Assistive technology: strategies, tools, accommodations and resources
ATSTAR is an online curriculum designed to improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities by helping teachers learn to use assistive technology in the classroom. Our core program is a series of online teacher training modules with supporting expert videos. The course is revolutionary in that it brings assistive technology expertise directly into the school and into the classrooms of individual students. ATSTAR prepares instructional staff at the school level to conduct assessments, collect data, and integrate assistive technology into the educational process. The program provides a network of ongoing support as educators learn to use technology to include students with disabilities in classroom learning activities.
Use the links to learn more about ATSTAR.
Knowbility
Knowbility is a non-profit based in Austin, Texas . Knowbility's mission is to support the independence of children and adults with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. We envision a world of barrier-free information technology in which children, youth, and adults with disabilities have greater options to learn, work, and fully participate as producers and consumers in the information marketplace. There are currently over 55 million Americans with disabilities –and over 750 million people worldwide– who are excluded from participating in activities many of us take for granted because readily-available assistive technologies and accessible design techniques are not utilized effectively. This group represents over $1 trillion in aggregate income, and as our population ages, this new “digital divide” will swell to include tens of millions more people than today.
Knowbility's award-winning programs and services are designed to provide universally-available, barrier-free information technology solutions that help the blind visualize the world around them, help the deaf communicate with the hearing world, and help those with mobility impairments “travel” via the Internet. But accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Research has shown that more than two out of three technology users benefit from accessible design. Additionally, the same techniques used to enable assistive technologies often facilitate access to web sites by mobile phones and other handheld devices.