Infusing teacher preparation program in learning disabilities

A recent trend in the fields of special education, rehabilitation, and technology is the development and implementation of assistive technology (AT) devices and services to assist individuals in compensating for disabilities and/or utilizing functional capabilities to meet environmental demands. AT devices and services have major implications for individuals with learning disabilities (LD) regarding life span issues, environmental and curricular accessibility, and compensatory strategies. Faculty members in higher education who are responsible for designing teacher preparation programs in LD must explore ways to structure curricula, methodologies, and practica to better prepare teachers to work with students who use AT devices to compensate for their specific learning disabilities. The purpose of this article is to describe curriculum design steps and barriers to and solutions for infusing LD teacher preparation programs with assistive technology. One of the goals of any teacher preparation program is to pro-vide an educational curricu-lum that reflects research-based "best practice " and is compatible with pub-lic education trends and philosophies. A current trend in the fields of special education, rehabilitation, and technol-ogy is to train individuals with disabil-ities in the use of assistive technology (AT) devices and services to compen-sate for their disabilities and/or utilize their functional abilities to meet envi-ronmental demands. The impetus for this assistive technology training trend stems from the passage of federal leg-islation such as the 1992 Amendment