Assistive technology (AT) has the potential to enhance the quality of life for students with learning disabilities
(LD) by providing them with a means to compensate for their difficulities, and highlight their abilities. Because students
with learning problems have individual strengths, limitations, interests and experiences, a technology tool that is helpful
in one situation or setting may be of little use under different circumstances. As a result, selecting the appropriate technology
for a student with LD requires a careful analysis of the dynamic interaction between the individual, technology, task and
context.
The Interaction Between the Individual, Task, Technology and the Content
Selecting the appropriate technology for a student with LD requires careful analysis of the interaction between
(a) the individual; (b) the specific tasks or functions to be performed; (c) the technology; and (d) the contexts or settings
in which the technology will be used.
The AT Assessment Process
Whether an AT assessment is sought from a public school or private source, it is important for parents to understand
the critical elements for conducting an AT assessment. Although some universities and organizations offer training and certificates
in AT assessment, no licenses or credentials are required. As is the case with any profession, some practitioners are better
qualified than others. Therefore, in addition to investigating the qualifications of the person conducting the assessment
(education, training, experience) the more you know about the key components of a quality assessment, the likelihood the appropriate
"technology match"will be found for your child.Let's discuss the key elements of an AT evaluation.
The Individual Student
It is important to consider the student's strengths and weaknesses in regard to such areas as reading, writing/spelling,
speaking, listening, math, memory, organization and physical/motor ability. Examining these areas will help identify the specific
area of difficulty that need to be bypassed by using AT. Such examination will also help identify the child's areas of strength
and ability which an AT product may "capitalize on" in order to work around a specific difficulty. For example, a student
who struggles with reading but who has good listening skills might benefit from the use of audio books.
You can gather information about a child's strengths and difficulties from several sources, including;
1. School records
2. Prior diagnostiv assessments (e.g., parents, teachers, conselors,
therapists and tutors)
Additional data may be obtained by conducting formal assessments
(e.g. standardized tests) and informal dianostic techniques
(e.g. observations) that focus on the academic skills areas. A student being evaluated for technology use
should participate as a key member of the technology evaluation team and be interviewed about his/her understanding of the
nature of his/her learning difficulties, as well as his/her strengths, talents and special abilities.
The potential effectiveness of any assistive technology tool also depends on the student's prior experience with,
and interest in using technology.
Consideration should also be given to the student's technology experience and interest relative to the specific
areas of difficulty(e.g. prior experience with/interest in a word processor to compensate for writing problems, or an OCR
system for a reading difficulty), as well as the student's general working knowledge of technology, and overall interest and
comfort level. Such information is also needed to plan appropriate technology instruction and training.
The Task to be Performed
Another key factor in determining what AT tools might benefit a student is to pinpoint the specific task(s) he/she
struggles with. For example, when it comes to writing an essay, he/she may construct sentences and tackle spelling with no
problem, but he/she has trouble organizing and outlining
the essay. In this case, a graphic organizer or outlining tool might help him/her plan and revise the "big picture"of
his/her essay. In other words not all AT tools for writing target the same skills or tasks. Knowing where a student
struggles (and where the student does not) are critical to choosing an appropriate AT tool.
Observation of Student, Technology and Task in Action
Direct observation is the best technique for gathering information about a student's use of a technology
tool to compensate for an area of difficulty. Only by observing the individual while he/she is actively using the technology
tool to perform a specific task can it be determined that the tool is appropriate for him/her. It may be necessary to collaborate
with AT professionals who are trained to observe students using technology. Some AT manufacturers'representatives will demonstrate
specific technologies as well as provide oppertunities for the student to try out specific products. (Keep in mind that a
company representative may not be an objective observer of your child using the AT tool.) As the student experiments with
a certain technology tool to perform tasks, the observer will want to note the following;
The student's interest and comfort level with the technology.
The student's ease in learning about and using the technology.
The degree to which the technology "taps"into the student strengths.
The extent to which the student is able to use the technology
independently and "troubleshoot"as necessary.
The effectiveness of the technology in compensating for specific
difficulties as compared to alternative stategies.
The Assistive Technology Tool
There are a number of factors specific to the technology itself that should be considered in the selection process.
