Tech+Resources,+Instructional+Technology,+and+UDL

//Assistive Technology Resource Links// The following sites are good places to look for assistive technology ideas.

//Free technology toolkit wiki,// maintained by AT Consultant Karen Janowski

Edtech Solutions: Teaching Every Student, blog maintained by AT Consultant Karen Janowski //[|Tech & Learning Website]//

//Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) Resources Page//

//WATI Publication: Designing Environments for Successful Kids (DESK)//

//ATMac Blog: Empowering Disabled Apple Users//

//Instructional Technology// Instructional Technology is intended to teach new skills or content, rather than providing just //access// to content or activities. For example, an instructional reading program would be intended to improve a child's ability to read, not just provide them with another way to receive the information. Because it is more content-specific than process-oriented, individual instructional technologies are more likely to be recommended in a specialist evaluation (by a speech/language therapist, for example, or a reading specialist) than in an assistive technology assessment.

To locate or learn more about different instructional technologies, you will probably need to research //CURRICULUM// interventions.

Good websites for this include:

//What Works Clearinghouse// United States Department of Education site that provides descriptions of and information about the effectiveness of different teaching methods.

//Florida Center for Reading Research// Like the What Works Clearinghouse, this site provides information about the effectiveness of different teaching methods; however, it focuses on reading.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//International Dyslexia Association// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Direct link to the page about treatment programs for dyslexia.

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 180%; text-align: center;">//Universal Design for Learning (UDL)// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">UDL is an educational best practice that's been developing for about 25 years. The underlying rationale is that a typical classroom contains a wide variety of learners with significantly different strengths, weaknesses, interests, and experiences. In order to reach them all effectively, teachers should plan for this from the start, and be sure to offer a variety of ways for students to get the key information, different options for how to interact with the information, and alternatives for expressing their learning. Teaching that is planned according to UDL principles is automatically more adaptive for students with learning disabilities than traditional teaching, because it has built-in provisions for learning differences, which makes it easier to work to their strengths and work around their challenges.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Assistive Technology supports UDL by being among the alternative routes to getting information (for example, by using a text reader online rather than silent reading a book to one's self), interacting with it (for example, by organizing it into a wiki rather than taking notes on index cards), or expressing their understanding (for example, by creating an online game rather than a written report).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">For more information about UDL, see: //CAST-Center for Applied Special Technologies- for information on UDL//

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10.2333px; text-align: left;">Mehrzad Araghi, creator of this Wiki, is a special needs advocate in the Greater Boston/Metrowest areas of Massachusetts and an ADHD coach, by telephone, worldwide. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10.2333px; text-align: left;">You can reach her at mehrzad@alignedconnections.com or 508.259.4660