Enhancing Education Through Assistive Technology

As a future educator, I had learned that one of the challenges teachers may face is the need to accommodate every student’s learning needs. A typical classroom always consists of a diverse group of learners—students who have different backgrounds, learning styles, and need different accommodations, particularly for students with disabilities. In the classroom, it is important for the environment to be readily equipped with various tools and devices as well as lesson plans and activities that provide opportunities for students with disabilities to be successful participants. Such accommodations are vital for creating equal learning opportunities for students with disabilities.

In the video Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams, it demonstrates different ways on how to modify a lesson plan to include the participation of students with disabilities. 

Certain features of a lesson plan that could be modified include the materials, media, and teaching methods needed for the lesson, as well as the activities involved in the lesson. In the video, students with disabilities learned how to use different types of assistive devises as early as preschool, which allows them to spend the later years of their school years focusing on content material and the curriculum. Through the usage of assistive devises, the students were able to participate in class lessons and activities easily and effectively.

As a future educator, it is possible that I will also have students with disabilities in my classroom, so it is important that I am readily prepared with lesson plans and activities to address my students’ learning needs. In order to design an activity to include students with disabilities, I would follow the “Accommodation Model” that was created by the National Science Foundation. According to the National Science Foundation (2012), there are four questions involved in the model: What does the task or assignment require? What physical, sensory, and cognitive skills are needed? What components of the task require accommodation? What accommodation options exist? The first step involves a break down of all the components of the experiment, assignment, or exercise. To accommodate a student with a disability, I would need to think about the specific settings, tools, skills, and tasks that are required at each step. By analyzing and evaluating the task thoroughly, I would be able to determine how best to fully and effectively include a student with a specific disability. The second step would be to match the tasks required to the skills needed to successfully complete the project. This leads to step three, which is to determine what accommodations may be required or how the learning experience might be altered to make it more accessible. I would also need to determine how best to make an accommodation to create an inclusive environment for a student with a disability. Lastly, in step four, now that the tasks that need accommodations have been determined, I would need to identify what resources exist for providing the needed accommodation(s). The student may have some good ideas; however, this is a time when other staff and professionals may have expertise in specific areas and be called on to provide input.

It is essential for the activities to be created with a universal design for learning, which according to Picard (2015), is a “method of designing course materials, content, and instruction to benefit all learners.” Instead of adapting or retrofitting a course to a specific audience, the universal design emphasizes environments that are accessible to everyone regardless of ability. Therefore, universally-designed activities should serve as appropriate activities for the inclusion of students with disabilities, taking into consideration that they are capable of participating in any activity.

Watching the video reminded me of one of my classmates in high school who also became a good friend of mine. I had him for my AP Literature class in which there was a lot of reading involved in every lesson. Being told that my classmate was visually impaired, I would’ve thought that he’d have a hard time reading the PowerPoint presentations, watching videos, and reading the texts placed on his desk. However, he was able to read everything we were reading through the use of assistive technology, particularly the “Visiobook. Through the Visiobook,

he was able to enlarge any text that was not within arm’s reach as well as words that were on the textbook on his desk. He was able to easily adjust his assistive device to better suit his needs. By being able to read the day’s agenda written on the whiteboard, he was always able to stay on track with the whole class. He said that assistive technology is his “best friend.” It helps him out tremendously, especially at school where different challenges arise every day. This device not only helped him with his disability, but it also made him feel highly capable of anything.

In conclusion, it’s important to keep in mind that the assistive technology’s role is to assist the student’s learning. It is still the task of the teacher to provide good instruction, but assistive technology can be used in addition to well-designed instruction. Through the use of these devices in classroom activities, it can help the student to be more self-confident and work more independently.

It can also help them to work more quickly and more accurately, navigate through classroom routines, and set and meet high goals. Assistive technology tools can be instrumental in helping students with disabilities become more successful and independent learners. It has impacted many students’ educational experiences, as stated in the video by a student named Susanna Martini, who was born with cerebral palsy,

"Assistive technology is the major foundation of my life. Without it, I could not exist as I am today" (Ellis, 2005).  

                                                    References

Ellis, K. (2005, February 2). How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams. Retrieved October

  

           27, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video.

Foundation, N. S. (2012). MESA Curriculum Addendum: How to Fully Include Students with

           Disabilities. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from 

           http://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/accessstem/accommodations/mesa-

           curriculum-supplement-how-fully-include-students-0.

Picard, D. (2015). Teaching Students with Disabilities. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from 

           https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/disabilities/.