Assisitive Technology: Tobii
How and why would I use tobiidynavox.com in my classroom?
Use Tobii Devices in Classroom.
It is hard to imagine 10 years ago I would have a visually impaired students in my classroom. This is because I teach visual communication. It is, however, the reality of things. I had a student last semester who has very low vision and was identified as legally blind. Technology has changed rapidly in the past few decades. These new developments certainly opened the doors for some of the students with disabilities. I can see how Tobii devices be a great part of helping these students in need. The video below shows great possibilities for college level students to work with current Window 8.
Tobii EyeMobile - Control Windows 8 Pro tablets using only your eyes
Shorten the gap with fundings.
One very impressive service Tobii offer is helping those in need to navigate through all the paperwork and get their Tobii dynavox funded.
Who can benefit from tobii service?
On the website, there is an entire section dedicated to explaining who can benefit from the Tobii product. This is a great resource for teachers, parents, and students. As mentioned in the article, "Issues in Digital Technology in Education/Assistive Technology in Education: A critical analysis of the ''Highs' and the 'Lows' ":
"Assistive Technology certainly does not claim to remedy every disability, it is simply another tool that is implemented to help a user with a learning disability accomplish a task with a degree of independence."
Clearly, Tobii products achieve this goal by providing those in need solutions to accomplish some basic tasks and made it possible for those in need to even move beyond just basic daily chores.
"Assistive Technology certainly does not claim to remedy every disability, it is simply another tool that is implemented to help a user with a learning disability accomplish a task with a degree of independence."
Clearly, Tobii products achieve this goal by providing those in need solutions to accomplish some basic tasks and made it possible for those in need to even move beyond just basic daily chores.
Moving foward
Placing students with disabilities in a regular classroom would be an unthinkable action years back. Now it is the reality. As mentioned in the reading, "If the appropriate technology is selected, it can notably aid individuals with disabilities to participate more so than they could without any aids." I believe it is everyone's responsibility to spread the word and promote this new technology.