What is Portable Technology

This chapter focuses on the management aspects of portable technologies for special education. Public education has a responsibility to insure that all students learn to the fullest feasible extent. Several pieces of legislation specifically address the academic needs of students with special needs. Part of that legal picture focuses on the role of technology. Increasingly, portable technologies provide multiple ways for students with special needs to have physical and intellectual access to information. Librarians are well positioned to manage those resources, and optimize their use by these student populations. Managers need to coordinate with stakeholders to ensure that collection development, instruction and other services support special education and align with policies at site, local, state and federal levels. Managers also need to ensure that library staff have the training to carry out these policies to optimize the impact of portable technologies for special education.