Who should I contact if I have questions?

Lauren Ellington is the Learning Disabilities Specialist for the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center.

If you have any questions about learning disabilities, please contact her by email at: leellington@vcu.edu or by phone at 1-804-828-6158 or
1-800-237-0178.

She will be happy to answer your learning disabilities-related questions or find an answer for you.

Book Blurbs

In each issue of Update on LD, books on learning disabilities or related issues that are available in the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center's library will be highlighted.

If any of the books are of interest to you, you may contact the Resource Center to borrow the books.

Assistive Technology: A Resource for School, Work, and Community edited by Karen F. Flippo, Katherine J. Inge, and J. Michael Barcus at the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Supported Employment at Virginia Commonwealth University. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing, 1995.

As individuals with disabilities increasingly recognize the independence that assistive technology devices offer, family members, advocates, medical professionals, and users alike need answers to a multitude of questions. Providing detailed descriptions of assistive devices -- from simple switches to sophisticated computer programs -- this comprehensive guide answers questions about training, assessment, implementation, funding, and other critical issues.

Throughout this informative book, numerous case studies demonstrate assistive technology in action, and clearly written chapters present ideas for incorporating assistive technology into school, work, and recreational environments. Also included are strategies to

• increase public awareness of services
• take advantage of nationwide databases
• establish formal training programs
• ensure collaboration between professionals
• involve consumers and families in decision making
• obtain funding

This valuable resource, which also discusses the evolution of legislation and service delivery, offers an enlightening introduction to the many benefits and applications of assistive technology.

Learning Disabilities Toolkit. The Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center.

While not a book, this resource is available through the Resource Center's library. This toolkit contains many examples of assistive technology that programs may use with their programs. Materials are not consumable but rather are for programs to examine more closely to determine if they would be beneficial for their students.

Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning

"Assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability." -- Federal Assistive Technology Act of 1988

By this definition, assistive technology can be anything that helps a person with a disability to function. This can include color overlays, eye glasses, software programs, pencil grips, large print, etc. Assistive technology (AT) doesn't have to be expensive or complicated.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has, in the past several years, become a large part of offering Assistive Technology. The goal of UDL, according to the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), is to generate "curricula, teaching practices, and policies which are inherently flexible and therefore may reduce the demand on educators to develop and implement modifications and accommodations to meet individual differences within general education learning environments."

This illustrates a shift in thinking. Rather than taking a student with a disability and trying to find a product to assist him in learning, UDL calls for certain principles to be integrated into instruction and materials for all users. According to CAST the use of UDL principles shifts the traditional way of thinking about teaching and learning in four key ways:

1. Students with disabilities fall along a continuum of learner differences rather than constituting a separate category;
   
2. Teacher adjustments for learner differences should occur for all students, not just those with disabilities;
   
3. Curriculum materials should be varied and diverse including digital and online resources, rather than centering on a single textbook, and
   
4. Instead of remediating students so that they can learn from a set curriculum, the curriculum should be made flexible to accommodate learner differences. (www.cast.org)

For in-depth discussion of both Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning, please visit the National Institute for Literacy's Learning Disabilities and Technology listservs. There are archives of the two exciting discussions that have taken place on this subject.

• Discussion with Dr. Christopher Lee on the NIFL Learning Disabilities listserv
  http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/AleLDUniversalDesign
  
  
• Discussion with Dr. David Edyburn on the NIFL Technology listserv
  www.nifl.gov/nifl-technology/2005/
  • browse through the posts from September 19 through September 22