Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students?

Can Assistive Technology Help Our Learning-Disabled Students?

Emily Crowther
Old Dominion University
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 2

In recent years, there has been a big push to include students who are

classified as special education students into the general education

classroom. As great of an idea as that this is, there is one small problem: how

can administrators expect special education students to be included in a

general education classroom and still learn at their fullest potential with the

adaptive curriculum? One issue is that in many schools, there is only one or

two special education teachers and they cannot be with their students every

second of every day. To help fix this issue, more students have been granted

permission to use assistive technology (AT) issued either by the school or the

family. With more and more students being granted permission to use

assistive technology in a classroom, even more questions come up like who

pays for the technology? Who qualifies for assistive technology? and how do

teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms?

Many people, including some educators do not know what assistive

technology is. According to the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (Section 3),

assistive technology is any item or equipment that is either acquired

commercially or is custom-made that is used to improve or maintain

functional capabilities of people who have disabilities (Kelly, 2009).

According to the definition given in the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, the

technology can be purchased by the family or by the school system and may

be used to improve or maintain the life of the student. For example, a

wheelchair. This wheelchair improves the life of the student to help them

move around their surroundings in an easier manner than sitting in one place
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 3

all day or even struggling to move from place to place. This is also an

example of a type of AT that would possibly be purchased by the family so

the student can use the wheelchair when they are at home and not only

when they are in school and during the school year.

Once a child qualifies for AT, there are many questions that need

answers. One of the biggest questions are who pays for the AT, the school

system or the families? To answer this question, it all depends on who will

purchase the AT. If the families purchase the AT, then the child can take the

technology home and use it on the weekends, during school breaks, and

during and after school hours because the technology would be considered

the familys property since the family had purchased the technology. On the

other side, if a school system purchased the technology, then it is the

schools property and it is not allowed to leave school grounds (Kemp, 2011).

This means that if the child changes schools, they are not allowed to take the

AT with them to their new school and they are not allowed to bring it home

during break periods and overnight during the school week.

Another big question when considering assistive technology is who

pays for this technology? If the family pays for the technology, the family can

choose to go through their insurance company, but often, if the technology is

not needed to live a day to day life, for example, a wheelchair for a child who

has cerebral palsy and cannot walk without assistance. But, if the family

wants their child to have a laptop, most insurance companies will not pay for

the laptop because it is not considered a type of device that is needed to live
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 4

a normal day to day life. According to the article Who Pays for Assistive

Technology, Millstone states that For insurers to cover assistive technology,

a doctor has to prescribe it as being medically necessary. But, if the family

wishes, they may try to get money through Medicare to pay for the laptop

and the alternations that would come with it to make it easier for a special

education student to use (Kemp, 2001). If the school system was to pay for

an assistive device, it would come out of their budget for that school year.

The schools do not have the option of asking an insurance company to help

pay for part of the technology. Since the money for the technology comes out

of the school budget, this raises a big problem:since the school pays for the

technology without any help, this means that as much as they would like to

give all their special education students the technology that they need to

succeed, they can only afford to give the technology to certain students and

those students are normally the ones who need the technology to have an as

normal of an education experience as possible.

If a family wants to pay for their own childs assistive technology, many

families may feel overwhelmed and not know where to turn for money since

some of the technology can cost thousands of dollars. Luckily there are

websites in which families can read what AT is and what their options are

when they chose to pay for their own childs technology. For example, the

website AT Resource Funding Guide is one of many different websites that

are out on the internet for parents to see what their options are because

sometimes, if the insurance company or the doctor does not see as the
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 5

technology as necessary, they will pay for very little or none. If an insurance

company says this to a family, it will become stressful on the parents want to

be able to provide as good of a life as possible for their children.

One major question that always comes up when talking about assistive

technology, it is who qualifies for technology? Some parents of a child who is

the general education curriculum will think that their child can qualify for

assistive technology just because a computer will help them write papers

faster, or because their handwriting is too messy for a teacher to read their

work. Sadly, this is not the case. AT is only provided for students who need it

to maintain Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). In the article, Assistive

Technology for Students with Disabilities: A Legal Analysis of Issues, it looks

at different legal cases of why a student did or did receive an assistive

device. In the end, it all came down to two questions; will it significantly

improve the life and education of the student? And will it help make sure that

FAPE is achieved and maintained? Maintaining FAPE is not only a legal aspect

of education, but it is also for the students own benefit. When making sure

that FAPE is reached, the education team of a child who has an individualized

education plan (IEP) is it also making sure that the student is being able to

learn to their fullest potential and they have the resources to make sure that

reaching that fullest potential is not going to cause them mental health

issues from too much stress. To answer a parent of a general education or

gifted education student asking why their child did not receive any AT, the
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 6

answer is because their child does not have a disability that is affecting them

being able to learn.

