Kids need to learn & AT can help

KIDS NEED TO LEARN AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP

As a teacher all humanity breaks down into two groups, those who need to be taught and those who have graduated. Subsets of those groups are possible but not important. If a child is in need of an education it is the duty of the teacher to teach. It’s that simple. Most students do not need help to participate in class and study outside of class. But there are some students who do need this help and in the 21^st Century there is help available.

Disabled students must be included in our classrooms because it is the law. The Rehabilitation Act passed in 1973 requires public buildings, including schools, to be renovated to accommodate disabled people. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) was passed in 1975 and updated in 2004. It provided for free and public education for all disabled students. The Rehabilitation Act was amended in 1998 to require that electronic and information technologies must be accessible to people with disabilities. The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 provides funding for states to create programs to provide assistive technology to disabled people. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provides for disabled students requiring them to have access to the general education curriculum taught by highly qualified teachers,

But there is more to it than that for many teachers. They revise their lesson plans to include disabled kids because it is the right thing to do. These kids have been handed a challenge and it is up to us to help them meet that challenge. Every kid who passes through our classrooms has an impact to make on society. Nobody knows what that kid will do once he enters the real world beyond the schoolhouse doors. But we can make sure he is armed with the best education we can offer.

Anything the teacher does to encourage participation will improve the lesson plan and offer the disabled student a chance to reach his goal of a good education. As such room must be made for wheelchairs and adjustable desks. Lighting must be adjusted for a visually impaired student. Lessons need to be taught and questions asked in such a way that the disabled student has an opportunity to shine just like the other students. The adjustments could be minor or could require major adjustments but making those adjustments would be worth the trouble. And the teacher needs to educate himself on the types of assistive devices and computer programs that would help the student.

Probably the single most important assistive device is the laptop computer. With the right peripherals and programs the disabled students can study, research, do their homework, submit the homework, and communicate with other students. The laptop is portable and can travel to school with the student and be available at home also. Assistive devices are available to help students see the screen or hear the text if sight is not available. There are devices that enable the student to use the keyboard no matter what the disability is.

There are some who see the changes required to add a disabled child to the general education population as too difficult to handle or they consider the child to be unteachable. They must speak from some form of laziness or phobia. They do not seem to see the kid as another mind reaching for the light, yearning to see what the next page holds, fighting to be free and independent as much as humanly possible.

There is an added benefit. The teacher models behavior that the able bodied students need to see and learn. The able bodied students will be out there in the real world alongside the disabled adult that child will grow to be. It is in the schools that those able bodied kids learn that the disabled kid is first and foremost another human being who deserves a chance.

So it behooves us to learn to deal with all kids no matter what their physical or emotional state is. We are teachers. The students are waiting for us to do our job. The devices are there to aid us and the student in the educational process. And when those kids walk down to get their diploma we will know we have done the right thing, the moral thing, the best thing we could be doing. We teach.

Sources:

The Family Center on Technology and Disability. (2011). Assistive technology laws. Retrieved from http://www.fctd.info/factsheet/atlaws

Smith, D.D., & Tyler, N.C. (2010). Introduction to special education. Upper Saddle River, Columbus: Pearson Education.