District Administration - May 2008 - (Page 51)

A fourth-grader with cerebral palsy uses a big switch on his computer to interact with several types of assistive technology programs from Don Johnston Inc. Bookshare.org convert them to digital formats, says Skip Stahl, project director of the NIMAS Development Center at CAST (originally the Center for Applied Special Technology). Sometimes schools can receive textbooks in digital formats within just a few hours, Stahl says. “We have made huge strides just in the last few years,” says Christopher M. Lee, director of the Alternative Media Access Center in the University System of Georgia. Diagnosed with dyslexia in second grade, Lee can relate to the advances that have occurred. He recalls using tape recorders to listen to books and the diﬃculties of trying to go back and forth from one chapter to another. “It took me forever to get through a book,” he recalls. With today’s technology, “you can go right to a speciﬁc page, and the software will read it for you and highlight it and enlarge it. You can adapt voices to it and add notes to it,” he says. Handheld Devices Although never formally diagnosed with the condition, Don Johnston, head of Don Johnston Inc., says he also had a form of dyslexia and did not read until freshman www.DistrictAdministration.com year in high school. Today his company produces assistive technology tools for students with dyslexia. One example, ClassMate Reader, is a lightweight, handheld device about the size of a portable gaming system with a large LCD screen. With it, students can listen to the audio version of a textbook and other study materials while following the highlighted text on the screen. When used during tests, it eliminates the need for a teacher to read the exam to students. Technology like that, “if it is used consistently, closes the gap between students who have written language problems and students who don’t. It’s an incredible tool,” says Judy Brady, central oﬃce resource specialist for assistive technology in Anne Arundel County (Md.) Public Schools, which uses Don Johnston products. Visual Tools Seeing as well as hearing also helps such students learn. In the Beaverton (Ore.) School District, where about 4,200 of 37,000 students qualify as learning disabled under the original federal law for individuals with disabilities, Liz Ferris, district AT specialist, uses Inspiration Software products. “I’ll be called in because a student in K12 is having diﬃculty getting thoughts down on paper,” Ferris explains. “It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will use visual representations to help them tell their stories. Then they transfer what they see into a word processing document. They write about those pictures and the story starts coming together.” Similarly, Lindi Weinstein, assistive technology specialist in the Beverly Hills (Calif.) Uniﬁed School District, ﬁnds that special software programs help K12 students organize their thoughts. “If the children in a classroom are writing about living things versus nonliving things, maybe there’s one child who can’t do it. But he can insert these graphics of little animals in the computer and print it out and he has something really cool,” Weinstein says. “With autism, children have such a wide range of skills, abilities and needs. It’s the same with attention deﬁcit disorder. You try to ﬁnd some programs that might work with a variety of kids who have a variety of needs versus something that is only good for one person,” Weinstein says. May 2008 51 http://Bookshare.org http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - May 2008

District Administration - May 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Security Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Book Excerpt
Addressing Food Allergies
Algebra: Changing the Equation
Stopping MRSA
Resources to Support Disabled Learners
Web Tools: The Second Generation
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Speaking Out
Supervisor’s Opinion
Professional Opinion
Leadership Books
Research Center
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - May 2008