Reflection of Research on Assistive Technology

Expanding my interests on researching assistive technology for education, I registered

Directed Study course this semester. The course is a great opportunity for developing research
skills, discussing issues of students with special needs and learning knowledge of assistive
technology for education. During the research, I studied trends of technology in education, issues
of students with disabilities, effect of assistive technology as well as different types of assistive
technology in education. In addition, I also discussed this topic with my friend, who is an
educator in an elementary school in China. Moreover, I talked to a student with disabilities in her
classroom. I collected all information I researched and organized the findings of assistive
technology for education on my site.
First of all, I came up with the idea in researching assistive technology for education because
of my personal experience from learning in a class called Technology and Diverse Learners. I
started my research since the class of Professional Development last semester, and I found that
the topic of Assistive Technology for Education is important and worth to explore deeply. I
mentioned in the Professional Development class that I have no knowledge in assistive
technology or special service for students with disabilities prior to my undergraduate education.
After I requested and registered a service (Note-taker) from Students Disabilities Service when I
was recovering from an injury and could not attend the class, I realized that schools in the United
States concern about disabled students or student with special needs. Therefore, my goal of the
research is to learn current issues of students with special needs and assistive technology for
education.
Nowadays, the instructional mode is shifting from traditional lecture to digital teaching.

Along with the development of technology in education, most schools apply technologies and
digital device in the classrooms. Under traditional teaching mode, teachers stand in the front of
the classroom and write instructional materials on a dark or black-colored board before 1980s.
Evaluations and feedbacks are written in the notebooks. Today, even though many classrooms
utilize traditional modes, the instructors deliver instructional materials and provide assessments
through Learning Management Systems (LMS), and students are allowed to interact and
collaborate with the instructor and classmates through LMS or social media platform, such as
Zoom. Along with the use of digital technology in education, schools shift to discuss how to
leverage assistive technology to help students with special needs; they would like to provide
equal opportunities for more kids with disabilities and help them to become successful in the
classroom.
There are physical and financial challenges that people with disabilities could face in their
lives. People with disabilities may have challenges in accomplishing daily tasks, such as talking
with friends, going to schools, working or participating in recreational activities. When I studied
the issues of kids with special needs, I found that those kids suffer from medical conditions,
behavior, development, learning and mental health. Due to such issues, students with special
needs only have fewer opportunities to receive academic or general education than normal
students in the classroom. Accordingly, students with learning disabilities may have some
functional limitations on visual perception, auditory perception, abstract reasoning, information
processing speed and planning/time management. For example, the students with auditory
perception difficulty are hard to process information communicated through lectures or class
discussion. They may have difficulty to distinguish subtle differences in sound or knowing the

sound to attend to. Last but not the least, financial issue is another barrier for some families
which have kids with disabilities; purchasing medical equipment or treatment as well as paying
tuition can be hard. Compared to rich families, lower-income families do not have much money
to undertake all the long-term treatment costs for kids with disabilities. The medical equipment
and long-term treatment are very expensive; without financial support, these families cannot
afford the tuition and provide general education for their kids.
In October, I had a face-to-face discussion with my friend and talked to a disabled student in
her classroom. My friend, Mrs. Chen, told me that schools in China are still lack of assistive
technology and student disabilities service. There are some students with disabilities in schools;
however, the teachers cannot provide good instructions to them because of the disabled issues.
Meanwhile, the teachers never had any training on special education. The students with
inborn-amblyopia in my friends classroom, Xiaohan, told me that some schools did not receive
him and asked him to attend special education school. His parents want Xiaohan to receive
general education, blending into normal learning environment and living as a normal kid.
Luckily, he was accepted by my friends school. People with inborn-amblyopia experience
blurred vision or double vision. Xiaohan said that he needs to pay more attention to the teachers
talking in the class instead. Sometimes, he is upset because he cannot catch the information in
class or when he is reading and writing. The teachers spend more time for Xiaohans learning.
Mrs. Chen, the head-teacher of Xiaohans class, mentioned that it will be better if the school has
assistive technology for students with special needs. Additionally, teachers may acquire trainings
of special education in order to meet the needs of disabled students in the classroom. It is no
doubt that some assistive technologies are very expensive. During our conversation, Mrs. Chen

said that the school does not have financial support to purchase them. Moreover, some schools
do not accept the students with disabilities due to limitations of teachers experiences and
schools facilities.
Assistive technology is beneficial for students with special needs, but higher cost of such
technology is a barrier for schools or the lower-income families of kids with disabilities.
Assistive technology refers to any kind of device that is used to enhance the functional
independence of a person with a disability and help them to overcome the challenges in daily life.
Assistive technology contains different levels of device that can meet the needs for different
people with disabilities. In the classroom, assistive technology enhances academic achievement
in written expression, reading, mathematics, and spelling. For those students with attention
deficit/hyperactivity or dyslexia, assistive technology benefits teachers to manage them greatly
in the classroom and help those students to focus on learning. Generally, assistive technology
helps the students with special needs to build up self-confidence, and it makes them study as
same as other normal students. In addition to benefit students with disabilities, assistive
technology becomes an assistant for all students who are struggle. For instance, some students
may struggle to achieve a passing grade in a course. Incorporating assistive technology as tools,
students grade can be increased. Educators may apply assistive technology to teach students
with different learning styles and increase participation rate in the classroom. On the other hand,
the disadvantage of assistive technology is the cost of devices. Some AT tools can be very
expensive. Schools spend lots of money purchasing AT devices if they want to meet the needs
with disabled students in schooling. For families, the cost of AT devices is a big expense. The
big cost of AT devices is one reason that resists schools to receive students with special needs.

In order to provide an equal opportunity to students with special needs, we should increase
awareness of issues on student with special needs and create a comfortable learning environment
for them. First of all, assistive technology provides help for students with disabilities in
educational environment. With assistive technology, students with disabilities can solve the
challenges that they face in the classroom as well as in daily life. In addition, educators should
also provide special education for those students in general classroom. The precondition of this
practice requires the educator to have experience of special education. In order to provide a great
instruction for the kids with special needs, the educators without experience should have a
professional training if possible. According to my research, people with disabilities can be
offered formal help and protection through Federal Law, Individual Education Programs and
Section 504 in the United States. Such system in China still needs improvement. The students
with special needs desire to study in the general classroom as other normal students; therefore,
educators and parents should take actions to help them in receiving education and completing
their degrees. For lower-income families, schools may offer scholarship on health and disability
for those families to solve financial issues. In addition, schools may establish a Students
Disabilities Department which provides services that meets needs of disabled students at school.
In families, parents may not give up their kids. They should motivate their kids to attend school
even though they are facing many challenges. Parents can also request help or protection from
the educational organization or government in order to help their kids to receive education
equally.