Chelsea Pogar, Morgan Jones, Daisha
Batts, Ashley Lynch, and Dyche
Randolph
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There are 6 Phases to helping students with
disabilities blend in with technology.
Phase 1: Assess technological pedagogical
content knowledge
Phase 2: Determine relative advantage
Phase 3: Decide on objectives and assessments
Phase 4: Design integration strategies
Phase 5: Prepare the instructional environment
Phase 6: Evaluate and revise
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Education for students with special needs
encompasses strategies for BOTH those with
physical and mental deficits and those with
special gifts or talents.
The term impairment, disability and handicap
are often used synonymously.
Differences among these concepts have
important implications for the use of
technology in the classroom.
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Impairment: involve abnormality or loss of function in a
physical, anatomical, or psychological structure.
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May be congenital or acquired through accident of disease.
Impairment limits an individual from performing an activity
in a manner normally expected for human being
(communicating with others, hearing, movement,
manipulating objects, hearing, movement, manipulating
objects, etc.) we refer to this as a disability.
In the United States, federal law recognizes several types of
disabilities.
Most citizens know one or more individuals who have been
affected by a disability in some form:
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deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, mental retardation,
multihandicapped, orthopedically impaired, other health
impaired, seriously emotionally disturbed, specific learning
disability, speech impaired, or visually handicapped.
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A handicap arises when an individual is unable to
fulfill a role due to an impairment or disability.
Special education technology has been a part of the
United States educational system since at least
1879
1879- The United States Congress made a $10,000 grant
for the production of Braille materials by the American
Printing House for the Blind.
 1958- funding was provided for captioning films for the
deaf
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Federal government established two Special
Education Instructional Materials Centers
(SEIMCs)
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Purpose was to explore ways to make educational
technologies more accessible to special education
teachers
The two original eventually expanded to a network
of 14 regional SEIMCs, the Council for Exceptional
Children ERIC Clearinghouse, four Regional Media
Centers for the Deaf, and a Network Coordinating
Office.
They were all disbanded later
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The emphasis on technology for individuals with
disabilities had been though of as assistive
technology—
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Extending the abilities of an individual in ways that
provide physical access (wheelchairs, braces and sensory
access (Braille, closed captioning).
General goals of specific application technology is
to harness the potential of technology in ways that
offer an individual with a disability increased
opportunities for learning, productivity, and
independence-opportunities that otherwise would
not be available.
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TPACK: technological pedagogical content
knowledge
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In any discipline is the perfect union of three
knowledge domains (content, pedagogy, and
technology) to develop a knowledge base from
which a teacher can view a lesson and understand
how technology can enhance the learning
opportunities and experiences for the students while
also knowing the correct pedagogy to enhance the
learning of the content.
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In special education, a teacher is incorporating
the TPACK principles when he or she reviews
a lesson plan and, without hesitation, thinks
about the pedagogy and technology that can be
used to meet the unique needs of each student
in his or her caseload and what adaptations
might be needed to be made to that pedagogy
and technology.
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A number of issues affect the delivery of
special education services.
There are six current issues that have an impact
on uses of technology in special education:
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Legal and Policy Directives
Implications of the No Child Left Behind Act for
Special Education
Need for Trained Personnel
Requirements for Inclusive Classrooms
Universal Design for Learning
Web Accessibility
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Special Education, more than any other areas of
education, is governed by laws and policies.
Teachers, administrators, and special education
technology specialists must be well versed in
federal and state law, policies, and procedures.
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The following laws promote the use of
technology by individuals with disabilities:
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The Technology-Related Assistance Act for
Individuals with Disabilities (Public Law 100-407),
passed in 1988, provided funding for statewide
systems and services to provide assistive technology
devices and services to individuals with disabilities.
Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education act (IDEA) in 1997 (Public Law 105-17)
mandates that every individualized education
program (IEP) team consider assistive technology
when planning the educational program of an
individual with a disability.
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Has had significant influence in special
education
One of the most important components of the
law focuses on Annual Yearly Progress (AYP)
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Requires documentation that each school is meeting
specific performance criteria established in the law
Benefit of these new AYP requirements is that they
focus public attention on the persistent
underachievement of students with physical
disabilities.
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Most teachers begin their career with minimal
experience using technology in ways that
Enhance their own productivity
 Enhance the effectiveness of instruction and the success of
all students
 Enable them to acquire and use assistive technology for
students in need of performance support.
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Current assistive technology delivery system was
originally developed to respond to the needs of
students with low-incidence disabilities. The size
of the high incident population requires a
rethinking of service delivery systems.
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Students have been Mainstreamed (placing special education
students in separate classes) but since the 1990s Students
have been included in general education classes known as
Inclusion
Although students with disabilities have been included in
classrooms, general education is still limited.
