Reframing Assistive Technology: A Critical Literacy Approach

• In Event: Technology Use in Special Education

Abstract

Despite research that suggests the potential benefit of assistive technology (AT) for students with disabilities, it remains deeply under-utilized as well as under-theorized in relation to literacy instruction. In this paper, we offer critical literacy as a valuable framework to understand the significance of technology in supporting students with disabilities. Drawing on sociocultural approaches that view literacy not as a discrete set of skills but as social practice, we explore how AT can address the issues of identity, agency and power that lie at the heart of a critical literacy instruction. Such a framework simultaneously blurs the distinction between AT and educational technology, reframing them instead as “inclusive” technologies that can support universally designed classrooms.

Authors

• Srikala Naraian, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Mark Surabian, Pace University