UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL,

SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

UNESCO INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

IN SPECIAL EDUCATION
Analytical Survey

MOSCOW

2000

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

IN SPECIAL EDUCATION
Analytical Survey
This analytical survey has been prepared for the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Editorial working group:

Alistair Edwards (leader)
Kevin Carey
Grigori Evreinov
Kent Hammarstrom
Marshall Raskind

The analytical survey is published in accordance with

recommendations of the expert meeting held by UNESCO IITE in Moscow,
Russian Federation, 18-19 February 2000.
Experts:

Prof. Kiyoshi Amano, CHUO University, Japan;

Dr Joost M van den Broek, Kompagne, Netherlands;
Dr Alistair Edwards, University of York, UK;
Dr Grigori Evreinov, Specvuzavtomatika DB, Russia;
Dr Boris Koprivnikar, Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Slovenia;
Dr Giuseppe Nicotra, ARCA Projetti SRL, Italy;
Dr Yuri Sereda, Apple Distinguished School #1126, Russia;
Dr Dmitry Shilov, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, Russia.

http://www.iite.ru
The opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the UNESCO Secretariat.

UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE).

Moscow, 2001

Analytical Survey of information and communication technology

in special education
Executive Summary
Promotion of education is a fundamental objective of UNESCO. By definition,
people with disabilities are often restricted in the extent to which they can take a full part
in the society in which they live, but many of those restrictions can be reduced by their
receiving good education.
The most important educational resource is people teachers. However, it has to
be recognized that in the present and the foreseeable future, economic and political
restrictions are unlikely to be such that adequate supplies of suitably trained teachers will
be available to completely fill the need for them. When human resources are inadequate,
it is often easier to procure and provide technological solutions and it is most fortunate
that in special education, technology can play a highly beneficial role. Although
economic restrictions can affect access to technology, it can represent a good investment.
This document outlines the role that information and communication technology
(ICT) can achieve in special education, with the objective of getting it more widely
adopted and used in UNESCO Member States. It establishes some definitions and then
outlines the role ICT can play in education in three identifiable roles:
Prosthetic
Technology can substitute or compensate for the lack of natural function.
This is important for all people with disabilities and has a particular importance in
education.
Educational
Again, ICT is growing in importance in all forms of education but can have
a particularly valuable role for this with special educational needs.
Communication at a distance
Technology can mediate communication between people with disabilities.
Furthermore, where teachers are in short supply (as in special education) distance
teaching methods can help to share what expertise there is. A mapping of
technologies to communication needs is presented.
Educational and other cultural challenges may be difficult to address because of
economic, social and political constraints and sometimes technology is the easiest way
around some of those constraints. This is the case in special education where ICT can
have a significant role to play and this can apply in many different environments
regardless of their level of educational, technological and economic development.

Analytical Survey of information and communication technology

in special education
Preface
In 1988 UNESCO published the Review of the Present Situation of Special
Education, presenting information gathered in 1986-1987, covering issues related to
policies, legislation, administration and organization, teacher education, financing and
provision for special needs education. The Review was widely disseminated and served
as a reference to a number of studies, seminars and other national activities.
In view of the incessant demand for information of this nature, reflecting on
trends and developments in this domain, UNESCO carried out an up-date of the review in
1993-1994. Ninety Member States were initially contacted to contribute to this exercise,
sixty-three of which responded. Replies were received from countries representing the
different world regions as follows: thirteen from Africa, seven from Arab States,
twenty-one from the Europe Region, thirteen from Latin America and the Caribbean, and
nine from Asia and the Pacific.
UNESCOs action also focuses on reducing the educational inequalities to which
some groups having only limited access to traditional forms basic education are exposed,
such as street children, children who are the victims of war, refugees and displaced
persons, the handicapped, and all those who have special educational needs. With the
assistance of a variety of partners, the Organization brings together administrators,
decision-makers and educators at regional and sub-regional seminars in a bid to come tip
with answers to the special needs of these children. It provides support for pilot activities,
organizes training workshops, fosters exchanges of experience, and produces guides and
other types of material to help educators and national officials make better provision for
everyone to have equal access to education.
Although some countries have made major strides in education of people with
disabilities, the fact remains that, for the majority of countries, especially developing
countries, the reality is bleak, both in terms of access and quality education for disabled
persons. The findings of the UNESCO survey conducted in 1986/87 revealed that 34 out
of the 51 countries supplying information had fewer than 1% of all pupils for whom
special educational provision had been made.
The world-wide discrepancy between needs and provision has stimulated a
reappraisal of educational strategies. Many countries, after the World Conference on
Education for All, are taking steps to enhance services for children with special
educational needs within mainstream education and community-based programmes.
The main thrust of UNESCO activities today is on policy and planning and
teacher training within mainstream education. To this end, UNESCO organized a series
of five regional seminars to mobilize support of education policy- and decision-makers

