Assistive Technology (AT)

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Assistive Technology (AT) was officially introduced in EDUC 600 - Workshop in Education.  EDSE 610- Designing Environments was the practical application of all courses in the AT Certificate program study the needs of a group of people with disabilities and create an environment designed to utilize strengths and minimize the weaknesses.  A wide range of disabilities were highlighted in this program.  Students with severe disabilities were the focus in  EDSE 669 - Position and Handling, while the unique needs of students with a combination of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and giftedness were featured in EDIT 730 - Analysis and Design of Hypermedia/Multimedia Learning Environments and EDIT 752 - Design and Production of Multimedia/Hypermedia Learning Environments. Consideration of people with different abilities and needs when surfing the Internet was studied in EDIT 526 - Web Accessibility, which gave insight to the designing of this electronic portfolio! In EDSE 649- Advanced Clinical Psycho-Educational Assessment in Special Education the focus was in assessment of a person with special needs and in problem solving to give the person maximum independence.  Although writing was not a focus, both high tech and low tech assistive technology solutions were found.  This helps with the awareness of matching a difficulty in an environment with appropriate features and technology to solve a problem.

In EDIT 705 - Instructional Design, EDRS 810 - Problems and Methods in Education Research, EDRS 811- Quantitative Methods in Education Research, EDSE 841- Intervention Research in Special Education, and in EDSE 842- Application of Research Methodology in Special Education all final projects focused on investigating the effects of the availability of AT for students with writing difficulties in each of the methods studied. Again in EDRS 823 Advanced Research Methods in Single Subject/Case Design the final project was a pilot study to investigate the use of picture-to-text software as assistive technology.

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