Why Is Assistive Technology Important For Teachers Of Visually Impaired?

Assistive Technology plays an important role is the life of a student with a visual impairment. The student is able to access information that they may not have been able to. They will be able to participate within the school setting, perform everyday tasks with more ease and create a world of more independence for themselves. All areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) are important for Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI) to focus on, however, assistive technology is the most critical. Assistive Technology knowledge is used in every area of the ECC. There are many components to the use of assistive technology. Students will need to be able to access information through written or electronic means, communicate through reading or utilizing

The accessing information includes input, output, program operation, internet use and ethical and social use. Communicating information is done through use of literacy skills. These skills include reading, writing, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, images, graphs, research, distance learning or virtual classrooms and augmentative communication. These skills are the body of what a student needs to learn through the ECC to perform effectively in the classroom. The last skill is to be personally productive when using assistive technology. For students to be productive, TVIs can incorporate the following skills in other areas of the ECC by teaching students how to access instruction, access materials, complete assignments, applying personal management applications, selecting the proper tools, customize those tools, maintain devices, solve problems independently and apply travel applications (2014). These components along with the actual assistive technology devices is the responsibility of the TVI to teach their

Specific strategies have been found useful when teaching students with a visual impairment assistive technology which include task analysis, pre-teaching and re-teaching, scaffolding, independent practice and differentiated individualized instruction (2014). I believe that teaching assistive technology is the most important are of the ECC. The world today is the technology era. Technology is in everyday life and continues to grow. All students can benefit from learning about technology but the blind or visually impaired will benefit the most. They will be able to apply technology in their everyday lives to be able to participate in activities that they otherwise may not have been able to. Assistive Technology can be utilized in independent living skills, career skills, compensatory skills, recreation and leisure skills, social skills, self-determination skills and orientation and mobility. I also believe that the world of assistive technology has only been touched for these individuals and one day there will be more developments to assist them in daily