Technology has opened so many doors for students with severe disabilities and deaf/blindness. It has helped them to be able to speak through voice output devices. It has also allowed them to have access to activities and computers as never before. It is exciting to find new ways to help my students be as independent as possible while allowing them be active participants in their daily lives. It is fun to be creative and figure out how to make new technologies work for them. Through the information learned at NCCAT, I will be able to add in new methods of learning for my students.  I also hope to be able to get the families involved through some of the web access information we learned at NCCAT.

The biggest challenges I have faced with technology is many times the inability to access the latest technology due to monetary restrictions.  Budget restraints influence a lot of what we can do to stay up with the latest technology opportunities.  Mini-grants have been of great help in the past but those are no guarantee.  Usually if we are allowed to purchase technology for the classroom, it is usually meant for use by one student at a time.  When doing group lessons, it would be very helpful to have equipment available within each student’s reach so that they would not have to wait for the teacher to bring the device around to the students in their wheelchairs to use the device only when it is their turn. As a teacher, it is my job to do everything I can to make technology work for the students with what is offered. As many of the technology options become more common, hopefully devices will become more mainstream and easier to purchase for use in the adapted curriculum classroom.