Assistive technology (AT) by its very nature consists of a variety of personal and customized tools for multiple learning styles and physical challenges. The author not only encourages students, parents, and educators to advocate for AT services, she also wants them to go a step further and build their own AT toolkits that can instill independence…

The parent of a young disabled child describes a tray pad she made for the child's wheelchair that provokes greeting responses of other people. (CL)

Reviews existing models for the systematic creation and testing of instructional materials. Four such models are described and synthesized into a logic diagram, which is suggested as a guide to systematize the development of materials for use with handicapped learners. (Author)

The director of product development with a commercial publishing firm describes his company's approach to evaluating special education materials and cites examples of successful product characteristics. (CL)

The report describes the procedures and products of seven materials adaptation projects sponsored by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education and discusses ideas and techniques that can be adopted by school districts in their own materials adaptation efforts. Project requirements prescribed that adaptations…

In June, 1979, the American Camping Association implemented Project STRETCH (Strategies to Try out Resources to Enhance the Training of Camp Directors serving the Handicapped), a nationwide in-service training program for personnel providing services to handicapped children and youth in regularly and specially designed camping and outdoor…

Five different levels of instructional videodisc and microcomputer configurations are described and discussed in relation to needs and resources of the special education program. Principles of effective instruction should be applied to the development and utilization of videodisc technology.(Author/DB)

Explains how the Open Training and Education Network in New South Wales (Australia) has addressed the issue of designing learning materials for learners in vocational and pre-vocational areas with physical, intellectual, vision, hearing, psychological, or neurological disabilities and learning difficulties, such as low literacy and numeracy…

A project was designed to use employed persons who are handicapped as positive career role models for other handicapped persons and to record the processes and procedures of conducting this innovative program for replication by other educational institutions. A base list of over 200 employed handicapped persons was compiled following a Career Fair…

A project was conducted to bridge the gap between the conceptualized model of vocational evaluation within a rehabilitation framework and the needs of a changing career development model within an educational setting. The project focus was on ascertaining the state of the art of vocational assessment of special needs individuals, then building a…

Describes the CESAR training system, a hypermedia learning environment for hearing-impaired children that has been developed by a multidisciplinary team. Discusses the design principles to define the training material; and creating and using the material. (AEF)

This report is intended to provide publishers and product developers with a summary of background information about strategy instruction for disabled learners. It also offers suggestions for how media and materials could be produced and designed to facilitate the teaching and learning of strategies. The first section looks at cognitive and…

The purpose of this project was to develop and disseminate a manual that provides school personnel with help in developing programs of vocational assessment that are useful for handicapped students. The project was developed to fill a need for a vocational assessment manual for implementation with handicapped students in the public schools. An…

The paper reports the development of a set of planning materials (a series of eight booklets) to assist local special and vocational education administrators to overcome barriers to program and facility accessibility for handicapped students in vocational, occupational, and technical education. The project was conducted in three phases: (1)…

This column explains the National File Format, a proposed voluntary standard for accessible digital instructional materials for students with disabilities. It considers the role of digital materials, difficulties with the present system of disseminating accessible materials, how a consistent file format for digital materials will help, and ways to…