This article covers the importance of having learning materials in the classroom that are accessible for students with disabilities. One of the authors, Gayl Bowser, is a retired special education teacher who has experience with disabled students and is a consultant on the topic of helping disabled students with technology. The other author, Joy Smiley Zabala, is an expert in assistive technology. Their combined knowledge on the subjects of technology and disabled students make them a reliable source for this topic. As digital media slowly replaces print media as the format for classroom materials, it is important to ensure that the new media is available in formats that disabled students can use. Digital media offers new opportunities for disabled students, such as audio text to assist students who are visually-impaired or have difficulty reading.
So What
Recent advances in education technology may turn out to be very beneficial to disabled students if teachers and administrators ensure that disabled students are able to access the resources available to them. Vision-impaired students can benefit from audio narration of textbooks or the ability to zoom in on digital texts.
Image from http://pastemagazine.com
Now WhatOne of the ideas in the article is the use of recording lectures so that students can listen to them as an audio. Hey, where might you have heard an awesome idea like that before? As a social studies teacher, I would seriously consider recording my lectures so that students who are struggling to keep up can listen to them at their own pace. The educational system has made a lot of progress toward meeting the needs of disabled students but we now have to make sure that the transition from print to digital media does not leave anybody behind.
Source:
Bowser, G., & Smiley Zabala, J. (2012). Aim for digital equity. Learning & Leading With Technology, 39(7), 16-19. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Store/Product?ID=2467
Hi Dylan!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your summary about the article that you read! I completely agree with both the authors of the article and yourself, digital media is replacing text media, and it is important that there be digital media available for individuals with disabilities. Audio text sounds like a great tool to help individuals with visual impairments or individuals who have specific learning disabilities. In addition, as you mentioned, having the ability to zoom a computer screen in may also benefit those with visual impairments. And lastly, as we have previously discussed throughout this course, students, regardless of whether or not they have a disabilities, can benefit from listening to podcasts of a teacher’s lectures, as opposed to listening to a teacher lecture live. I am currently taking an Adaptive Physical Education course, and we’ve spent much of this semester discussing how we could modify specific PE lessons to meet the needs of individuals with various types of disabilities, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the various technological tools that a classroom teacher could utilize in order to better assist those with disabilities.