Assistive Technology and Adult Literacy: Access and Benefits

This chapter focuses on the role that assistive technology (AT) can play in improving the literacy acquisition and motivation of struggling adult students who have mild reading disabilities. Mild reading disabilities may be the result of learning, attention, memory, cognitive, or sensory impairments, and these categories often overlap. For example, Schulte, Conners, and Osborne (1999) found that attention deficits (AD) and learning disabilities (LD) co-occur at rates greater than can be predicted by chance. Although the main difficulties associated with the two disorders are distinct (LD is associated with language-based disorders and AD with executive-function disorders), the combination of the two disabilities often contributes to poor school performance and achievement. Providing access to assistive technologies to supplement classroom instruction can address students' needs for additional tutoring and small-group instruction, as well as support their literacy learning by making studying and reading easier. Students could then begin to engage in more effective self-study activities, thus boosting their learning, classroom performance, and sense of competence and motivation. The range of AT is vast and addresses many different types of functional limitations, but in this chapter I focus on only a few categories of computer based AT that support literacy development. I first review services provided for adults with LD in the adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) field, followed by a brief overview of the elements of adult literacy learning. Then I present specific AT tools and their functions and uses, followed by two case studies of how literacy learners benefited from supplemental instruction with AT. In the fourth section, I look at the research and discuss the use of computer-based technologies to support youth and adult engagement with literacy tasks. Finally, I explore the practice, policy, and research implications of integrating these technologies into services for adult literacy students with mild reading disabilities. As young people leave the K–12 educational system when they graduate, reach the maximum age (22) for special-education services, or drop out, they leave behind the entitlement program and legal mandates of the special education system, which is governed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004). They enter abruptly into the legal standing of individuals with the right to claim disability protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973. However, most youth and adults with disabilities do not understand this right, or how to claim …