Inspiration and Motivation to Teach Students with Disabilities

            Over the course of my relatively short lifespan, I’ve acquired a set of skills and talents that allow me to perform tasks and to perform them well. By the grace of my Creator, I have been blessed with full-functioning body parts and a minimal number of impairments. Edutopia’s How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams opened my eyes to a realm of technology that I knew little about, including the use of assistive technology to play musical instruments as Lukas Bratcher did (Ellis, 2005). I now understand the importance of assistive technology for those who need it. The teachers interviewed in the video portrayed the importance of specifications in lesson plans to include tools such as assistive technology devices to ensure that students with disabilities have every opportunity to fully participate and successfully complete in and out of classroom assignments. For example, George Rehmet explained that one of his students could only move his eyebrows. This meant that Mr. Rehmet had to incorporate a technological tool into his lesson plan that catered to his student’s specific need in order to ensure that he was a successful participant in his lessons.

            Mr. Rehmet’s example of ensuring accommodation for his students’ special needs has reminded and inspired me to be extremely resourceful when I start teaching in a classroom. There is no doubt that I will, at one point or another, have a student with special needs in my classroom. To ensure that he or she is capable of succeeding in my classroom, I would assess his or her specific needs and research the best tools to be used in the classroom and at home so that the tools I provide or suggest have the greatest chance at helping my student to be successful. I would also keep the specific needs in mind when designing lesson plans so that no student is left out due to physical or mental impairments. This would include specifying roles or tasks for students with special needs and assessing what other students in the classroom can assist when necessary.

            In order to ensure that I do all I can to foster successful participation in my classroom, I will refer to the Americans with Disabilities Act for guidance on preventing discrimination due to disabilities in the classroom. Becoming acquainted with this Act and all its numerous amendments will allow me to set up my classroom in a manner that is conducive to every student in my classroom, regardless of whether or not the student has a disability.  Websites such as Federal Resources for Educational Excellence will assist in my task of equipping my classroom with resources for my students, especially students with disabilities.  I will also refer to the Disability & Education Laws article and resources on the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities website as a basis to assess the appropriateness of my planned classroom activities for the inclusion of students with disabilities. Combining these three resources will allow me to assess my lesson plans completely and will give me a basis for revision and improvement.

            My cousin Donovan was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 4 years old and is almost completely deaf. His hearing aid has allowed him to go to school and participate in his lifestyle classes. His disorder has left him without the ability to speak normally but is very expressive with his hands and grunts that have become very specific with the help of his hearing aid. Hearing the tone of his family, teachers, and peers has allowed him to mimic tones that are relevant to what he is trying to relay. Without his hearing aid, he would have an extremely difficult time communicating and others would experience great difficulty understanding him.

Reference List

Ellis, K. (Producer). (2005, February 2).  How assistive technology enables dreams.

Edutopia. Video retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-enabling-dreams-video

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2010, September).

            Disability and Education Laws. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/laws

This video is "[a] quick look at the benefits of using assistive technologies in the classroom for children with sensory impairments, and a motivational tool for teachers to use assistive technologies in their classroom."