Assistive  Technologies

What does the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) say about Assistive Technology?

Assistive technology, as defined by IDEA

Sec. 300.105 Assistive technology.

300.105 Assistive technology.

(a) Each public agency must ensure that assistive technology devices or assistive technology services, or both, as those terms are defined in §§300.5 and 300.6, respectively, are made available to a child with a disability if required as a part of the child’s—
(1) Special education under §300.39;
(2) Related services under §300.34; or
(3) Supplementary aids and services under §§300.42 and 300.114(a)(2)(ii).
(b) On a case-by-case basis, the use of school-purchased assistive technology devices in a child’s home or in other settings is required if the child’s IEP Team determines that the child needs access to those devices in order to receive FAPE.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1820-0030)

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(1), 1412(a)(12)(B)(i))

[71 FR 46753, Aug. 14, 2006, as amended at 82 FR 29759, June 30, 2017]

Sec. 300.5 Assistive technology device
Statute/Regs Main » Regulations » Part B » Subpart A » Section 300.5

300.5 Assistive technology device.

An assistive technology (AT) device is...

“any item, piece of equipment, or product, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with disabilities…”

(IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, n.d.).

Consideration and discussion of the learners’ need for assistive technology is part of the IEP process.

Download this resource from the U.S. Department of Education

The US. DOE (2024). Myths and Facts Surrounding Assistive Technology Devices and Services from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/Myths-and-Facts-Surrounding-Assistive-Technology-Devices-01-22-2024.pdf 

In the Assistive and Educational Technologies of the disability summary, you will:

Research and summarize 6 assistive and/or educational technologies to support the student with ____ disability. Primarily focus on researching assistive technologies. An exception to this would be the emotional disturbance disability, where the technology focus is on motivation and engagement in academics.

  • Include the URL and a brief summary of the technology and how it enhances learning or access to the curriculum.
  • If you are summarizing the readings, you will cite the readings. Otherwise, cite the web page.
  • Try out at least one of the technologies you selected for each disability.

Broadly speaking

Assistive Technology to support physical, sensory, mobility, and literacy access.

Report on a mix of high and low-tech solutions.

For example.

High-tech solutions for specific learning disability

Audiobooks, calculators, text-to-speech and speech-to-text software, Livescribe and other smart pens, Ginger software, Co-Writer software…

Low-tech solutions for specific learning disability

E.Z.C. reader strips, pencil grips, graphic organizer, colored page overlays, graph paper, slant board…

  • Resources that focus on AT for the specific disability category will be provided in each module.

References

IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.105 and https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.5

Resources on Assistive Technology

The IRIS Center. (2010). Assistive Technology: An Overview. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/at/

updated 2/16/2024

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Understanding and Supporting Learners with Disabilities Copyright © 2019 by Paula Lombardi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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