Assistive Technology to Support Writing Summary

Writing is a process that involves multiple steps.  Those steps are (1) pre-writing, (2) drafting, (3) reviewing, (4) editing and (5) sharing or publishing.  Individuals with disabilities experience difficulty with the writing process and often avoid writing all together.  There are many tools and strategies that can help make the writing process easier, some of these strategies are listed below:
                            1. Pre-writing: graphic organizers
                            2. Drafting: word processing, word prediction, speech recognition
                            3: Reviewing: text-to-speech
                            4. Editing: text-to-speech, phonetic spellchecks, grammar checker
                            5. Sharing or Publishing: digital storytelling, word processor, blog

For these resources, tools and technology to be the most effective, they need to be paired with adequate training.  The textbook identifies a three pronged training (1) instruction on the writing process, (2) training on the specific technology, (3) training on how to use these technology tools to enhance the writing process.  Teachers need to be aware that what may work very well for one student, may not work as well for another.  Each students individual strengths and needs must be considered when choosing an assistive technology.







References:

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.