Adaptive Technology in Education

There have been three main laws the have assisted for equal opportunities for those with disabilities. The American Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disability Act Laws and the Assistive Technology Act have set out different laws and accommodations to help students with disabilities in school and education and to help all people with disabilities in everyday life. From working in a middle school in the special education department I have seen first hand how some of these programs and technologies have helped students succeed in school. The ADA is a federal law protecting the civil rights of people with disabilities in employment, state and local government, public accommodations and telecommunication services. The IDA and ATA protect students with disabilities in education. Grants are given to state agencies to help fund the programs to help these students succeed in life. People with mobility impairments, health impairments, learning disabilities, speech and hearing impairments and those who are blind or have visual impairments, are given different ways to succeed in education by using different forms of technology. Some of these forms of technology are screen enlargers, braille displays, text to speech programs or speech to text programs and enlarged keyboards. I have worked with students with some of these items and it changes their whole personality when they are able to participate. I hope that in my future classroom I will be able to work with these items to help student succeed and cant wait to see what else will come out in the years to come to help students with disabilities succeed in education.