AT week 4

I have to say that I enjoy talking about and learning about assistive technology.

I teach regular second grade. The second grade teachers assembled the kids one day for the sister of one of our parents to talk with them. She is deaf, and the hearing parent interpreted her signs for us and used sign to ask her the kids' questions. It was useful to all of us for a few reasons. First, second grade was reading a story about a deaf child (part of the Moses series), so it was helpful for them to visit with a person who doesn't hear. Also, the kids loved learning sign language and seeing it in action. Of course, the women were much faster than we were teaching the kids. It was also good for them to see that a person who doesn't speak or hear at all can look like just another mom and be a part of the community. Our guest told us that although there are ways that she could feel music rhythms, she doesn't have a desire to "hear" music. It helped all of us to not feel sorry for her when we saw that she has a full life without hearing.

The quiz on the AT blog was easy for me because I am certified to teach special ed. My expectation was that I would be a special ed teacher, probably in life skills. It comes as quite a surprise that I was hired to teach regular second grade.

Annotated websites on AT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology
Wikipedia explains what assistive technology is. It lists several disabilities and what types of technology would be helpful for those persons.

http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109
The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education's website gives a brief overview of what technology may be helpful for some individuals and provides a link telling what those technologies might be.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=U2Y&resnum=0&q=assistive+technology&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=PjsUS4THJsnKlAfjxamxAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQsAQwAw
Google images shows many people, including children, using a variety of assistive technologies. This gives people an idea of what some of these things look like when they are in use.

http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html
This site is a family guide to assistive technology. It is very lengthy and thorough. This would be a good resource for someone who is purchasing a first piece of technology and who needs all the information available about it. This would be a good buying guide, but not for brand names. It just discusses what features are important.

http://www.abilityhub.com/
The Ability Hub website gives information in a question/answer format that is easy to use. Links within the answers to questions show products that fit the criteria in the question.