Assistive Technology: An Overview

Transcript: Challenge

Hi, there! My name is CHIP, and right now I’m feeling a little anxious. See, tomorrow is my very first day in a new classroom with a new teacher.

What?

Oh, I’m not a student. I’m a tablet computer. My student’s name is Brooke. Brooke has a learning disability and ADHD, so she needs just a bit of extra support to be successful in school. That’s me! Brooke can use my awesome accessibility features to highlight text and have it read back to her. She can even tell me her ideas out loud using my nifty speech-to-text function, and I’ll write them down for her.

So why am I nervous? Well, for one thing, even though I’m part of Brooke’s IEP, I’m not sure Brooke’s new teacher—Ms. Adelaide—understands why she needs me. Also, she might not be super comfortable with assistive technology devices. She’s probably wondering how much she doesn’t know about the things I can do and what she’ll need to learn in a short amount of time. And what about her other students? Sometimes teachers worry that the other kids will see me as an unfair advantage.

Okay, so I’m anxious. But I’m also excited. I’m sure Ms. Adelaide is a great teacher, and she just wants to get everything right to help Brooke as best she can. Fortunately, there’s help. She can use my Web browser—or a CHIP of her very own—to visit the IRIS Center to learn all about assistive technology in the classroom. In fact, let’s do that together right now.

Here is your Challenge…

What should Ms. Adelaide know about assistive technology and how it is used by students with disabilities?

What are the school’s responsibilities regarding assistive technology?