A ssistive technology (AT) and instruction- al technology (IT) are distinct fields. AT is a legally mandated service for people
with disabilities, a process to help individuals
find the tools they need to perform the tasks
they want to do. It applies not just to students,
but to people in many different phases of life.
IT, on the other hand, is the process of teaching
and learning with tools.
However, in the educational setting, both apply to students, and their purposes overlap. If
AT were reframed as “technology-enhanced
performance”-a term David Edyburn used in
the article “Rethinking Assistive Technology”
( goo.gl/5lkASM)-instructional technology
would also be assistive because it enhances students’ creativity and innovation, communication
and collaboration, research and information
gathering, and critical-thinking and problem-solving skills—the aims of the first four ISTE
Standards for Students (formerly known as the
NETS for Students). This overlap is the reason
AT is included in education.
Connect More Students to Needed AT
As a districtwide AT coordinator, I’m always
looking for systematic ways to connect more
students to the assistive aspect of technology.
At a recent workshop led by members of the
Illinois Board of Education, I discovered a
school improvement idea that offered intriguing possibilities. The Comprehensive System of
Student Learning Supports was developed some
years ago by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor
at UCLA’s Center for Mental Health in Schools.
Although assistive technology is not explicitly
mentioned in their work ( goo.gl/BzkBQS), their
concept made me wonder what it would be like
if AT were part of a comprehensive system of
learning supports. The more I investigated, the
more AT seemed to fit in three key ways:
Transactional instead of personal. Adelman and
Taylor use a transactional model to describe the
origin of students’ problems, saying, “Too often,
we make young people the focus of the problem
rather than pursuing system deficiencies that
are causing the problem” (page 25). AT is the
specific use of technology to solve problems for
people with disabilities. However, the traditional concept of disability locates the problem entirely in the person rather than seeing disability
as a result of the transaction between a person
and his/her environment. AT doesn’t change
the person, it changes the person’s interaction
with the environment. If AT were part of a comprehensive system of learning supports, school
policy might require assistive features, such as
text-to-speech and switch scanning, to be built
into the learning environment (as in Universal
Design for Learning), so that students with disabilities are not limited by the environment side
of the equation. These features would help level
the playing field for many and perhaps reduce
the stigma of using a tool no one else has.
Enabling support instead of crutch. Adelman and
Taylor use the terms enabling supports and
learning supports interchangeably in their writing but then acknowledge the sometimes negative association that follows the word enabling
and end up using the phrase learning supports
in their book title. Still, they emphasize that the
goal of a comprehensive system of learning supports is to enable all students to learn. The goal
of assistive technology in education is the same.
However, it is often perceived negatively, as a
AS
I
SEE“
AT”
As I See AT volunteer
columnists offer tips,
resources, and practical
advice about how tech-
nology can help students
with learning difficulties
and disabilities meet the
challenges of rigorous
academic programs.
By Daniel Cochrane
Mind the AT–IT Overlap
