Week 15 - Assistive Tech Diagram

Hello blog -

Just writing to discuss the assistive technology diagram assignment that I completed for class. First, is that the word assistive keeps popping up on spell-check. Second, is that it's pretty amazing what technology has been able to do for students that have additional learning needs. I'm taking an Exceptional Learners class that has had guest-presentations relating to visual impairment, hearing impairment, SmartBoards and various cognitive disabilities and all of them had a technology component to them.

For visual impairments, things like magnifying text, audio warnings for cross-walks, braile typing devices (pdas, computer keyboards, etc) were all mentioned. Text to speech would be particularly useful for visually impaired students who can hear but not see what's going on. The SmartBoard is a nice tool due to its large size and customizability, it's generally easier to read than white chalk on green chalkboard due to the better contrast and it's ability to convert written text into typed text (more legible). For hearing impairments, things like cochlear implants, headphones/mics and various types of hearing aides were discussed (and shown). Understanding the prevalence and current methods (many technological in nature) for dealing with the various disabilities was very helpful.