EDCI 5824 Week 4

• Please provide specific examples of technology/tools that you would recommend for a student with... (1) a hearing impairment, (2) low-vision, (3) a broken right arm, and (4) autism (non-communicative)

There are technologies available today to assist students who have disabilities with their education. If teachers had access to these tools they would be able to meet the needs of more of the students. A student could use speech recognition software to assist a student that is hearing impaired. The software Dragon NaturallySpeaking by Apple is an example of this technology. A microphone can catch the teacher's voice and then the "words appear in a floating tooltip as they are spoken" on the student's computer screen (Wikibooks, 2011). This would enable the student to see all the words which have been spoken and the student would not miss out on any of the classroom instruction. This technology would also help a student who has broken his or her right arm because, the student could use the microphone to dictate documents in place of typing. The student could also "issue commands that are recognized as such by the programme" in place of using the mouse (Wikibooks, 2011).

To address the disability of low-vision in education, a student could use a DAISY. This talking book technology is designed to make "all published information available to people with print disabilities" in a "feature-rich navigable format" (Wikibooks, 2009). It enables low-vision students to "read print as easily and efficiently as a sighted person uses a printed book" (Wikibooks, 2009). A student with this technology would not feel at a disadvantage in the classroom.

An E-reader is another technological tool which a teacher could use in the classroom. This may work well for students who are non-communicative. It has the ability to "convert text-to-speech and permit the user to choose from a variety of synthesized voices" (Wikibooks, 2010). A student could use the E-reader to talk for him or her if they are unable to vocalize. This would enable them to participate in discussions or answer questions. The NETS-T encourages the use of technology to "facilitate experiences that advance student learning" (ISTE, 2011). Using these assistive technologies in the classroom will certainly meet this standard.

ISTE. (2011). Nets for teachers 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

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

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

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