As a special educator, assistive technology is crucial. Everything is modified and accommodated specifically to each student. Assistive technology is especially important when it comes to students with special needs. Different examples of assistive technology include wheelchairs, prosthetics, and reading equipment. Corpus Christi Independent School District has teachers come up with plans for what they need in their classroom and send them off for review and acceptance.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the International Reading Association's 58th annual convention in San Antonio, Texas. There, I was able to speak with Mr. Doug Rosette about the a program called "TextHelp". TextHelp is an assistive technology program that helps with reading, fluency, spelling, and language. There are five programs that include features such as text-to-speecch software, highlighting, spell check, text and picture dictionaries, and word prediction. This program works on computers, phones, and notebooks. I was able to preview some of this program and discovered what a fantastic tool this is. I would definitely use it in the classroom because I know how much my students with special needs would benefit from something like this.
Assistive technology comes in all forms, but it's what and how we use it that changes our student's lives.
Once again. WOW. I love the things that you post. You should do a blog post where you do nothing but post websites that you know about!! I really enjoyed the texthelp website. I just finished a tutoring session where I was working with a student on his reading comprehension and everything that the Fluency Tutor was doing were strategies that I was using with my student. I wish I would have known about this sooner because I would have used it!!!
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