Brain imaging studies suggest that children can simultaneously develop, learn, and use two languages. A visual language, such as American Sign Language (ASL), facilitates development at the earliest possible moments in a child's life. Spoken language development can be delayed due to diagnostic evaluations, device fittings, and auditory skill…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine and characterize the training-induced changes in speech-in-noise perception in children with congenital deafness who have cochlear implants (CIs). Method: Twenty-seven children with congenital deafness who have CIs were studied. Eleven children with CIs were trained on a speech-in-noise task,…

Provisions introduced to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004 help to improve the delivery of accessible instructional materials (AIM) to students with print-related disabilities. It is important to recognize, however, that access to content does not, by itself, guarantee a quality learning experience. Paying closer…

New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) became an official language (NZSL Act 2006) when its vitality was already under pressure. Even though its institutional status has improved recently, the traditional community domains of NZSL use and transmission are apparently shrinking inasmuch as most of the deaf children who have cochlear implants are acquiring…

Disability law and technology services share a rich history. This article investigates this transformative relationship through the contextual framework of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A summary of legal cases, accommodation services, and barriers to access are explored. This includes an overview of the challenges facing…

The purpose of this study was to investigate if intervention based on a mobile application would improve the print knowledge and vocabulary of preschool children with and without hearing loss. This was a multiple baseline study that included four preschool children. Two of the children had hearing loss and utilized cochlear implants, while the…

This research investigated the effectiveness of an assistive technology tool, the Livescribe Pen (LSP), with an elementary student identified with dyslexia. Using interview and focus group methodologies over the span of one academic year, the study probed the perceptions of teachers, parent, and child. While the LSP was primarily utilized for…

Students with disabilities have significantly lower graduation rates in four-year postsecondary institutions than students without disabilities. Although there are many barriers associated with persistence and graduation, for students with vision loss, additional accessibility challenges exist. This paper describes a pilot study that examined the…

Purpose: The purpose of this inquiry was to examine the research skill building and career development lived experiences of a Native American who is blind serving as a disability and rehabilitation researcher at a National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)-sponsored Rehabilitation Research and…

The functional curriculum is a beneficial curriculum for education students with intellectual disabilities. Special education teachers have transitioned from spending most of their academic time using the functional curriculum to spending more time teaching the additional academic content material. There are numerous research studies focusing on…

A single participant phenomenological study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis can give voice to a student with vision impairment, exploring and developing our understanding of the experience of schooling. This article focuses on the school experience of a senior school student with vision impairment. Few studies have looked at school…

Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams are required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to consider a student's need for assistive technology (AT). Despite this legal requirement, AT supports are often not available to students with disabilities. Many students with disabilities and their families have addressed the…

Closed-captioning technology has been available for decades and is often used by individuals with disabilities to access video-based information. Videos are routinely used by educators in higher education settings throughout the United States. It is unknown, however, if closed captions are educationally beneficial for all students. The purpose of…

Intended UK government changes to the Disabled Students' Allowance will have a significant impact on the support that UK universities provide for students with disabilities. In this article we examine the types of transformation that may be needed to support for university students with disabilities, from a socio-technical perspective. The…

This report is the 34th edition of the annual National Deaf-Blind Child Count, the first and longest running count of children who are deaf-blind in the world. Begun in 1986 on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, it represents a collaborative effort between the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB), its predecessors, and state…