The Impossible Made Possible

Appreciating one's own capabilities is a hard concept to grasp for some individuals. A body that's able to move, sway, push a couple million buttons, lift a coffee mug or turn pages of a book with ease. Ever wondered if something hindered you from accomplishing those small, what seems like insignificant life tasks, how difficult it would be. If you could see people singing yet could not hear a note reverberate in the four corners of your mind. If you were confined to a chair, arms & limbs unable to move. How would you get around? How would you go to school to get an education? Or better yet, how would you go to the bathroom? That's what it probably would feel like..an ounce of the life inside... a disabled individual.

And like human nature, resilient and true..that something...that block that hinders, is nothing but another obstacle that is surmountable in this day in age because of something called assistive/adaptive technology. Amazing man-made tools to help those short of a few steps..go the extra mile.

Educators in the twenty-first century have alot riding on their belt. Not only do they have to mold brains equipt for the hard knocked life, they ALSO have to mold their own thinking caps to evolve into witty, in-the-now tech savvy persons. They have to do this because they will have students in their class who need all the help that they can get & then some.

As an aspiring educator, I believe that assistive/adaptive technology will take great importance in my future classroom. I was a child that was born into the digital age & I believe that technology is the key..if not the best key to help students with disabilities with their academic & life experiences. In preparing lesson plans for these students special emphasis needs to be taken to account of each of the student's capabilities & what technology is needed, if not already given, to make sure that the student will be able but also challenged to fulfill the lesson's tasks. A particular lesson, in my opinion will be a success if the disabled student is treated as an equal to the other students regardless of capability. If this equilibrium is acquired then the use of assistive/adaptive technologies will provide an enriching experience for both the teacher and the student.

A double dose of creativity will be needed for a lesson that includes assistive/adaptive technology. Especially if each technology that each student is using is different and unique to his or her own disability. What is needed, in my opinion is a lesson that will appeal to the masses, a lesson that is relateable, yet teaches something garnered from the common ground. Maybe a simple lesson like learning how to send an email message can be skewed into a simple computer format and be accessible to all students, disabled & not, through a computer. Teachers can add activities that allow the students who are disabled feel like that they are one & the same with students who are not disabled.

It was interesting to witness a musician student being able to play music using A/A Technology. A musician myself, I understand the passion and dedication it takes to learn and to progress in playing an instrument. Being able to actually accomplish that feat with capable limbs, fingers, and arms is a challenge in of itself, but to do it without those body parts practically seems somewhat closing in on impossible. The music student in the video certainly proved all skepticism wrong. With A/A technology anything is possible.



And I guess, that's the best message that A/A technology instigates...that is that what disabled students thought was impossible 20 or 30 years ago is now possible. A wish forever granted. A means to a road to becoming self-sufficient. Something that disabled students who want to get the most out of their academic careers want more of. For they already appreciate, grasp the scope of what they are capable of..of what their slight push of a button, slight sway of the nose can do. It's their inch closer to being normal..of a belonging to a world that sometimes does not listen. Assistive/adaptive technology gives disabled students just that..a way to communicate, to see, to hear, to learn...as others do.