Day 1: Presuming Competency, iMovie, low incidence disabilities, Carly Fleishman, and more

Presuming Competency

"Don't judge a book by its cover!" "Innocent until proven guilty!" These are two expressions that we have heard time and time again, and for some of us, they are ways to live by. As teachers, they are also important lessons that we try to instill in our students. Presuming competency is also a lesson to live by. In general the people that we meet in our daily lives, we assume are competent however this is not always the case for persons with disabilities. Below are two examples of people, who like Suzie Rubin, were living with disabilities and with the appropriate assistive technology had the opportunity to prove their competency.

Aliah and Carly's videos show that anyone can do anything especially when the modifications, such as assistive technology is available. 

iMovie, a $4.99 app that allows users to make movies (for more information click on the link below). But this app offers more than that, iMovie is a powerful and highly applicable tool for engaging all learners. It is also an excellent assistive technology tool for students with disabilities. iMovie can be used for :

teaching/modeling behaviours,

an alternative to writing, enabling students to create stories, poems, etc to share through movie format,

summarizing what was learned at the end of a unit

an alternative to standardized assessments,

making into instructional videos such as: "how to" and "step by step.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/imovie/id377298193?mt=8

The iMovie app is just one of many highly useful assistive technology tools for students with low incidence disabilities. Low incidence disabilities include: blindness, low vision, deafness, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blindness, significant developmental delay, complex health issues, serious physical impairment, multiple disability and autism (National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials, 2012) to name a few.

There was a time when students with low incidence disabilities made up approximately 1% of the classroom population (National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials, 2012). With the strong inclusion movement this percentage has changed. In my classroom last year, 30% of the students had low incidence disabilities. For more information on students with low disabilities and ideas for support them, watch the two you tube videos below.

National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials, 2012. Curriculum access for students with low incidence disabilities: The promise of udl. Retrieved from: http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/promise_of_udl/what_l-i_d