When talking about AT, we are not only talking about white students,

we are also talking about the minority students as well. It is known that

students who are in the minority are less likely to be identified as learning

disabled or as a special education student. Disability rates are higher

amount most minority populations than amount Whites (LePlante & Carlso,

1996); yet, minorities may also be less likely to define limiting conditions as

disabilities. (Carley, Delsordo, 2004) This simple statement is scary to

teachers and other educators. If teachers and families of minority students

came forward and told the professionals that they think their student might

have a disability, a lot of things could be different for the minority students.

For example, graduation rates could be higher and they would succeed more

than the average minority student is now. All of this could possibly happen all

thanks to the availability of AT. Assistive technology is something that can

help all students no matter their age, race, or disability they have. The

assistive technology would not be any different than the technology of their

white peers, rather it would help the minority students more than their white

peers. It known that these types of students struggle more in school than the

white students and having a disability makes that struggle an even tougher

one to face. But, when they are granted AT, the minority students will have

an easier time in school then if they are a minority student in a school with a

disability. For that group of students, they are taking a double hit being in
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 7

two groups that never get enough attention when it comes to their

education.

As good of an idea that assistive technology is, it will not work unless

teachers know how to incorporate them into their lessons. With such a push

to start using electronic devices in the general education classroom no

matter what the grade level is, incorporating assistive technology into a

lesson is easier than ever. According to Amanda Morin, assistive technology

is one of the core strategies used to help with learning and attention issues.

Some AT might take more planning in including into the classroom, but some

simple technology that can make a different to a student is like a FM

listening system. This device reduces background noise that other students

or teachers make in the classroom so the student can focus more on what

the teacher is saying (Morin). Since assistive technology has come to the

scene and started being provided to students who have a disability, it seems

as if teachers have been having problems with adapting their general

education or inclusion curriculum to include the assistive device.

Since AT is such a new item in the education world, many universities

are making their teacher prep students take a course on different

technologies and how to plan lessons and activities around the electronic

device not only for their special education students, but for their general

education students as well. The course explores the different types of

devices there are and how they can be used in a classroom and how they

can be adapted for an inclusion student.

Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 8

In the future, it would be great to see more laws and acts that are

focused on AT, the usage of AT, and some training for the teachers who will

be using AT in their classrooms. For parents, it would be helpful to see more

acts on the guidelines of AT and how and when it is used and for teachers, it

would be great if there were some training taught by the government to

teach the educators how to use all the technology that their students are

receiving, how to use it in their lessons, and how to fix it if there is a small

error that occurs. For teachers to fully serve their special education students,

they should be aware of who qualifies for AT, how it is funded, and how they

should use it in their own classroom. AT is a new and upcoming item in the

education world that can change the lives of thousands of students and the

more that people know about it, the more educators can help the disabled

students with it so they can have as normal of a learning process as possible.

References
Can Assistive Technology Help our Learning-Disabled Students? 9

AT Resources Funding Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13. 2017, from

https://www.atia.org/at- resources/what-is-at/resources-funding-guide/

Carely, A.C., DelSordo, V., & Goldman, A. (2004). Assistive Technology for All.

Journal of Disability of Policy Studies, 14(4), 194-203.

Etscheidt, S.L. (2016). Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities: A

Legal Analysis of Issues. Journal of Special Education Technology, 31(4), 283-

194. Doi: 10.1177/0162643416673912

Kelly, S.M. (2009). Use of Assistive Technology by Students with Visual

Impairments: Findings from a National Survey. Journal of Visual Impairment

& Blindness, 103(8), 460-480.

Kemp, C. E., Parette, H.P., & Hourcade, J.J. (2001). Funding Assistive

Technology and Related Health Service in Service Settings. Early

Childhood Education Journal, 28(3), 189.

Millstone, J. Who Pays for Assistive Technology? Parents or Schools?. (n.d.).

Retrieved October 12, 2017, from

https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning-assistive-

technology/assistive-technologies-basics/-who-pays-for-assistive-

technology-parents- or-schools.

Morin, A. 8 Examples of Assistive Technology and Adaptive Technology. (n.d.).

Retrieved October 29. 2017, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-

leaning/assistive- technology/assistive-technologies-basics/8-examples-of-

assistive-technology-and- adaptive-tools.