Special Needs and Technology

In this new revolution, digital age technologies are transforming all of our lives by providing revolutionary ways to learn, communicate and work. But for individuals with special needs, the digital age can provide something even more valuable...freedom.

The Internet is an empowering tool for students with disabilities. The Internet gives them immediate access to information that historically has been unavailable to them. Online education is a major boon for students with disabilities, especially for students who have a difficult time traveling. As the Internet becomes more and more accessible to all people, I believe you will see more students with disabilities take advantage of this educational tool.

When you’re on the Internet, in a chat room or taking an online class, your disability is invisible and irrelevant. You’re on equal footing. Telecommuting, which is becoming more and more popular, is also a great benefit to people with disabilities because there are no transportation issues or architectural access limitations.

Speech recognition software is another tool that has tremendous potential for special needs students. Several software companies are already using this technology in their reading and foreign language programs. Speech recognition technology is helpful to students who are vision-impaired or paralyzed because they can talk to the computer and it will type what they say. Deaf students also benefit from this technology because they can type what they want to say into their portable computer and the computer speaks for them. Technology can be a great equalizer in the traditional classroom. Low vision students can carry a laptop computer with them to class to enlarge their work. Deaf students can use speech recognition technology to talk to their friends.

Technological advances in wheelchairs are also allowing individuals with paralysis or muscular disorders to live meaningful, purposeful lives. There are wheelchairs that are controlled by head movement,and coming soon there will even be wheelchairs that can climb stairs. Special cars allow an individual to drive by using hand levers, instead of gas and brake pedals. You can also drive a car using a joystick.

And as the 21st century moves on, technology will continue at an accelerated speed to improve the quality of life for individuals with special needs.

The biggest benefit will be the merging of technologies in the telecommunications area. We will see more smart houses being built where many things are done automatically, via computers. We are seeing improvements in voice recognition programs and in telecommunication shopping. We will see first-time movies run on our computers on the same day they reach the big screen. We will see audio descriptive services for blind and visually impaired persons used more on television and in the movies. We will also see bio medical procedures that will eradicate spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy diseases, and other neuromuscular diseases. We will see blindness eradicated and low vision or poor vision will become obsolete. The same situation will occur with hearing loss and deafness. I see a time when the biggest barrier challenging disabled people will be attitudinal barriers,and hopefully those too will soon disappear.