March 23, Chapter 8

Systemic Issues

Accessibility is a part of the school that has a tendency to get overlooked because of the small minority population it represents. With that being said, I think that only takes place in cultural situations and not in the special education setting. The author suggests that blogging and especially podcasting may be one of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language, to learn English as a second language, or to learn other subjects that may be difficult to comprehend (3077, Solomon & Schrum). My school does not have a large ESL or ESOL population. However, we do have our share of special education students. Our special education students use computers and have access to technology in our Foreign Language, Read 180, and Gifted programs. Our students with special needs even have computers for “Assistive Technology Services” that have OCR scanning software to support electronic responses and provide highlighted text-to-speech reading, spell check and word processing with prediction. Current federal guidelines require that assistive technology must be considered for every student who has an individualized education program (IEP) (3100, Solomon & Schrum). These services are used to support difficulties in the areas of motor aspects of writing, composition of written material and other learning skills. We do our best to provide technology to all of our students but the ratio of technology devices and/or services are pale in comparison to other schools. The author says, “This must be viewed through the reality of unequal access to technology, specifically in schools with high minority populations, high proportions of families who have cultural or linguistic diversity, or in schools in rural areas (3136, Solomon & Schrum). I want to add to that with schools with high populations of any sub-group of students have a high percentage of unequal accesses.