Access To Education For Disabled Children Through IT

Information technology has brought drastic changes in the life of disabled children. IT provides various applications and resources to educate children with disabilities.

Research shows that unless provided early with special training(using IT), people profoundly deaf from birth are incapable of learning to speak and that a delay in learning language may cause a child's academic progress to be slower than that of children who can hear.

The academic lag tends to be cumulative, so that a deaf adolescent may be four or more academic years behind his or her hearing peers.

Deaf children who receive early language stimulation through sign language and IT however generally achieve academically alongside their hearing peers.
So we can say these children have better access to education through IT.

This implies that the integration of IT in teaching is a central quality in the educational system, more especially for the disabled.

There are two equally important reasons for integrating IT in teaching. Pupils must become familiar with the use of IT, since almost all jobs in the society of the future will depend on it, and it must be used in teaching to make learning more effective especially for the disabled.
Thus we all have a better and equal access to education, all thanks to IT.

Author : Musa Rikhotso
Editor : Daryl Kekana

References:

1. Use of ICT in Teacher Education Article by MP Barodiya, 2015

2. Special Educational Needs and Disability: The Basics by Janice Wearmouth, Chapter 1

3. Deaf-blind infants and Children: A Developmental Guide by John M Mcinnes, Jacquelyn A Treffry Chapter 1.

4. Neuroplasticity. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity [Accessed 24 Apr. 2016]