Particular attention should be given to the technology's effectiveness in accomplishing the primary compensatory purpose.
For example, does a speech recognition system accurately convert the student's oral language to written text and improve the
quality of the written product?
Contexts of Interaction
Students with learning difficulities must function in a variety of settings. Technology that is appropriate in
one setting may be quite inappropriate in another. Therefore, it is important to consider the selection of technology relative
to all settings where he/she is likely to use the tool (e.g., school, home, work, social and recreational/ leisure enviorments).
The fact that a technology successfully compensates for a learning problem in one setting does not mean that it will be effective
in another. For example, a speech recognition system may work quite effectively at home where the student can work alone.
However, the use of technology in a classroom setting, where there is considerable extraneous noise, may interfere with the
technology's operation.
Similarly, the social appropiateness of AT may change over time. For instance, using a calculator to compensate
for a math disability in a classroom setting may "blend in"nicely, without any negative social ramifications. However, using
a calculator to keep score of a board game outside of school may appear inappropriate to peers.
Similarly, the social appropriateness of AT may change from one setting to another. For example, a high school
student who uses a portable word processor to take notes in the classroom may later find the same technology useful in a college
lecture hall or during meetings on the job. Therefore, some consideration should be given to projecting the appropriateness
of the technology for the various settings where you expect it may be used of the course of one, two, three, or more years.
Assistive Technology: Rights under IDEA
Under IDEA, AT must be considered for children with disabilities if it is needed to receive a "free and appropriate
public education". It is the school district's responcibility to help select and acquire the technology, as well as provided
training to the student in use of the technology, and at no cost to parents. This is done on a case-by-case basis. It is the
IEP team (including parents and students) that makes a determination as to the necessity of AT. It is also the IEP team, (or
any individual member) that initiates a request for an AT assessment. The assessment may be performed by school district personnel,
or an outside consultant working in conjunction with the IEP team. Parents should know that at present, there are no standard
policies, procedures or practices among school districts for conducting AT assessments. This is all the more reason for parents
to be informed as to the critical elements in conducting an AT assessment.
High-Tech Enables Employees
Assistive technology helps make the workplace more accessible and makes workers who have disabilities more productive.
As a college student at San Francisco State University, this student who is blind, would compose papers on a
typewriter and have no idea when the ribbon went dry or when the page ended and had to be replaced. To read material required
for her classes, she used a scanning device that raised letters she could feel with her fingers at an incredibly slow rate.
Those were not the good ol'days. Today as the Washington, D.C. - based director of regulatory affairs at the
wireless company Cingular, this person has a wealth of assistive technology products that make her life easier and her time
at work more productive. She uses a printer that embosses documents in Braille and a text reader that allows her to surf the
web and hear the information available on the sites. She has a software program that transfers text into Braille , a wireless
phone that reads e-mail and a Braille notetaker that helps her follow a script while making live presentations.
Assistive tools like the ones this person uses showcase just a small slice of the technologies available to assist
employees with disabilities in the workplace, whether they are persons with vision, speech, hearing or mobility impairments.
These tools are important to workers with disabilities because they allow employees to be as productive as those persons who
do not have these disabilities.
"Assistive technology is important because it provides access to computers and it allows persons with disabilities
to do a job," says Phil Kragnes, ablind adaptive technology specialist at the University of Minnesota in Minnepolis. "There
has traditionally been a high unemployment rate among people with disabilities, so you find when persons with disabilities
have the right tools, they have a high motivation to do a good job and be a good employee".
Federal studies show that only 56 percent of American workers with disabilities participate in labor force, says
Dawn Carlson ,a rehabilitation specialist with The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).
But demographic shifts indicate that the use of assistive technology may be increasingly important to support the workforce
of the future. According to U.S. Cenus data 54 million Americans have some kind of a disability, with 33 million of those
in the employable population between the ages of 16 and 65, he says. About 36 percent of the working-age population that have
jobs "use some kind of assistive technology in the workplace,"says Carlson.
