Assistive Technology

If a teacher has a student with reading disabilities that affects their test taking capabilities, then that teacher should make accommodations for that student. Without these accommodations that student is being punished by taking a test they can't read or understand. The student is not getting a fair assessment of their knowledge because the teacher is assessing their reading skills/capabilities rather than the students content knowledge. As a science teacher, reading is important, but no more important than a students content understanding, visual aids, and other resources in the classroom. I feel is it more important to judge a students knowledge based on how they can interpret information and apply it to real world situations, and other sciences, rather than reading and regurgitating what was read. In order to not punish students with reading disabilities, reading accommodations need to be given. The assistive technologies that these students can use are, bigger print text, computer based test, or have an assistant read the test to the student and have that student record their answer. By using these assistive technologies the student has the same chance of learning the material as the other students, and is assessed based on their knowledge and not any reading disability that they may have.