From Barriers to Beginnings
The ubiquity of new media in the lives of young people with high-incidence disabilities raises two important questions: how can new media be used as Assistive Technology (AT) and what can new media offer that other technologies may not? This chapter attempts to answer these questions by discussing the shifting and dynamic barriers to making this transition while also illuminating convergences between the goals of new media and AT. While this chapter explicitly concentrates on opportunities within the classroom, educators can also employ the guidelines provided herein generally in out-of-school contexts. Barriers to be discussed include electronic curb cuts and aggressive Internet filters. After discussing such barriers, solutions, including some classroom protocols and a list of resources, are shared to help educators evaluate new media as well as in the integration of new and old media as AT.