The Importance of the Assistive Technology Assessment for Students With Visual Disabilities

 
The assistive technology assessment does much more than assesses a student's need for and competency with assistive technology solutions in a K-12 educational setting. Using a set of generic criteria to decide which assistive technologies should be distributed to student's means that a percentage of students will be assessed incorrectly.
The primary role of assistive technology is to mitigate to the extent possible, the impact of the student's disabilities using various technological measures. Because the impact of the student's disability on daily-life can be considerable, it is imperative to maximize the amount that the disabling condition(s) can be mitigated. In 2014, the pace of assistive technology innovation continues to accelerate. This trend is not limited to the assistive technology industry but mainstream technology sectors as well. In order to maximize the mitigation of the impact of the student's disability, an Assistive Technology assessment should be performed on each student at regular intervals or if there are any changes to the student's disability. The variety of assistive technology solutions available make it difficult to perform a comprehensive Assistive Technology assessment as a part of a larger assessment process. In the case of students who have a visual disability, a comprehensive Assistive Technology assessment should be performed separately from the Functional Vision and Learning Media assessments. A comprehensive Assistive Technology assessment allows the qualified Assistive Technology Specialist to ensure the appropriate distribution of assistive technologies and the provisioning of assistive technology instruction for each individual student. In the case of a student with a visual disability, it is less likely that the entirety of assistive technology solutions will be considered if assistive technology is a smaller part of a larger Functional Vision and Learning Media assessment. Each district or institution should develop a custom comprehensive Assistive Technology assessment that meets the needs of their unique population. Even though students may share the same label for their visual disability, each individual student experiences their disability differently and with a different, prospective on how that disability affects their daily-life. This uniqueness necessitates the comprehensive Assistive Technology assessment. The data from the Assistive Technology assessment is combined with the data from other assessments, curriculum and expanded core curriculum sources to obtain a complete understanding of the most efficient sources of both technologies and tools to maximize the mitigation of the impact on the student's disability. This understanding can then be used by teachers, the IEP team and school administrators to ensure that student's disability is not a limiting factor and that the student can perform at their full potential both inside and outside the classroom.