Activities 13 and 14

Current AT Users Explore New Features

What Students Do

Activities 13 and 14 are designed for students who already use some form of assistive technology. They are asked to expand their understanding of the devices they use by looking into how effective they are, what features they may not be fully using and similar technologies. Activity 13 guides their research on the Internet through the use of manufactures' Web sites and list serve communities. Activity 14 asks students to interview an AT expert to expand on their understanding.

Planning

You can assist your students with a little advanced planning.

• Become familiar with the manufacturers and distributors of the hardware and software that you know that your students are using. Sometimes the company names are different than the software title.



• If you don't already know your AT specialists or the specialist available to your district through an education cooperative, make those inquiries early and call to introduce yourself and tell them about the Guidance Activities that your students are undertaking.

Introducing the Activity

Activity 13 is designed for the students who already use AT to increase their knowledge of their equipment or software and to become aware of their needs in college. Introduce the topic by demonstrating a technology that many people use but few use to its fullest extent, word processing. Show them features such as the thesaurus, the outlining capabilities, and text-to-speech features. From this starting point, explain that they might not be fully using all the features in their technologies.

You may not be familiar with your students' AT. Asking for an explanation will help both of you. You learn about their equipment and they discover what they need to learn. Commercial equipment usually comes with a user manual describing its features. Your students can use the manual as a resource. You can ask the students whether they use the features you don't recognize. If it is appropriate, ask them for a demonstration of how they use the technology. This exercise also will help them recognize the features and skills they need to research.