Disabled Bodies, Able Minds: Giving Voice, Movement, and Independence to the Physically Challenged

Summary:

Disabled, Bodies, Able Minds is very self-intuitive in it’s title.  It focuses on high need students who have little or no means to both perform daily tasks and/or communicate.  For these students in the Oakland area, assistive technology has played an amazing role in allowing these students access technology.  The first student was able to transfer eyebrow movement, with a headband, to navigate the computer.  The second student, with cerebral palsy, was able to communicate with her check.

Response:

This is amazing.  No longer are students with high incidence disabilities and communicative disorders barred from educational opportunity.  It opens an entirely new window for both function and communication with the world.  I also enjoyed that the special education teachers were able to adapt assistive technology to allow a student to play a tuba using a joystick.  Assistive technology can now bring even some of the most hard to reach difficulties to a functioning level.

Curtis, D. (2005, February 2). Disabled bodies, able minds: giving voice, movement, and independence to the physically challenged. In Edutopia. Retrieved April 15 2012, from http://edutopia.org/assistivetechnology.