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for ensuring wider access for children with special educational needs into the regular
school system, and to encourage reorientation of education strategies.
The scarcity of materials and literature at the disposal of teachers, parents, and
community workers in developing countries has prompted UNESCO to publish a series
entitled Guides for Special Education. More recently, in connection with training,
UNESCO has ventured into the production of video materials for parent education and
early intervention.
In 1994, more than 300 participants representing 92 governments and 25
international organizations met in Salamanca, Spain, at the World Conference on Special
Needs Education: Access and Quality, to further discuss the objective of Education for
All by considering the fundamental policy shifts required to promote the approach of
inclusive education. The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special
Needs Education adopted unanimously at the Conference, are based on the principle of
inclusion that ordinary schools should accommodate all children, regardless of their
physical, intellectual, emotional, social, linguistic or other conditions. It reaffirms the
commitment to Education for All, recognizing the necessity and urgency of providing
education for all children, young people and adults.
Regular schools with this inclusive orientation are the most effective
means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities,
building an inclusive society and achieving education for all...
(Article 2, Salamanca Statement)
'Educational policies at all levels,... should stipulate that children with
disabilities should attend their neighbourhood school that is the school that would
be attended if the child did not have the disability
(Article 18 Salamanca Framework for Action)

The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action called upon UNESCO:
To ensure that special needs education forms part of every discussion dealing with
education for all in various forums;
To mobilize the support of organizations of the teaching profession in matters related
to enhancing teacher education as regards provision for special educational needs;
To stimulate the academic community to strengthen research and networking and to
establish regional centres of information and documentation; also, to serve as a
clearing house for such activities and for disseminating the specific results and
progress achieved at country level in pursuance of this Statement;
To mobilize funds through the creation of an expanded programme for inclusive
schools and community support, which would enable the launching of pilot projects
that showcase new approaches for dissemination and to develop indicators concerning
the need for and provision of special needs education.

Furthermore, the 28th Session of the General Conference also invited the
Director-General to take steps in ensuring that the concerns of person with disabilities
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will be reflected throughout the Education Sector Activities, especially in policy and
planning, as well as in the Culture and Communication Sectors. It also called for
reinforcing the inter-agency collaboration with ILI, UNICEF and WHO.
In pursuance of the implementation of the 28C Resolution 1.5 adopted by the 28 th
Session of the General Conference, and in line with Article 4 of the Salamanca Statement,
UNESCO organized an informal consultation in March 1995 with Denmark, Finland, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, to discuss the project proposal
Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes with the aim of mobilizing
support from donor countries.
The Inclusive Schools and Community Support Programmes project departed
from the principle endorsed at Salamanca, namely, that it is better and socially and
economically more efficient to integrate - to include - children with disabilities and
learning difficulties in mainstream school and regular education programmes than to
segregate them in specialized institutions or, worse, not educate them at all. The projects
aim thus has been to foster wider access and quality education for children and youth
with special educational needs, seeking to promote their inclusion in regular education
provision.
The Project aspires to identify, support, and disseminate information on
small-scale innovations at the national level, and is intended to serve as a catalyst for all
countries that wish to carry out initiatives in line with the Salamanca Framework for
Action. The Project target areas are policy and school development, teacher education,
education of the deaf, adult education, transition to active life, development of
educational support services in schools and communities, parent education, early
childhood education.
The basic parameters of the Inclusive Schools and Community Support
Programmes project place emphasis on:
small scale pilot/demonstration projects with built-in dissemination strategies, i.e. to
ensure sustainability and replicability;
capacity building in the form of trained teams of professionals at national, provincial
and local levels;
upstream work to incorporate new initiatives into national planning;
genuine parental and community involvement in new initiatives;
benefits to a wider number of countries than those directly participating through
networking and exchange opportunities, particularly at the sub-regional level.
The establishment of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in
Education (IITE) in Moscow, based on resolution 6 adopted by the General Conference at
its 29th session is part of an overall plan to reinforce the Organizations activities
concerning the introduction and application of information and communication
technologies in education.
The Institute, which benefits from the active and generous support of the Russian
Federation Government, is specifically mandated: to assist Member States in developing
their national infrastructure in this field; to train educational personnel; to facilitate
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dissemination and exchange of information on the subject; to mobilize partnerships

