CHAPTER 15 –

TECHNOLOGY IN SPECIAL
EDUCATION

Chelsea Pogar, Morgan Jones, Daisha

Batts, Ashley, and Dyche Randolph
Technology Integration Example – Helping
Students with disabilities blend in -
 There are 6 Phases to helping students with
disabilities blend in with technology.
 Phase 1: Assess technological pedagogical
content knowledge
 Phase 2: Determine relative advantage
 Phase 3: Decide on objectives and assessments
 Phase 4: Design integration strategies
 Phase 5: Prepare the instructional environment
 Phase 6: Evaluate and revise
 Introduction
 Education for students with special needs
encompasses strategies for BOTH those with
physical and mental deficits and those with
special gifts or talents.
 The term impairment, disability and handicap
are often used synonymously.
 Differences among these concepts have
important implications for the use of
technology in the classroom.
 …Introduction continued…
 Impairment: involve abnormality or loss of function in a physical,
anatomical, or psychological structure.
 May be congenital or acquired through accident of disease.
 Impairment limits an individual from performing an activity in a
manner normally expected for human being (communicating with
others, hearing, movement, manipulating objects, hearing,
movement, manipulating objects, etc.) we refer to this as a disability.
 In the United States, federal law recognizes several types of
disabilities.
 Most citizens know one or more individuals who have been affected
by a disability in some form:
 deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, mental retardation, multihandicapped,
orthopedically impaired, other health impaired, seriously emotionally
disturbed, specific learning disability, speech impaired, or visually
handicapped.
 …Introduction Continued…
 A handicap arises when an individual is unable to
fulfill a role due to an impairment or disability.

 Special education technology has been a part of

the United States educational system since at least
1879
 1879- The United States Congress made a $10,000 grant
for the production of Braille materials by the American
Printing House for the Blind.
 1958- funding was provided for captioning films for the
deaf
 … Introduction Continued…
 Federal government established two Special
Education Instructional Materials Centers
(SEIMCs)
 Purpose was to explore ways to make educational
technologies more accessible to special education
teachers
 The two original eventually expanded to a network of
14 regional SEIMCs, the Council for Exceptional
Children ERIC Clearinghouse, four Regional Media
Centers for the Deaf, and a Network Coordinating
Office.
 They were all disbanded later
 … Introduction Continued…
 The emphasis on technology for individuals with
disabilities had been though of as assistive
technology—
 Extending the abilities of an individual in ways that
provide physical access (wheelchairs, braces and sensory
access (Braille, closed captioning).
 General goals of specific application technology is to
harness the potential of technology in ways that
offer an individual with a disability increased
opportunities for learning, productivity, and
independence-opportunities that otherwise would
not be available.
 What does TPACK look like in Special
Education?
 TPACK: technological pedagogical content
knowledge
 In any discipline is the perfect union of three
knowledge domains (content, pedagogy, and
technology) to develop a knowledge base from
which a teacher can view a lesson and understand
how technology can enhance the learning
opportunities and experiences for the students while
also knowing the correct pedagogy to enhance the
learning of the content.
 …TPACK Continued…
 In special education, a teacher is incorporating
the TPACK principles when he or she reviews
a lesson plan and, without hesitation, thinks
about the pedagogy and technology that can be
used to meet the unique needs of each student
in his or her caseload and what adaptations
might be needed to be made to that pedagogy
and technology.
Issues and problems in Special Education
 A number of issues affect the delivery of special
education services.
 There are six current issues that have an impact
on uses of technology in special education:
 Legal and Policy Directives
 Implications of the No Child Left Behind Act for
Special Education
 Need for Trained Personnel
 Requirements for Inclusive Classrooms
 Universal Design for Learning
 Web Accessibility
 Legal and Policy Directives
 Special Education, more than any other areas of
education, is governed by laws and policies.
 Teachers, administrators, and special education
technology specialists must be well versed in
federal and state law, policies, and procedures.
…Legal and Policy Directives Continued…
 The following laws promote the use of technology
by individuals with disabilities:
 The Technology-Related Assistance Act for Individuals
with Disabilities (Public Law 100-407), passed in 1988,
provided funding for statewide systems and services to
provide assistive technology devices and services to
individuals with disabilities.
 Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education act (IDEA) in 1997 (Public Law 105-17)
mandates that every individualized education program
(IEP) team consider assistive technology when planning
the educational program of an individual with a
disability.
Implications of the No Child Left Behind
Act for Special Education
 Has had significant influence in special
education
 One of the most important components of the
law focuses on Annual Yearly Progress (AYP)
 Requires documentation that each school is meeting
specific performance criteria established in the law
 Benefit of these new AYP requirements is that they
focus public attention on the persistent
underachievement of students with physical
disabilities.
 Need for Trained Personnel
 Most teachers begin their career with minimal
experience using technology in ways that
 Enhance their own productivity
 Enhance the effectiveness of instruction and the success of
all students
 Enable them to acquire and use assistive technology for
students in need of performance support.
 Current assistive technology delivery system was
originally developed to respond to the needs of
students with low-incidence disabilities. The size of
the high incident population requires a rethinking of
service delivery systems.
Requirements for Inclusive Classrooms
• Students have been Mainstreamed (placing special education
students in separate classes) but since the 1990s Students have
been included in general education classes known as Inclusion

• Although students with disabilities have been included in

classrooms, general education is still limited.

• Appropriate modifications have to be made for students with,

physical, mental and psychosocial disabilities

• Assistive Technology is needed for students in Special

Education to help them to gain high scores with the NCLB
expectations
 Universal Design
 Universal Design is the understanding of the design for physical
environments of the disabled

 One successful example of Universal Design are curb cuts

 Universal Design has evolved into a wider range of accessibility for the
disabled.

 Recently, computers have been

programmed with software with
universal design concepts

 Accessibility panels
are available on every
computer
Applying Universal Design for Learning
 The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
believes that Universal Design is a critical tool in
helping students with disabilities to access the general
education curriculum
 CAST and the US Department of Education’s Office of
Special Programs established the National Center on
Accessing the General Curriculum to help create
practical approaches for improved access to the general
by weaving together new curricula, teaching practices
and policies.
 Link to CAST website http://
www.cast.org/index.html
Universal Design of Learning guidelines
Universal Design of Learning guidelines
(cont.)
 Web Accessibility
 Refers to the push to make websites usable for people
with disabilities
 Just like Universal Design of Learning, the purpose of
web accessibility is to provide greater access of
information for all users by designing websites for
accessibility from the ground up
 Criteria
1. Text equivalents with screen readers
2. Large or enlargeable images for people with low vision
3. Underlining and coloring links for the colorblind
4. Making website navigable with the keyboard only
 Strategies for Students with Gifts and
Talents
 The primary issue surrounding and shaping
education for gifted students is how to identify
students who merit these “special services or
activities not ordinarily provided by the
school”.
 “…The increasingly sophisticated use of
technological tools and related methods will
provide gifted students with greater
connectivity and independence in the future.”
 Strategies for Students with Gifts and
Talents
 -Electronic Communities
 -Research