Teachers' Use of Assistive Technologies in Education

Teachers' Use of Assistive Technologies in Education

Vicki Donne, Mary Hansen
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1709-2.ch006
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Abstract

Today's educational landscape is complex and ever-changing. Technology continues to develop and advance the quality and scope of instructional methods being utilized across educational settings. At the same time, inclusive education, where persons with disabilities are included into general education classrooms, has become a world-wide initiative. Yet access of students with a disability to assistive technologies, which constitute equipment, devices, or software used to increase, maintain, or improve their capabilities, is limited. Limited student access is due in part to both limited teacher knowledge of and access to such assistive technologies. Even in the business education curriculum where technology courses are offered, teachers are not using potentially helpful technologies for students with a disability who are included in their classrooms. To that end, this chapter reports on business educators' knowledge, use, training and preparation related to teaching students with a disability. Findings indicated additional education in the availability and use of technology and assistive technology are needed.
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Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities Into General Education Classrooms

As the push for integration of technologies into educational systems world-wide has amplified, another growing global educational trend in K-12 education has been the inclusion of students with a disability into the general education classroom. Approximately 15% of people in the world have some type of disability, and between 2 and 4% percent have severe disabilities (World Health Organization, 2011). These numbers translate into a large number of students with a disability in the education system world-wide. For example, in the United States, more than 6 million school age students are identified as having a disability (U.S. Department of Education, 2012a). In conjunction with these statistics, high percentages of general education teachers (74%) report teaching students with a disability in their classrooms (Olson, 2004).

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