within and outside UNESCO in all fields of the Institutes competence.
The 30th Session of the General conference of UNESCO indicated the following
priorities of IITE:
an international network of national focal points established as an interactive system
fostering the exchange of information and experience;
an international project ICTs in Education: State of the Art, Needs and Perspectives
focused on national action plans and policy documents launched;
a set of training and self-training modules for different categories of educational
personnel prepared and tested;
partnerships and co-operative agreements with existing institutions, programmes and
organizations established;
national pilot projects launched.
Following its mandate IITE launch several projects adopted by the international
IITE Governing Board, and among them the project ICTs in Education for People with
Special Needs aimed at providing an access to electronic educational materials for this
category of learners and other activities in this direction.
Starting the investigation IITE met such difficulties as a lack or fragmentary
character of information on the use of ICTs in SNE. Collecting and systematization of
information on application of ICTs in SNE seems to be the most important and complex
task at the first stage. Stoking and analysis of this information should become a basis for
true recommendations for policy-makers, educators, learners and designers of soft and
hardware and teaching/learning methodology. That is the reason of drafting the first
Analytical survey on this issue.
Process
This Analytical Survey originated in an Expert Meeting convened by IITE in
Moscow, 1819 February 2000. The participants were:

Prof. Kiyoshi Amano, CHUO University, Japan;

Dr Joost M van den Broek, Kompagne, Netherlands;
Dr Alistair Edwards, University of York, UK;
Dr Grigori Evreinov, Specvuzavtomatika DB, Russia;
Dr Boris Koprivnikar, Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Slovenia;
Dr Giuseppe Nicotra, ARCA Projetti SRL, Italy;
Dr Yuri Sereda, Apple Distinguished School #1126, Russia;
Dr Dmitry Shilov, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, Russia.

The survey has been compiled by the following group:

Alistair Edwards (leader) , University of York, UK;

Kevin Carey, HumaITy, UK;
Grigori Evreinov, Specvuzavtomatika DB, Russia;
Kent Hammarstrom, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Sweden;

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Marshall Raskind, The Frostig Center, USA.

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Analytical Survey of information and communication technology

in special education
1.
Foundations
Promotion of education is a fundamental objective of UNESCO. By definition
(UN 1981), people with disabilities are often restricted in the extent to which they can
take a full part in the society in which they live, but many of those restrictions can be
reduced by their receiving good education.
The most important educational resource is people teachers. However, it has to
be recognized that in the present and the foreseeable future, economic and political
restrictions are unlikely to be such that adequate supplies of suitably trained teachers will
be available to completely fill the need for them. Apart from other restrictions, education
is a self-sustaining process; to have a good supply of teachers tomorrow we must be
educating numbers of children today. The availability of teachers trained in the speciality
of teaching children with disabilities is even lower.
When human resources are inadequate, it is often easier to procure and provide
technological solutions and it is most fortunate that in special education, technology can
play a highly beneficial role. Although economic restrictions can affect access to
technology, it can represent a good investment.
2.
Objectives
This document outlines the role that information and communication technology 1
(ICT) can achieve in special education, with the objective of getting it more widely
adopted and used in UNESCO Member States.
3.
Fundamental assumptions
Technology is no substitute for human teachers but can be a most valuable tool
to supplement their contribution.
ICT is rapidly expanding and developing. Any description herein would
inevitably be a snap shot of the situation at the current time, one that would be out of
date before the report is even published. Therefore, individual technologies are not
described in any detail. Furthermore, it is recognized that technology ages rapidly. This
implies that what is available today in technologically advanced states is not available in
the less developed ones, but by the same token, that technology will be available in those
states tomorrow. To reach the widest level of adoption we must not aim at the state of the
art.

Some writers refer to information and communication technologies in the plural (i.e. ICTs).
However, since the trend is towards the convergence of the technologies, it seems appropriate to refer
to them in the singular; in time it will be too difficult to separate the communications components
from other aspects of the technology, so they might as well be treated as one.

