Assistive Technology in the Library: An Idealist Point of View

Teaching students with disabilities. I will be the first to admit that I am under-informed on this topic. I have worked with students with disabilities in a number of different capacities and I consider myself very knowledgeable about different conditions and the modifications that students might need, however, when it comes to assistive technology, I am admittedly a novice.

The district where I currently work is very small. There are between 50-80 students in each grade and very few with serious disabilities. We do have a number of students with learning disabilities. But off hand I can only think of maybe 3 with mobility impairments and 1 with a hearing impairment. It seems were are not very diverse when it comes to students with disabilities. That said, I do not plan to be in this district forever, and I enjoy learning and experimenting with the many new assistive technologies that exist.

I would love to someday look around in my library and see students using a variety of assistive technologies. There are many that could be useful to the normally functioning students as well as the students with disabilities. For example, spellcheckers and brainstorming/mindmapping software which are recommended for students with learning disabilities are actually useful for all students, and especially in helping students with special needs interact and work cooperatively with regular education students. Take bubbl.us as an example. This is a tool that would be very useful for students of all abilities for help in mapping out their ideas for research, pre-writing and group projects. Below is their brief explanatory video of the service bubbl.us provides.

But assistive technologies encompass more than just helpful web tools. I would love someday look around this imaginary library and see students taking advantage of headsets and screen readers, screen magnifying software, word prediction software, speech to text software, and even braille output devices.  I would love to see all of my students able to navigate the library technology and stacks independently, without needing to ask for help reaching a book from their wheelchair, or reading a sign that isn't labeled in large print or braille. Being able to do things independently creates a feeling of success in the classroom library, and the most important thing at the end of the day, is that our students feel successful no matter what their ability level.