Assistive Tech. Specialists and case in point

Assistive Technologies for Reading by Ted S. Hasselbring and Margaret E. Bausch

In this journal entry I will provide a quote from the reading, and then share my reflections.

“Regular education teachers appear to rely on specialists for information about assistive technology, reporting that they know little about available assistive technologies or how such tools can be used” (p. 73)

My experience supports this. I have one student in my class that caught some spinal illness a year ago. He uses a wheel chair and his use of his hands has become slower, impairing his ability to take notes. There was a meeting in which his physical therapist met with all the students teachers to coordinate assistive efforts. Turns out that this student has been asking for some voice recognition software from the school district but that there is a back log of orders and the assistive tech. specialists are to few to respond.

So what I did was let my student borrow my mother’s rather expensive voice rec. gadget until he was delivered his. Which reminds me I have to get that back from him. I didn’t have time to figure out how to use it, so handed him the box to figure out. He has a para that also helps him.

The district was able to provide for him the equipment within a month or two after his request, but a specialist delivered this and teachers at our school, including myself, don’t do much research in this area. Maybe a workshop is in order to provide information on assistive tech. to our school, school district.