From Edutopia: “Much has been said about the iPad being a revolutionary device for education. There are even education conferences that are dedicated to its use. About a year ago, after the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, 60 Minutes ran a piece on how the iPad was being used as an assistive technology with autistic students. This piece was eye opening for many — it showed the potential for this device as an assistive technology and how it can change learning for students with disabilities or impairments.
Meaghan Roper, a junior at Burlington High School, shares a similar story with the iPad. When Meaghan was six years old, she was diagnosed with a visual impairment. In the eighth grade, she started to notice a decline in her vision. She sought out surgery to repair or delay her vision decline, and while successful, the procedure did not hold for very long.
The following year, Meaghan entered Burlington High School as a freshman. It was decided that she would have a laptop coupled with assistive software programs to assist with her visual impairment. She read all of her books on this laptop and was able to use several features in Microsoft Word. She had her teachers documents scanned and printed in large fonts. Meaghan also used an audio book reader for some of her classes. In short, she had to be aware and proficient in many technologies and applications to stay current with her studies in all of her classes. This all changed at the beginning of her sophomore year — the year that Burlington High School launched their 1:1 iPad initiative.”
Find out more… Assistive Technology and the 1:1 Student | Edutopia.
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