Assistive Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities

Assistive technology is an area that is considered during the development of the IEP for students with learning disabilities. Assistive technology is used to help students with impairments or deficits in learning areas compensate for those weaknesses and build on areas where the student has strengths. One example of this is the use of taped books for students who can comprehend material that is read aloud but have difficulty with reading decoding skills. While the use of assistive technology can't "cure" or make a learning disability disappear, they can be helpful in improving the chances of a student's academic success.

There are two general types of assistive technology: low-tech and high-tech. Low-tech assistive technology can be something as simple as a special pencil grip for students who have writing deficits. Other low-tech assistive technology considerations are: textbooks with key material highlighted, special highlighters or pens, using spell checking programs or dictionaries, variation of testing format, and allowing students dictate test answers using a scribe. Special highlighting tape can be used and then removed from text or papers. Using a slant board can provide extra wrist support for students with writing problems. Some students have trouble copying from the board. Those students could be helped by using a copy of the teacher's notes (or notes from another student), a hard copy of homework assignments, or allowing another student to copy down homework assignments for the student.

There are a number of high-tech assistive technology options available for students with learning disabilities, depending on funding and the decisions of the IEP team. Assistive technology geared towards reading deficits are screen readers, Text-to-Speech software, and Optical Character Recognition software. High-tech assistive technology that can be helpful for students with writing difficulties are portable keyboards like AlphaSmart, electronic spell checkers and dictionaries, abbreviation expander software, and word prediction software like Aurora for Windows. Voice recognition software has also been found helpful for many students with learning disabilities.

Students with learning disabilities that deal primarily with math skills could benefit from talking calculators, which give the student visual and auditory feedback. Electronic worksheet software is helpful for students who have trouble lining up math problems correctly on paper. Examples of this kind of software are Access to Math and MathPad.

Many students with learning disabilities struggle with planning and organization. High-tech assistive technology that targets organizational problems include digital voice and memo recorders, electronic organizers, freeform database software, and personal digital assistants.