Assistive technology is becoming more and more commonplace in classrooms around the country

Science Activities, Fall 2005

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), over 6 million school-aged children currently receive special education services. Nearly every general education classroom includes students with physical and/or learning disabilities, and now there are tools to assist these students.
Assistive technology is any item, piece of equipment, or system of products that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. These adaptive technology tools now enable all students to become active participants in the general classroom environment. Some of the new technology innovations include:
* speech recognition systems,
* personal reading machines,
* talking calculators,
* video description,
* large print/screen magnification hardware and software,
* assistive listening devices, and
* captioning.
Students with disabilities are also being encouraged to access books and electronic media from laptops, wireless Internet systems, CD-ROMs, and e-books. The U.S. Department of Education allotted over $11 billion in grant funds in 2004 for the development of technology-based programs. Go to www.ed-techonline.com to access a comprehensive Web-based directory of this and other grants geared toward increasing the assistive technological capacity in your school. Additional information and statistics about technology in the classroom are available at www.bridgemultimedia.com.