WHAT IS "STATE OF THE ART" ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?

IDEA Part B Recovery Act money can be considered for “state-of-the-art assistive technology devices and training.” Tell us how you would define “state of the art” in this mini survey. Results will be published at www.NationalTechCenter.org.

Tags: Assistive, Disability, Education, Technology

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on April 27, 2009 at 3:49pm

State of the art assistive technology devices are any devices you don't already have for which you have a student who would benefit from them. First in line would be speech readers, since the serve not only the blind, but all sorts of other non-readers and pre-readers. And for heavens sake, if you include new devices, make sure that somone has signed off on supplying whatever supplies are needed for them to work. I recall a situation where a severely handicapped child was given a computer that responded to her head movements. But no one had money to replace the little dots that went on her head to activate it, so there it sat unused, and this bright little girl was back to watching her classmates do and not doing herself.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Vestyck on July 30, 2009 at 9:12am

I think state-of -the-art should also consider the economy. Given two useful tools one being $150 per year per teacher and very advanced with bells and whistles or another using current technology to provide 95% of the same features at $20.00 per teacher with no annual fees; I can see the later being more state-of -the -art.