Reflection on Dilemmas, Challenges, and Opportunities

Dilemmas, Challenges. and Opportunities

After reading this chapter I reflected on how and why we use assistive technology in our schools. I do agree that matching the client with the correct assistive device is key. I do strongly believe that it is so important that the teachers/assistants need to know how to use the technology and are effective teachers of the devices for and with the student. The assessment is key and the recommendations are great and helpful but if no one is qualified to use and understand the technology it will not be used to its capacity by the student. If the support structure is not in place, then the student will not utilize the device/technology to its full capacity.

I didn't really consider cost at all before reading this chapter. As is in my experience, the assistive technology devices have always been provided for the student, and it is only when the student graduates and the equipment is now no longer available to the student that people have to consider the cost of the assistive technology/devices. I have had students who have had FM systems from APSEA their whole high school career, and in transition meetings we have to tell the parents the FM systems now have to be returned. If they can afford it, that is one story, but if they can't, then what does the family do?

I have had many students assessed and supplied with devices that will assist with their hearing/reading/writing. Their self esteem and ability to use the equipment has affected their progress. Students, in my experience, do not want to be singled out when they are in high school and want to blend in with their peers. I had an LD student from another country, who was diagnosed with dyslexia come to our school and I introduced her to Kurzweil, and you wouldn't think it was the same student 2 years later. She has improved her reading as well as her self esteem. If there wasn't support from her home and school environment using this equipment she would still be reading at a lower level than her peers and she would have given up, and perhaps failed, but now she is able to have ST. FX as her goal for next year.
She used Kurzweil because it was easy to use and she could stay in class because she downloaded the MP3 files on her IPod. I think if it wasn't that easy or someone didn't show her how to use it, she would still be the quiet, "I can't do that" girl I met 2 years ago and not the outgoing person that she is today.

It was interesting to note that key factor is the user's age. I know if I gave this device to a 40 year old woman who had not known what an IPod was or Itunes, it may not be as successful as it is with that 15 year old girl who was so excited to be using her Ipod to read and her peers would be thinking she was just listening to her tunes while she was reading, and she wasn't taken out of class for a PSA to read to her. She will be able to use this throughout her post secondary education.