Accommodations, Adaptations, and Assistive Technology are so important that a child s right to them has been writtten into our federal and state laws. Accommodations, Adaptations, and Assistive Technology can help make the education appropriate for a child with disabilities. Appropriate means that the education is what the child needs to learn. Accommodations, Adaptations and Assistive Technology help the child have access to education. Access is more than just getting into the building.
Access means the education is presented to the child in a way the child can learn it.
The federal law Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 or IDEA 97 directs IEP teams to think about Assistive Technology for every child with disabilities in the IEP process. Wisconsin state statute, Chapter 115 repeats the federal law word for word. Assistive Technology IS a required item on an IEP form. This helps school staff and parents remember that they must think about whether or not the child might need some assistive technology device or service. Some schools are using a chart to show that they have considered the child s need for Accommodations, Adaptations and Assistive Technology.