UDL Solutions Plan: Step Four - Essay Example

UDL Solution Plan: Executive Summary David Henry Licuanan Dithmer Meeting Individual Needs With Technology EDU620 Chenee Gilbert The purpose of this essay is to justify the three UDL solutions designed for a totally blind student called Richard, who is in Grade 12 at Greenwich Senior School in United Kingdom. The identified solutions include the use of adapted PC with talking word processor, speech recognition software and speech synthesizer. All these technologies have been reviewed and discussed in the presentation to the District Panel on Students with Disabilities by Richard’s Sociology teacher.

The panel was created by the Department of Education in 1987 to ensure that disabled students have equal access to quality education and learning. In line with its mandate, the panel visits schools each year to collect data and evaluate the mechanism put in place to eliminate barriers to education access among disabled students. The paper recognizes Richard physical condition and limitations within the learning context. However, it is also of the view that he has to perform various learning activities to a normal level.

To this end, assistive technology is proposed to enable Richard learn with minimal difficulties. Assistive technology refers to the devices used by people with disability to carry out human functions in a normal way (Hersh, 2008). Richard has been using Braille to write and read sociology notes since he joined Grade 1 .However, the Braille is heavy, disruptive, inefficient, and inflexible, outdated and require large space for storage of generated notes.The above disadvantages form the basis for the identification of suitable technology to replace Braille.

The proposed devices are referred to as UDL solutions in this essay. Given that Richard has been using Braille for long time, an adapted computer is considered the best replacement. This computer has Braille keyboard fixed in it instead of QWERTY keyboard which could have taken him long time to familiarize with. He shall use Braille keyboard to write sociology notes and print the notes using Braille printer. In addition, the notes can be converted to digital text and read out loud to him using talking word processor.

Besides, the PC is light, flexible and has internal storage system.To complement the hardware components, the essay discusses two important applications, voice recognition software and speech synthesizer. The former shall enable Richard to issue commands like save and open to a computer. Again, he will use voice commands to edit sociology notes and texts stored in the computer memory. Instead of typing which takes long time, he shall use voice input to produce texts. On the other hand, speech synthesizer shall be used to read out the notes and other reference materials including examinations saved in correct format.

This is achieved through conversion of text to sound. This will enable Richard to read many sociological books and conduct research.ReferencesHersh, M.A. (2008). Assistive technology for visually impaired and blind people. London: Springer.