Assistive Technology in Education

In today's world, technology contributes to all areas of life but for people with disabilities, it makes things much easier. In education, those with disabilities can be at a slight disadvantage at normal resource use in the classroom but technology makes it happen. There are many technological products that can assist in a classroom for the youth that have to deal with a disability.

A student with a hearing impairment could be helped with the use of visuals and technologies that amplify sound. An e-reader or even SMARTboard technologies can be used in the classroom for students with low hearing. Speech recognition technology might be beneficial in this case as well because as a teacher, I could use it to convert my speech to text for the student so they may be able to follow along in the classroom.

A student with low vision would benefit from an QUE proReader because they can "adjust their screen to eight shades of gray, highlight text, add notes, and zoom"(Wikibooks, 2010). This can help them adjust the screen to their vision needs. Other eReaders can also be used since some have the same type of adjustability. They could also use the DAISY system (Wikibooks, 2009) because it is a talking book system. This system could also be used for students with autism because "it was developed to address the need for an accessible audio format that could be used by individuals who are unable to read print as easily and efficiently as a sighted person uses a printed book"(Wikibooks, 2009). Images used within this system can be beneficial for those with autism. They could also use speech recognition technology. 

A student with a broken arm would have a difficult time adjusting from their regular arm use so to make it easier to adapt to their unfortunate situation they could be helped by speech recognition technology because they could use their speech to produce their work. "The use of speech recognition software allows students that have little or no motor skills in their arms and hands to be able to produce typed reports, manage software, and perform research with a computer, just like other non-disabled students"(Wikibooks, 2011). The further developments of assistive technology is necessary for education because of the diversity of the students that attend public school.


Wikibooks. (2009). Assistive technology in education/daisy. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/DAISY


Wikibooks. (2010). Assistive technology in education/ebook. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/eBook


Wikibooks. (2011). Assistive technology in education/speech recognition software. Retrieved from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/Speech_Recognition_Software.