Level the playing field
Every student has a different skill set and will therefore require individualized technology to effectively learn information as well as demonstrate what they know. Toolbelt Theory professes that students need to learn about and use a wide array of technology tools to successfully perform tasks within a wide variety of environments. The more ‘tools’ students have in their tool belts the better equipped they will be to control their own environments. Please click on the link, "Toolbelt Theory" to see an example of a student's toolbelt. Student variability is the rule with technology and makes a student’s disability context dependent—giving a visually impaired student text to speech takes the disability away and focuses on the variability of the student. Below are some links on educational supports. Kurzweil is a program that makes text accessible to students and supports writing in all grades and abilities. Board maker is a visual support system for student engagement, expression and accessibility. Clicker 6 is a literacy support and multimedia tool for students to participate in parallel classroom activities in Science 10. By letting students experiment and try out various tools, operating systems, browsers, software and apps we empower them to make their own decisions of what works and does not work for them—this is self-determination.