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Assistive Technology: How Technology Can Help
Your Child Be More Active
by Patti Slobogin, Ph.D., Director, Lower Hudson Valley Regional
Technology Center, Westchester Institute for Human Development
 Assistive
technology is any device that helps a person with a disAbility complete an
everyday task. If you break your leg, a remote control for the TV can be
assistive technology. If someone has poor eyesight, a pair of glasses or a
magnifier is assistive technology.
Assistive technology includes many specialized devices as well, like
typing telephones for people who are deaf and motorized wheelchairs for
people who cannot walk. Assistive technology can be "low-tech" (something
very simple and low-cost, like a pencil grip), or "high-tech" (something
sophisticated, like a computer). Assistive technology can be critical for
the person using it - if you wear glasses, think how hard it would be to
get through the day without them!
The federal government recognized the importance of assistive technology
for students when it revised the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) in 1997. Since that time, federal law has said that school
districts must consider assistive technology for any child in special
education. That means that the educational team at your school must ask if
there is a device that might help your child be more actively involved in
a classroom activity. If the answer is yes, the school district must
provide certain services:
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a
qualified evaluator must complete an assistive technology evaluation;
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if
the evaluator recommends a device, it must be acquired;
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and if you, your child or the staff in your child's school need training
to use the device, that training must be provided, too.
Learn about the different types of assistive technology -
click here.
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