As we all know, our technology has come so very far in the past decade alone. Even though the very first apple product has been around for over 30 years, apple itself has taken on a new role alone with creating fun, innovative gadgets that can do so much for people, especially students with disabilities. Gadgets like the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. can provide visual supports to those students who have cognitive disabilities, autism, or students who have difficulty with self management and personal organization. Their lack of these skills alone has been successfully addressed through the use of visual supports such as picture schedules and activity sequences, which are sequential, pictorial representations of events or tasks that cue a student to complete them.
Programs on these devices such as iCommunicate, Boardmaker, Pogo Boards, and PowerPoint can be used to create social stories. These stories are teacher (or parent) authored that are written to help a student who has autism learn "the social information he may be lacking".
Visual supports are key to helping students, especially those with severe disabilities learn and function properly. These products alone greatly support the use of these supports.
Resources:
Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012).Assistive Technology in the Classroom:Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with DIsabiltiies. New Jersey: Pearson. (Original work published 2008)
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