Helping Teachers Help Students with Disabilities:

USM will bring other institutions up to speed on assistive technologies

A team based at the University of Southern Maine has received a $1.2 million federal grant to ensure that the nation's students with disabilities gain access to specialized software, the World Wide Web, and other assistive technologies that will help them succeed in school.

The need for this technology and for teachers who know how to use it is expected to increase dramatically. Recent U.S. Department of Education figures show that more than 95 percent of students with disabilities, ages 6-21, are attending schools with their nondisabled peers. Federal law requires that students with disabilities be provided with assistive technology. Future classroom teachers must know how to use a range of modern learning tools to help all students meet high standards.

Though "assistive technologies" are available, there's little training for classroom teachers on their use in K-12 classrooms. The USM team will improve students' access to the equipment by preparing and delivering courses that can be incorporated into teacher education programs throughout the country.

The Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PTTT) Program was established in the U.S. Department of Education. Projects have been funded at different levels designated as catalyst, capacity building, and implementation grants, with the highest level funding going to catalyst institutions. Of the 35 institutions to receive catalyst grants, USM is the only one north of Baltimore. Other funded institutions include Mississippi State, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, and the University of Virginia.

More important, USM is the only institution nationwide to receive a grant to train teacher educators so that students with disabilities have access to electronic environments. As a result of the grant, persons with disabilities will be helped by use of such aids as computers with voice synthesizers, touch screens, expanded keyboards and other "assistive technologies."

"This project will build the national capacity of educators to understand, use, and apply assistive technology and specialized software," said Libby Cohen, USM professor of special education and lead author of the grant. "Our goal is to design the policies, online courses and other forms of technical assistance that will give our future teachers the tools they need to teach students with disabilities in regular classrooms."

To accomplish the grant initiatives, Cohen formed Project GENASYS, a consortium of schools and commercial software vendors that will oversee the design and delivery of courses and other training activities. By working with other PTTT Program grant institutions and other existing professional and governmental networks in education, the USM catalyst project will promote and "institutionalize the use of specialized software and assistive technologies by teacher educators, future teachers, and students with disabilities," Cohen said.

The GENASYS consortium, which is based at USM, includes USM's Maine Educational Center for Assistive Technology and Software (MECATS), the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, the University of Maine System Network for Education and Technology Services (UNET), the University of Maine at Farmington, Project EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) at the University of Rochester, the Center for Applied Special Technology in Peabody, MA, and RMC Research-Denver. Software developers and vendors are also contributing to the project.

In addition to the $1.2 million, USM received a $200,000 supplemental grant to advise the PTTT Program and other institutions with grants from the PTTT Program to make their web sites accessible and to help the U.S. Department of Education make their web site accessible.

Cohen's work with assistive technologies began 10 years ago with establishment of the Maine Educational Center for Assistive Technology and Software. The center provides workshops so that teachers, parents and students of all ages and abilities can review specialized software and other technology devices.

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