In all honesty, I do not see these laws implemented in my district.  I have never seen a student with a visible AT device.  Of course, this does not mean they do not exist but it seems to be that they are few and far between.  I believe that there are so many AT devices available that they should be utilized more for students with disabilities.  I could also see how the LDTC team could feel overwhelmed with trying to find the right AT device for the child.  It is a trial and error process, so they shouldn't feel like they can't try many different devices.  But from what I see, it seems that the team needs to do the evaluation quickly, yet still efficiently, in order to move the child through the system. Therefore, they can "consider" some AT devices, as the law says, yet never have to assign any devices.

I think it is extremely unfair that school districts are solely responsible for purchasing AND maintaining all AT equipment as well as services.  School systems are allotted a certain amount of money for special education services.  What happens when new students are classified throughout the school year?  Is more money given to the school once they have more students using the services?  How is the special education department expected to afford even the simple AT devices, when they are using the majority of their budget just to cover the basic needs of children with disabilities.  I know it would probably be expensive at first, but it would be extremely helpful for the state to purchase the basic AT devices that are widely used and distribute to school districts.  I also think that the teachers should be made aware of what is available in the district, so along with the LDTC team, the teacher could also take part in the consideration of devices.  High-end devices could then be purchased later if deemed necessary.

As a regular education, grade 3 classroom teacher, including all students with disabilities is difficult in conjunction with regular ed, gifted & talented, and remedial children.  I have never had the experience of including a visual or hearing impaired students but I can imagine the difficulties. I have outlined the difficulties and possibly low tech solutions (since we know most of the high-tech) for the academic subject areas for both visual and hearing impaired.

For the visual & hearing impaired students I think writing on the board while speaking would be most difficult for me.  I take for granted that myself or any of the students can write on the board at any time and we can all have a discussion or copy into our notebooks.   Also, in 3rd grade students are becoming (hopefully) avid readers.  I think accessing that many books in Braille or large print would become a problem and I think that is unfair to the child.  He/she should be able to read as much as any other student.  A low-tech solution would be a magnifier, buddy system to read to, or books on tape/CD.  During math, the numbers are usually quite small so the student may not be able to see the problems in the book.  It would be difficult for the teacher to either scan the book and enlarge it or to rewrite the problems for that student.  A magnifier would be helpful.  Magnifiers usually come in the science kits and are readily available in the classroom.  Also helpful in math would be manipulatives the student could feel, such as base ten blocks, 3-d shapes, or color tiles.  Science and social studies are very visual subjects.  Hands on experiments would need to be guided.  I would pair the student up with a reliable buddy that could explain and direct the student to perform the experiment because I would not want to exclude the student from the experiment altogether.  For social studies, raised maps the student could feel would be helpful.  Tracing over any pictures or maps with the Thermopen would be helpful.  I love the idea of the Intellikeys- a Braille over lay for the keyboard or Intellitactiles- the stickers or Velcro on the home keys, tools for the keyboard.  Many more students are typing and that is a great AT device for all students.