Technology puts more pupils in the mainstream

The children in Dana Romanczyk’s classroom at the William Carter School in Boston have severe special needs. They are unable to speak and are in wheelchairs. Yet they can activate a blender in cooking class or tell a teacher they have papers to take home with the help of technology.
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At Watertown’s Hosmer School, a fifth-grade boy who has reading difficulties works with occupational therapist Beth Lloyd and can participate in his classmates’ project on explorers, thanks to a computer program that reads to him.

The schools are part of a movement in education to integrate technology into mainstream curriculum and general classrooms so students with disabilities such as mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, blindness, and dyslexia can join their peers.

Bringing assistive technology into the mainstream curriculum and classroom, a process known as universal design, makes education accessible for all children, allows children with special needs to feel included in a school’s social life, provides for a more equitable education, and better prepares them for life outside school, supporters say.

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Published on May 10, 2008

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