Videos

Assistive Technology (AT) is an essential component of success for transition-age students with complex needs. Students who have the opportunity to experience and use a variety of tools in school for such tasks as communication, organization, navigation, and recall are more likely to transition successfully to adult life. This session will provide participants with a fresh perspective on the role of AT in transition as well as provide guiding questions and suggestions for addressing AT during multiple points throughout IEP development.

This session will explore comprehensive emergent literacy instruction and assistive technology options for students with complex instructional needs. Emergent literacy is the foundation upon which conventional literacy skills develop, but the nature of complex disabilities creates barriers to participation in early literacy experiences. Students with significant disabilities stagnate in their literacy growth unless school teams systematically create access to comprehensive instruction. This session will demonstrate how school teams can analyze the nature of a student’s disabilities to create access (both with assistive technology and with changes to their instruction) to participation in shared reading, listening comprehension, alphabet instruction, phonological awareness, word study, and writing for all students.

This "hands-on" lab will be a continuation of the morning workshop titled Configuring and Teaching AT Tools for Complex Computer Access. Knowing how to integrate systems is critical to creating more efficient and independent learning environments for students with complex bodies. The most commonly available powered chairs, with computers and on-screen keyboards, will be available to allow participants to work with the remote programmers, joysticks, and alternative head array access for use with the computer, using "Bluetooth" access, as well as wireless and hard-wired access. The presenters will focus on mouse emulation, directed mouse access, as well as scanning in this session. In this "lab" experience, the presenters will focus on both configuring the equipment and teaching its use.

This session will focus on the knowledge and skill needed by assistive technology decision makers supporting students with complex needs, in order to consider, introduce, and teach use of specialized equipment that will allow these students to participate and achieve. The presenters will share what powered systems are currently available and how the programmable electronics and hardware integrate with augmentative systems and computer access, including how we can teach more efficient scanning, mouse emulation, and directed or direct selection with on-screen keyboarding, using case studies.

This webinar’s focus will be on the analysis and applications of the configuration(s) needed of the actual access equipment, its relationship to the user and other equipment, and control of the equipment to be accessed. Discussion will demonstrate how to evaluate features of the equipment to be accessed, analyze the access of that equipment, and determine how the software is organized and configured, as well as how it may change for each student.

When supporting young children and students in their learning with the use of assistive technology, it is critical that switch use is understood, available, and readily implemented. Switch use and its applications need to be encouraged by all members of the student’s support team, including teachers, paraprofessionals, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, and all other learning support staff. This workshop will focus on the switches themselves, what is currently available, how they work, how they are used, and how decisions of implementation need to occur, with shared successful strategies of assessment and use. This workshop is truly for those adults who are beginning their journey in AT support, and for all other adults who work with students who need or will need to use switches and assistive technology, especially for augmentative communication, computer access, task participation, and powered mobility. This workshop will contain many examples of real students and their journeys with their use of AT and switch use.

When supporting young children and students in their learning with the use of assistive technology, it is critical that switch use is understood, available, and readily implemented. Switch use and its applications need to be encouraged by all members of the student’s support team, including teachers, paraprofessionals, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, and all other learning support staff. This workshop will focus on the switches themselves, what is currently available, how they work, how they are used, and how decisions of implementation need to occur, with shared successful strategies of assessment and use. This workshop is truly for those adults who are beginning their journey in AT support, and for all other adults who work with students who need or will need to use switches and assistive technology, especially for augmentative communication, computer access, task participation, and powered mobility. This workshop will contain many examples of real students and their journeys with their use of AT and switch use.

Sorting through the variety of options available in augmentative-alternative communication (AAC) devices can be a challenging part of the AAC assessment and decision-making process. During this webinar, AAC system features will be outlined through descriptions and examples of input, processing, output, and other key features that impact AAC decision making that pertains to people with communication impairments, physical disabilities, health impairments, and/or cognitive disabilities. Participants will receive a feature match matrix and matrices that they can use during their AAC evaluation process. The benefits of learning this feature match approach are that this process extends beyond the current knowledge base and comfort level of products by giving the clinician a means in which to incorporate new products.

Sorting through all the options available to support struggling writers can be a challenging portion of the assistive technology assessment process. Throughout this webinar, we will be describing and demonstrating the feature options in writing technologies through input, processing, output, and other key features that pertain to people with physical disabilities, health impairments, and/or cognitive disabilities. During this session, we will overview the areas of mouse alternatives, onscreen keyboards, alternate keyboards, and the variety of word prediction systems. Participants will receive a feature match matrix that they can use during their alternative writing evaluation process. The benefits of learning this feature match approach are that this process extends beyond the writing area and into all areas of assistive technology.

Word prediction programs have had major upgrades in recent years. They are incorporated into alternative keyboards, built into major operating systems, and exist in our everyday technologies such as cellular phones. This webinar will describe and give examples of the features of word prediction programs that should be considered during the assessment and selection of writing supports. During this session, we will look at the word prediction features of stand-alone products that are useable with any text-accepting program and do a quick overview of products that have word prediction built-in such as dedicated word processors and onscreen keyboards. We will explore how programs control the prediction and how each customizes its vocabulary lists. This webinar is not about what product we think is the best, this is about sorting through the options available so that you can be more informed when making decisions.