Monday, February 4, 2008

Free Guide for Assistive Technology is a Great Support from WATI

Considering AT is a Federal Mandate:
Did you know that assistive technology must be considered for every student on an IEP? This means that when teachers, specialists and family gather to discuss a student's IEP goals and how to meet them, assistive technology must be given time for discusion and collaboration. Oftentimes this gets overlooked because the members of the team are unfamiliar with assistive technology and don't know where to start.

Free Tools to Help:
The Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) has a great guide to help in the discussion and consideration of AT for a student. The consideration guide gives you a checklist of low, mid and high tech options in AT under various curriculum areas and skills. It gives teachers and parents a place to start in research as well as information to make a beginning decision on what should happen next. Hopefully, by seeing ideas and tools off the checklist that could help support the IEP, the team would request further assistance from an assistive technology specialist.
You can download the WATI Assessment forms by going to their website linked above and on my Important Links page. Select the products link. On that page is a link to free materials. The document is "WATI Assessment forms -forms only". You can view them on a pdf file and print off what you want.

The WATI Consideration Guide:
Look for the Wati Consideration Guide and the accompanying 2 page checklist. There are also screening tools, data collection forms, AT ssessment trial sheets, etc. I will do another post on the law and requirements where I can give a little more detail. If you would like more information or have specific questions, feel free to contact me by comment or email.
WATI is a great resource!
All the best to you!
Lon

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