Introduction: Assistive Technology for Students with Mild Disabilities

Why Assistive Technology?

Assistive technology appears to hold incredible potential for improving the education, independence, and quality of life of individuals with disabilities. Consider the following recent developments in assistive technology:

• In a laboratory at Brown University, Dr. James Donoghue and colleagues have taught a monkey to control a computer-based pinball game through thought alone. This example of a neural prosthesis is a computer-based system that has "learned" the brain wave patterns associated with the arm movements involved in controlling the cursor. Consequently, with electrodes attached to capture brain activity, software can interpret the monkey's intentions and move the cursor in lieu of actual arm movements. You can view this work at: http://donoghue.neuro.brown.edu/neuroprosth.php.
  
• At the University of Oregon's Project Intersect, Lynne Anderson-Inman and colleagues are collecting a library of supported texts. These are electronic versions of textbooks used in local middle and high schools. Embedded in these texts are various levels of resources that will provide access for students who cannot read or learn from traditional print-based text. Resources include translations (e.g., English to Spanish, English to American Sign Language, written word to spoken word) and instructional supports (e.g., definitions of unfamiliar vocabulary, illustrations of challenging concepts, background information about unfamiliar topics). These texts have improved access to content-area instruction for students with learning disabilities and hearing impairments in a number of different instructional programs. You can view these electronic texts and resources at: http://intersect.uoregon.edu/.

These are but two examples of the ways in which assistive technologies have the potential to change the lives of people with a variety of disabilities. In 1988, the Office of Technology Assessment stated, "perhaps the most impressive application of technology is in the field of special education." Ten years later, in a survey of 1,000 special educators (Burton-Radzley, 1998), 97% of those surveyed believed that technology could help students with disabilities and 91% expected to increase their use of technology in the future.