Removing Barriers
As more employers address their staffing demands by tapping workers with disabilities, assistive technologies
are helping them meet their employees' needs. Driven by the federal government's Americans with Disabilities Act passed in
1990, and the nation's aging population, the assistive technology marketplace boasts nearly 2,000 companies selling more than
18,000 products, according to the federally sponsored AbleData, an organization that provides information on assistive products
which is sponsored by the NIDRR.
For example, text- to- speech readers like the person in this story allow employees who are blind and low
vision to read web pages and hear their e-mail. Speech- to-text transcription
software provides a way to record observations without typing or using Braille. High-tech Braille keyboards seamlessly connect
to desktop computers. Specially designed mouses reduce hand tremors for people with nerve disorders. Digital hearing
aids automatically make adjustments to reduce background noise and increase clarity of speech. Infrared beams allow workers
with limited mobility to open programs and search the Internet with facial movements.
At many technology companies, employees with disabilities have been closely involved in contributing to the development
of assistive products. IBM, which hired its first employee who was blind in 1914, has had employees with disabilities work
on a variety of projects, including a web site text reader, software that corrects for tremors and an application that allows
persons with limited mobility to manipulate computer programs through facial movements, says Millie DesBiens, program manager
for global workforce diversity at IBM.
Market Size and Cost
While the benefits of assistive technology are relatively well-known, one misconception that many employers have
about the technology is that it is expensive. Although the cost of assistive technology has continually fallen for years,
employers still see paying for it as a challenge.
"When we did focus groups last year, cost was the biggest thing that came up"says Jane Rath, a project manager
for the McLean, Va- based Employment Assistance & Recuriting Network (EARN), a federal government- sponsored agency that
matches employees with disabilities with employment oppertunities. EARN also found that half of individuals with disabilities
do not need any special accomodation when taking a job.
While finding a precise cost per employee for assistive technology can be difficult, the NIDRR's Carlson says
studies have put the one-time cost at around $500 to $600 per individual. In some cases, it may cost even less because many
workers who are disabled already have the equipment and the software they need to perform their job duties. "For a vast majority
of employers, accommodation is a low cost investment", says Carlson.
Even though popular text reader packages such as JAWS for Windows from Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group
of Palo Alto, Calif., and the Kurzweil 3000 from Kurzweil Education Systems Group of Palo Alto, Calif., carry price tags
of more than $1,000 per user, multiple licenses can reduce the cost.
For some companies, the investment can still seem high, but HR practioners should be aware that there are several
ways busunesses can defray the cost.
"Most of the investments that enable a person to work do not come from the employer,"Carlson says, but instead
through health insurance, Medicare,(which serves persons with disabilities as well as Americans over age 65) and other government
programs. Some states offer loan programs and grants to help business pay for assistive technology, and the federal government
adds tax incentives to businesses to help pay for employees with disabilities.
At Marriott International Inc.'s Santa Anna, Calif., reservation office, about 23 percent of the 250- person
staff is made up of persons with disabilities, according to General Manager Sjaoom Stringer. Mariott began focusing on hiring
persons with disabilities in 1999 after establishing relationships with the Los Angeles-based Braille Institute, the California
Department of Rehabilitation and EARN in an effort to add more employees with disabilities to its workforce.
Since many applicants with disabilities had not been in the workforce prior to joining Marriott, the company
trained them in its national program, "Pathways to Independence", which also serves as a gateway for people making the transition
from welfare to work. The program is credited with lowering the turnover rate among employees with disabilities to 6 percent
from 1999 to 2003, compared with 52 percent for the company's workers without disabilities.
Though the technology and training costs per employee are in excess of $2,000, the California's Department of
Rehabilitation reimburses Mariott $2,500 for each employee who is disabled the company hires. California offers various
levels of funding assistance for on- the- job training, says Stringer.
"We couldn't do it without the state's financial assistance", Stringer says. When we hire a person who is disabled,
we often find we have certain things we need to get, like an additional lincese for the JAWS software, or we'll have to upgrade
computers so they have enough memory to run JAWS, or we'll have to get additional headsets."
