Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Special Education

Coombs, Norman. "Bridging the disability gap with distance learning." Technology and disability. 8 (1998) 149-152. Print.

• I believe we can all agree that distance learning is one of the hottest issues in education.
• In the Article "Bridging the disability gap with distance learning, A gentleman who worked at the Rochester Institute of Technology volunteered to experiment with enriching the traditional telecourse with the use of e-mail and computer conferencing, the were surprised that the Blind History Professor volunteered! Correspondence classes and telecourses were aimed primarily at working adults. Through the internet, students with disabilities can access text materials formerly only in print.
• The Professor would post series of questions to begin a group discussion. The exchange is through text and therefore is accessible to a screen reader and speech synthesizer for blind users. The display can be enlarged or colors changed to facilitate its use by persons with low vision. Since it is in text, there is no need for interpreters for deaf participants.

http://www.edutopia.org/technology-visually-impaired-video

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/learning.html

The above website offers a variety of special educational tools that will help in a special ed. classroom.