Are you the educator who will Enable Dreams?

The following is a review of a video entitled enabling dreams hosted by edutopia:


Introduction

The enabling dreams video made me aware of several things pertaining to students with disabilities. It made me understand the difficulties they and the technologies that are available to them.

Difficulties             
           Although I have had personal interactions with disabled students and seen many presentations and videos about them during my teacher education, I find I am always still a little naïve when it comes to how much these individuals have to overcome. In the video, there was a student who lacked the use of all four of his limbs. He was able to do some minor things with his arms and legs but they were practically useless. Then in the section discussing the DO-IT program and redwood heights elementary, there were students who could only move their eyebrows or a small part of their face.

Not only do these students have to overcome their own physical disabilities but they also face the difficulty of an ignorant administration. Susannah, a student in college at the time of filming, told viewers of her difficulty in getting access to assistive technology I her high school. She says it was only because of her mother’s persistence that she was able to get the laptop she needed to complete her assignments.  To me, this seems an insurmountable challenge, but these students and their families and teachers work out new and ingenious ways to help them jump these functional and educational hurdles.

                New Methods
           One such program described in the video is the Redwood Heights School T.A.C.L.E. (Technology & Augmentative Communication for Learning Enhancement) which helps students with difficult communicative and physical disabilities. TACLE does this by:

• “Developing appropriate augmentative and alternate communication systems for each student.”
• “Developing the appropriate assistive technologies to access the academic curriculum.”
• “Providing academic instruction in the District-adopted kindergarten through 5th grade curriculum, the Unique Learning Systems special education system and the Early Literacy Skills Builder special education curriculum.” (Redwood Heights School 2011)

As was seen in the video, students with severe disabilities were provided with creative methods of communicating. In doing this, they gave the students a voice, a way to communicate as one teacher put it. In addition to the TACLE program, the school offers links to special education resources as well as an on-site Resource Specialist Program available for teachers of disabled students as well as disabled students themselves.

                Another program in the video that I was previously unaware of is the DO-IT program. A part of Washington University, the DO-IT program is one that helps students with disabilities to succeed in challenging careers such as science, math and engineering, promote universal design in physical spaces, instruction, technology, and services. They also produce informative and motivational videos that can be found on the DO-IT website, YouTube, and are available for download (DO-IT 1998).

                Overall, this video was very informative. I learned of the many difficulties both physical and social that students with disabilities face. I also learned that there are many tools and programs out there available for students with disabilities as well as their teachers. I intend to make use of these resources when given the opportunity to educate a learning disabled student.

Redwood Heights School. (2011) Special Education. Retrieved from Redwood Heights School website: http://redwoodheightsschool.com/?page_id=86

Burgstahler, S. (1998) DO-IT programs and resources. Retrieved from DO-IT website http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/overview.html

TheDOITCenter.  (Aug 18, 2008) Part of me, not all of me. [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-EtXk5iEg