You may have a school system that has worked with their teachers to learn how to operate and use smart classroom technologies, or at least has trained the staff on operation of a computer and basic programs.  Maybe your school has even held extensive training on appropriate software and Internet sites for students. And if you are really lucky, You have staff trained and classroom integration of technology, and regularly use computers as a workstation, or as part of classroom instruction. 

When you find that mythical district where the staff and students are adept and comfortable with this seamless integration of curriculum and technology, please let me know.  Even with all the money that has been thrown at classroom technology, most classroom computers sit idle for a majority of the school day. For a special needs student that potential for aiding their classroom work can be tremendous with the right system is adapted to  set them up to be successful.  Classroom technology can help a student compensate effectively for weaknesses and to building on their strengths.

Use of Low-Tech solutions before high tech ones is a necessary step to take. An example would be a fifth-grader who is struggling with second-grade spelling spending two hours a night trying to learn a list of twenty words. A simple lo-tech modification would be to cut the list in half. But that also could have better outcomes if the student was learning spelling while improving their computer literacy. With the use of a spell checker and word processor program to offset organizational difficulties and spelling difficulties, children can suddenly blossom into creative authors. Children then can continue to work to improve their spelling within their particular learning style.

A child who is very distractible in the classroom can show dramatic improvement when work is produced on a computer. A child who is highly distracted by sounds, can find that when his eyes connect with the computer screen, all distractions seem to cease.

Test the knowledge, not the disability

There are small modifications that can make disability non-issues for some school issues. If getting materials and homework from school to home and back is an issue, use of e-mail or district servers to access information at home on a home system is an alternate, and using a thumb drive to transport basic files is another way to accommodate the student being responsible to mule this daily. A district cannot assume a home system, or require it.  It must provide it if there is a reasonable need to use the computer for school activities (like homework and reports).

Many children with disabilities tend to lose the thought somewhere between brain and pencil, but are excellent writers when using a computer. There seems to be an instant direct connection between brain and screen. Organizational skills show improvement as the computer seems to eliminate many of the necessary handwriting steps to get communication from the brain to the screen.

If a child has excellent verbal skills and is creative, but writing is a struggle, they should have daily use of a computer on their I.E.P.   A good rule of thumb is that if the student can convey the material in an alternate format, or can tell you all about the story, but falls apart in trying to write a paper on it, you probably have a case for addition of targeted instruction. If a child demonstrates a need for this type of assistance, than the school is responsible to evaluate and provide that assistive technology.

Problem solving skills are also honed on the computer, bypassing faulty circuitry that gets in the way of real learning. In each of these instances weaknesses are diminished by technology that levels the playing field for people with disabilities. The spotlight then shifts from the weakness of handwriting to the strength of the content. Experimentation and patience can often solve such problem areas.

Remember, if it is good for one, it often will be good for others.  Some day Universal design will reign supreme and this kind of thinking should be available in every classroom for every student.