Blog Post #12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

 

Not all students enter the classroom with the same capabilities and needs as the student next to them. Through the usage of technological aids, the gap is closing between what student's with special needs can and cannot accomplish as effectively as any other student. As listed in the video Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children. There are many tools available to blind and deaf children, including text to speech devices, talking calculators, note takers, iPads, phones with cameras, and screen magnifiers to name a few. The video iPad Usage for the Blind, demonstrates how an ipad effectively helps those with vision impairments. Another video,  describing a device known as the Mountbatten, shows how a student can use braille on the Mountbatten, which announces aloud what the student is saying. This isn't as accessible as an iPad, but could be obtained through the school and of great use in a classroom with visually impaired students. All students deserve equal educational opportunities. In addition to these tools for student use, there are devices and tools that educators can use to learn what it is like to be blind or deaf. It would be beneficial to put yourself in "someone else's shoes" so to speak in order to better understand what your student deals with every day of their life. Locally, we have access to Alabama School for the Deaf and Blind. They offer tours of their facility and demonstrations of some of the devices mentioned in the videos assigned for this blog. I have been there and highly recommend it to anyone interested in really gaining an understanding of what the children of our community face in their lives.