It is called unified childhood/special education because the Keuka College major prepares future educators to teach an increasingly diverse school population.

“Inclusion means all teachers should be ready to teach all kids,” said Associate Professor of Education Andy Beigel.

Beigel applied for Title III grant funding over the summer to purchase “mid tech” assistive technology devises for use in Keuka College education courses, especially “methods” courses.

“I wanted this software and hardware to give Keuka education students exposure to more common assistive technology they might one day have in their classrooms,” said Beigel. “In theory, if we teachers have correctly done our jobs of diagnosing the student’s needs, then the technology becomes transparent in the classroom. But the device is only as good as the person who shows the kid how to use it.”

NEO by AlphaSmart is one of the devices purchased with the grant money. It is a notepad that provides writing access from any location and “plugs into any computer.”  

Combined with specific software, NEO allows students “to read their papers aloud,” said Beigel. “It also interfaces with PowerPoint. So, students who can’t talk can give oral presentations.”

Intellikeys, an alternate keyboard, is another device purchased with the grant money. It is designed to assist students who have difficulty using a standard keyboard. Teachers can change the way Intellikeys looks and functions with overlays.

“The keyboard is bigger [than is standard],” according to Beigel. “It has a built in ‘mouse pad’ with arrows, an enlarged calculator, and an alphabetically arranged keyboard. It gives kids access to that from which they were otherwise restricted.”

Switches have also been ordered. Clickers are an example of a switch. They are wireless response systems that communicate between a handheld response pad and receiver unit, facilitating feedback from every student and allowing each student to participate simultaneously.

Now that the College has this assistive technology, “[Keuka professors] won’t just be talking about what it means to give a child access anymore, but showing [future teachers] how to match a child’s needs to help him or her achieve his or her goals,” said Beigel. “We are going to focus on how to use the technology, which can also be used by kids without disabilities.”

Co:Writer, for example, is a word-prediction program that gives users a list of word choices that would logically come next in the sentence he or she is writing. It is something that could be helpful to all children, according to Beigel.

“You can increase the number of words offered for older children, or decrease them for younger children,” said Beigel, who is applying for more grant funding to purchase a voice activated tape recorder.

-- Tanya Cornell-Kestler