Assistive Technology for People With Disabilities

Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities, Second Edition, includes eight comprehensive chapters that focus on devices and software to enhance the lives and promote the independence of people with disabilities. Updated with new research, content and features to address current developments in the field, the book approaches assistive technology and education in a lifespan, multidisciplinary manner by discussing the use of current technology in the fields of special education, rehabilitation, speech-language pathology, and other disciplines. Featured devices and software will help you understand how areas such as mobility, communication, education, independent living, and access to information media affect learning and living for individuals with disabilities. You will also gain a great understanding of the foundational and historical perspectives of AT, assessment, universal design, and the ADAPT framework, which is a tool to help educators make decisions about appropriate AT, student needs, and the demands of the environment.

Developed from the authors' years of experience teaching both K-12 students and adults, as well as their own framework for understanding assistive technology application and integrating technology into instruction, this new edition addresses assistive technology that promotes knowledge and skills, practical application and a myriad of opportunities that good technology provides for persons with disabilities.

Diane Pedrotty Bryant has worked in the area of assistive technology on projects including writing book chapters, maintaining a state of the art AT lab, and working with doctoral candidates on AT studies. She is the co-author of Teaching Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Classrooms (2008, Allyn & Bacon).

Brian R. Bryant lives and works in Austin, Texas. After teaching special education students for 3 years in Maine, 2 years in Grades K-8 and 1 year in Grades 9-12, Brian moved to Texas to work on his doctorate at The University of Texas at Austin. Since graduating in 1984, Brian has served in many professional capacities, including as the Director of Research at Pro-Ed, Inc., an educational publishing company located in Austin, Texas; adjunct faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin and Florida Atlantic University; Research Fellow at The University of Texas’ Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts; and Project Manager of the Institute for Mathematics Disabilities and Difficulties in the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. His research interests involve service provision for individuals with learning disabilities and mental retardation, particularly with regards to reading, mathematics, and assistive technology applications throughout the lifespan.