Corporate Financial Wellness LLC of Marshall, Va., an accounting and collection services outsourcing provider,
also receives financial assistance for providing accommodations. It employs about 25 individuals with disabilities who work
out of their homes. Company founder Ilene Morris- Sambur says she collaborated with 40 vocational rehabilitation agencies
accross the country to recurit employees with disabilities and equip them with assistive technology. The company has invested
almost nothing in the technology, Morris- Sambur says, since the agencies agreed to foot the bills.
Tools for Success
Selecting products that are appropriate to each individual's needs is a factor in ensuring the success of an
employee with disabilities, some employers seek advice to aid them in the process.
The Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services, an agency within the Maryland Department of Education, helps
train and find employment for 3,000 adults and more than 4,000 students with disabilities each year.
Jim Corey, assistant director of the division's workforce center, says his staff works with employers by conducting
an assessment to determine what an employee with disabilities will require to perform the job.
The division makes reccomendations about solutions to businesses at no charge. It may suggest a text reader,
for example, or reccomend setting up "easy keys"in Microsoft's software to allow an individual with disabilities to use keys
that type words rather than letters.
The right tools can enhance efficency and promote a positive working enviorment, leading to benefits for employees
and customers.
Northwest Airlines employs reservationists with disabilities who work at the company's call centers and use a
variety of technologies, says Greg Lambert, senior accommodations adviser in human resources. The airline's complex software
systems run four screens of information at once, and data input requiring keystrokes rather than a mouse greatly simplifies
the process. Staffers who are blind switch between callers and text readers to find flight times, costs and other information
for customers.
Next Generation
Meanwhile, the push for inovation continues among industry leaders such as IBM, Microsoft and Hewett-Packard
as well as dozens of other vendors commited to developing new products to aid persons with disabilities and to improving existing
products.
IBM, for example, is testing a product called Via Script at universities that will allow speakers to have their
presentations instantantaneously transcribed for closed-captioned viewing, says Frances West, director of the IBM worldwide
Accessibility Center. Currently, a stenographer has to type what a speaker says for closed captioning, an option
too expensive for most presenters and professors.
In addition, IBM's "web adaption"software allows Internet users to change their browsers for maximum ability
to see and read information. In the future, employees with disabilities will be able to totally customize their web experience
in terms of colors, font sizes, backgrounds and locations of tecxt, allowin g those with cognitive disabilities to organize
information in a design they can use. "It will be a totally customized envioronment, and though it will take a while to get
there, that's our goal," says West.
Use by Those without Disabilities
Assistive technology has grown so common that many Americans who are not disabled use it without even thinking.
"Many of these technologies are used by people without disabilities or small functional impairments," says IBM's
Millie DesBiens. "For better or worse, (the technologies) allow many of us to multiplex and do a few things at once".
Foe example, closed-captioned television broadcasting for persons who are deaf offers those who are not disabled
a chance to read the news during their workday workout. The small text that shows up when you place your cursor under icons
on websites also allows text readers to help persons who are blind navigate those same sites. Text readers also allow commuters
and mobile workers to hear their e-mail messages on the road.
Voice recognition software such as Burlington, Mass. -based Naunce's
Dragon NaturalSpeaking or IBM's Via Voice allows users to record and transcribe information the same way a person
who is blind or who has carpal tunnel syndrome would use these products.
As the market grows for assistive technology in the community of persons who are not disabled so will advance
in the technology.
The following Organizations may provide more information on Assistive Technology.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Dissability Employment Policy
Leading Technology Company Earns Award for Accessibility Products and Software
Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of accessible Internet and application access software and systems
has been honoreds by being named recipent of the 2005 da Vinci Awards. Presented by the Engineering Society of Detroit and
the Michigan Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the da Vinci Awards reconize individuals, organizations and
corporations in the engineering , construction and technical fields who design innovations that have exceeded legally mandated
requirements to further empower people with disabilities. One of only ten companies in the United States chosen to receive
the da Vinci Award in 2005, Serotek Corporation is being honored for their creation of the Freedombox software, and for continued
leadership in accessible technology and software products.
Since the company was formed, Serotec Corporation has been developing technology solutions that allow anyone,
regardless of physical limitations, disabilities, lack of internet savvy or access to computer technology, the ability to
access and command all the resources of the internet.
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