Although it is interesting to consider how these technologies benefit students with disabilities, it is even more interesting to consider if students with disabilities are being prepared to work in these very same fields.
Supporting Study Abroad for Students with Disabilities
Despite this encouraging trend, students with disabilities find themselves under-represented among globe-trotting academics. In 2017-2018,, only 9.2% of study abroad students were students with disabilities, despite the fact that students with disabilities represent approximately 19% of students on college campuses.
There is no reason this should be the case. The author of this blog – himself a person with a disability – found studying abroad to be challenging, but ultimately a life-changing experience. In this blog, we will explore how factors like technology and a commitment to accessibility can facilitate study abroad for students with disabilities.
There is no reason this should be the case. The author of this blog – himself a person with a disability – found studying abroad to be challenging, but ultimately a life-changing experience. In this blog, we will explore how factors like technology and a commitment to accessibility can facilitate study abroad for students with disabilities.
Playing Around with Technology: Part II
In a previous post, we discussed the importance of play for children with disabilities and how technology can facilitate play. Teachers employed technology in the classroom to encourage social interactions between students with and without disabilities. Students, when given opportunities, took existing technology and used it in innovative ways. Finally, parents spoke about how technology provided alternative forms of communication or even allowed them to watch how their children played.
Playing Around with Technology: Part I
According to LUDI – a research network on play for children with disabilities – play plays a central role in children’s cognitive, social, and language development. Unfortunately, children with disabilities are often denied opportunities for inclusive play with peers because there is a lack of analogous forms of play that they can take part in.
Perspectives from Higher Education Experts in Orientation and Mobility
In the November 30 CIDDL Webinar, How to select Technology and Design Instruction: Knowledge, Skills and Abilities that Generalize Across Tools and Settings, Dr. Tara Courchaine interviewed Dr. Robert Wall Emerson, Dr. Sarahelizabeth Baguhn, and Dr. Nicholas Giudice regarding their processes for choosing technology to introduce in orientation and mobility (O&M) programs.
Dot the I’s and Every Other Letter: Technology to Support Braille Learning
For over 150 years, a system of raised dots known as braille has been the fundamental system of written communication for the blind. Perkins School for the Blind reports that there exist braille codes for over 130 languages from around the world. Even beyond the classroom, braille is an indispensable tool in the daily lives of people who are blind or visually impaired. Fortunately, advances in technology have the potential to make braille more readily available than ever before.
Supporting Peer Interactions Online
With the growing interest in online education – and especially after the global COVID-19 pandemic forced schools across the world to turn to online education – how can we continue to support peer interactions?
I’ll Cross that Virtual Bridge When I Come to It: Orientation and Mobility Training in Virtual Environments
One technology that has shown potential for creating safe spaces for teaching/practicing O&M skills is virtual reality (VR). According to Thevin and colleagues (2020), VR systems create immersive, interactive environments that provide students the opportunity for trial and error . Besides visual feedback, VR systems can provide both haptic and auditory information for the benefit of individuals who are blind or low vision.
Accessibility Checker for Slides
Special education teachers and related service providers are tasked with developing and maintaining high-quality data to support student progress towards goals. This means that the burden of exploring options to collect high quality data is on educator preparation programs (EPPs) and personnel. Beyond teaching how to write legally defensible goals and maintain high-quality data sheets from them, EPPs must also provide pre-service teachers with the skills to create and/or find resources to assess the assigned goals. Boom Cards™ by Boom Learning are interactive task cards that can be used in the brick-and-mortar classroom and virtually to provide teachers and related service providers with meaningful feedback for progress towards goals.
Preparing for the Fall Semester: Aligning Instruction to Standards
Preparing for the Fall Semester: Aligning Instruction to Standards Author: Nicholas J. Hoekstra; info@ciddl.org As June gives way to July, that first day of the fall semester may still seem a ways away. It is never too early to begin…