Wall, T. & Siegel, J. (1994, March). All included: inclusion of special education children in regular classrooms cannot happen without technology. Electronic Learning, 13, 24-34.
This article describes ways in which computer technology helps in integration of special-needs students in regular classes and in the mainstream student population more generally. Computer technology is described as an indispensable and sometimes unexpectedly helpful tool for the integration of physically and/or mentally handicapped students in ordinary classrooms. The ability of computers to offer visual, auditory and interactive modes of computer-based teaching devices can help special-needs students not only compensate for their handicap and explore various subjects in detail but also help them achieve mainstream performance in traditional classroom settings.
Citing the special-education advocacy movement's affiliation with civil-rights advocacy traditions, Wall and Siegel are at pains to note that high technology is essential to the mainstreaming process for students with special needs. This is because a countermovement that discourages mainstreaming and inclusion of special-education students holds that students on the normal track suffer when distracting attention is given to those with special needs. Accordingly, computers and the special accommodative devices attached to various pieces of high-tech equipment are meant to act as a facilitator for the mainstreaming process. Word processing software helps students with poor penmanship write and compose on a screen. Voice-synthesizing software allows a blind student to transform braille into spoken words. The most decisive example of success in this regard, however, was the substitution of a mouse-driven drawing program that allowed a geometry student afflicted with cerebral palsy who could not draw geometric figures with a pencil to use the computer to draw his figures--and receive an A.
The key ...