Ch 13 Assistive Technology

Assistive technology seems to grow so quickly that it's hard to keep up.  Assistive technology can range from computers and computer programs to screen magnifiers, microphones, talking calculators, games and furniture designed to suit a student with physical needs.  It is amazing and wonderful to see so many types of assistive equipment and products available today.

I have only had one  student in my room in all of my years of teaching that needed a type of assistive technology.  She was a fifth grade student and she was very visually impaired due to congenital glaucoma.  She had a machine that connected to a televsion and whatever she put under this machine would project onto the television screen.  It was bulky and really difficult to move.  We have a child at my school now with a similar vision problem and thankfully the new equipment is so much better and easily moved.  This is great because it can be moved for other classes he has as well as when we have assemblies.  I have a student in my room now that functions on a kindergarten/ first grade level.  She goes out for two periods a day, but when she is in my room we are often working on math or reading that she does outside of the class.  At those times I use computer programs at her level to have her work on.  The SMART board  and Dukane projector are two other pieces of equipment that all the students love, but that I think are really good for many students with disabilities.  Students that have trouble transferring their thoughts from their head to the paper often are really good at manipulating sentences or numbers on the SMART board.  It helps them to feel successful and see that they can do the work, just in a different way.  I know that we also have Wynn Readers in our school but I have never had a student to use them.

I think this is another area that you tend to learn when you have a student with a disability.  Like the cultural diversity, I think it would be great for all teachers to have a list of the types of assistive technology the district offers and a description of each.  It would be a great reference source to help us feel more on top of a subject that we seem to only learn hands on when we have those students.