Appropriate modifications have to be made for students
with, physical, mental and psychosocial disabilities
Assistive Technology is needed for students in Special
Education to help them to gain high scores with the NCLB
expectations
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Universal Design is the understanding of the design for physical
environments of the disabled
One successful example of Universal Design are curb cuts
Universal Design has evolved into a wider range of accessibility
for the disabled.
Recently, computers have been
programmed with software with
universal design concepts
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Accessibility panels
are available on every
computer
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The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
believes that Universal Design is a critical tool in
helping students with disabilities to access the
general education curriculum
CAST and the US Department of Education’s
Office of Special Programs established the
National Center on Accessing the General
Curriculum to help create practical approaches for
improved access to the general by weaving
together new curricula, teaching practices and
policies.
Link to CAST website
http://www.cast.org/index.html
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Refers to the push to make websites usable for
people with disabilities
Just like Universal Design of Learning, the
purpose of web accessibility is to provide greater
access of information for all users by designing
websites for accessibility from the ground up
Criteria
Text equivalents with screen readers
Large or enlargeable images for people with low
vision
Underlining and coloring links for the colorblind
Making website navigable with the keyboard only
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I. Students with physical disabilities
A. Use alternate keyboards such as intellitools’
intellikeys
B. They use joysticks or switches instead of keyboards
C. And they use voice recognition software such as
Dragon Talk’s Dragon Naturally Speaking
II. Students with Sensory Disabilities
Use text to speech readers such as JAWS for Windows
They also use optical character recognition software or
CCTV
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III. Students with Communication Difficulties
Also use text-to-speech products such as WizCom’s
Quicktionary pen
Use talking word processors such as Don Johnston’s
Write: OutLoud
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IV. Students with Cognitive Disabilities
Use digital cameras to capture images of objects and
environments
Use specialized calculators such as Programming
Concepts’ Coin-U-Lator
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A variety of conditions may impair an individual’s cognitive
abilities. These disabilities are often referred to as cognitive
disabilities, developmental disabilities or mental retardation.
Mild disabilities are considered to be the most prevalent type of
disability. They include learning disabilities, serious emotional
disabilities and mental retardation. The important issue for these
students is not physical access to the technology, but reading,
writing, memory and retention of the information. As a result,
educators planning for the needs of students with mild disabilities
often use productivity software as well as other software materials
and online resources that can be used with many low performing
students.
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I. Reading skills
A. A characteristic associated with many disabilities is difficulty
learning how to read and in developing grade level reading skills.
AS a result, special education teachers tend to devote a great deal
of time and energy to the teaching of reading and are likely to use
a variety of software products to remediate students’ reading
abilities.
II. Writing Skills
Many tools have been developed to support students who
struggle in various phases of the writing process. For students
who are unable to write by hand, who have illegible handwriting,
or who find handwriting extremely tedious, voice recognition
software may be an option. Some students who are slow typists or
have difficulty spelling can benefit from word prediction software.
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III. Math Skills
Calculators are an important intervention for
students with disabilities. A specialized
calculator, the Coin-U-Lator, was developed to
assist students having difficulties counting
coins and making change. Other strategies
have been developed around simple graphing
software materials, as well as drills,
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I. For individuals with moderate and severe
cognitive disabilities, considerable effort is
devoted to ensuring that they acquire daily
living skills such as personal hygiene,
shopping, and use of public transportation.
Software is available to help teach functional
skills such as money management and
employability skills must also be taught.
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Teachers working with students with moderate
and severe cognitive disabilities need to be
familiar with an array of devices that provide
an alternative means for accessing the
computer since the typical keyboard may be
problematic for the students. Alternate
keyboards such as the Intellikeys keyboard can
be used to create customized keyboards.
Students with physical Disabilities
 Use alternative keyboards such as Intellitools’
IntelliKeys
 Use joysticks or switches instead of keyboards
 Use voice recognition software such as Dragon
Talk’s Dragon Naturally
Students with Sensory Disabilities
 Use text to speech readers such as JAWS for
Windows
 Use optical character recognition (OCR)
software or CCTV
Students with Communication Difficulties
 Use text to speech products such as WizCom’s
Quicktionary pen
 Provide a wide range of tools to support
student writers
 Use talking word processors such as Don
Johnston’s write: OutLoud
Students with Cognitive Disabilities
 Use digital cameras to capture images of
objects and environments
 Use specialized calculators such as
programming Concepts’ Coin-U-Lator
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The primary issue surrounding and shaping
education for gifted students is how to identify
students who merit these “special services or
activities not ordinarily provided by the
school”.
“…The increasingly sophisticated use of
technological tools and related methods will
provide gifted students with greater
connectivity and independence in the future.”
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-Electronic Communities
-Research