Children with Learning Disabilities. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://www.pluk.org/Pubs/ATguide4LD_419k.pdf

References

Assistive Technology for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com/assistive-technology.html

Assistive Technology to Meet K12 Needs. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm

Classroom Assistive Listening Devices. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2015, from http://www.californiaearinstitute.com/hearing-device-center-listening-device-classroom-bay-area.php

References

Meeting the Needs of Students with Physical Disabilities. (n.d.). Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://www.nsnet.org/start/physical.pdf