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By the same token, there is no point in trying to be specific in this report about the
state of the technology. It is better to discuss in broad terms the capabilities of the
technology and to encourage the reader to pursue more timely sources of information
with regard to specific products and facilities.
The acquisition and use of ICT must be placed in an appropriate context. An
increased reliance on ICT can only benefit those who have access to it. In other words,
there is a real danger that exclusion (for whatever reason: economic, physical, social, or
whatever) will constitute a handicap (see the definition below). Furthermore, it is likely
that many of those who will be excluded will be the same people who are already
disadvantaged. Efforts must be expended on preventing the creation of an excluded
underclass, but those efforts must be co-ordinated and appropriate; for instance, there is
no point introducing electronic technologies to communities which lack electricity power
supplies or which are confronting more fundamental needs such as food and shelter.
It must also be recognized that educational systems vary between countries. In the
particular context of Special Education, an important dimension is that of integration
versus separation. That is to say that many countries are attempting as far as possible to
educate all children in the same institutions, regardless of disability status, whereas other
systems prefer to teach children in separate, special schools (which are often residential).
Clearly the form of education will be different in these various institutions as will the
role of technology.
This report has been written to be concise, rather than comprehensive. It is
assumed that the target readers have little time to read through a long document. For
anyone requiring more details, a bibliography is provided at the end.
4.

Definitions

4.1.

Impairment, disability and handicap

The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of creating new
classifications and definitions of disability in terms of impairments, activities and
participation (WHO, 1997), but for the purposes of this document, it is adequate to refer
to the existing definitions, as presented in UN (1981).
Impairment
Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical
structure or function.
Disability
Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform
an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Handicap

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A disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from an impairment or

disability, that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role (depending on age, sex and
social and cultural factors) for that individual.
No attempt is made herein to list disabilities. It is impossible to be definitive,
particularly given the fact that handicap is socially and culturally dependent.
Special Education is that sector which deals with the education of all people
identified as being disabled. The objective of all education is to enable the student to take
a fuller part in society. So, according to the above definitions, the effects of a good
education should be to reduce the handicapping effect of the disability.
The educational needs of people with disabilities are vastly diverse. They have the
same needs as everybody else to learn the basic skills of literacy and numeracy to the best
of their ability as well as other abilities that are required in the society in which they live.
At the same time, they have (by definition), educational needs that others do not have.
(Often referred to as special educational needs).
For some students these needs are concerned with access to education and
materials; a blind student cannot use printed materials and must have non-visual
alternatives. For others, the needs may be educational in themselves. That is to say, for
example, that a cognitive impairment may inhibit the students ability to learn, such that
they need to be taught in a different manner from students without that impairment. Also
the needs of some students will be more fundamental and lower-level. For example, it
may be that their education has to include areas that most children master at home before
they ever commence formal education.
4.2.

The role of ICT

Information is a fundamental commodity. It is through the discovery of new
information2, its dissemination and sharing that society advances. Fundamentally
information is not modality-specific (i.e. not tied to its form of presentation, be it visually,
as sounds or whatever). Information may be defined as the characteristics of the output of
a process. These characteristics enhance knowledge, being informative about the process
and its input. Hierarchies of processes, linked together, provide a communication channel
between each of the corresponding functions and layers in the hierarchies. But the end
user (destination, addressee) for whom the information exists, is a person who is trained
to manipulate through modality-specific notions (which are formed by percepts).
Therefore, within information technology modal aspect of information maybe more
essential for development of relations between person and computer.
Education is concerned with the imparting of information not just the simple
acquisition of declarative facts, but also procedural information such as how to do things,
even how to learn. Technology to aid in the processing and communication of
information is not new; it is at least as old as writing. However, in the past 50 years, the

Let us leave it to the philosophers to argue whether information can be created. Is all information
in some sense out there waiting to be discovered and codified, or can the truly creative mind spawn
information that is unique and novel?

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development of that technology has accelerated exponentially, mainly due to the

invention of digital electronics.
A vital recent development has been the convergence of technology concerned
mainly with the processing of information with that which deals mainly with its
communication. This is clearly seen in the emergence of the Internet, whereby the
processing power in each office and school can (easily) be connected and communicate
with corresponding systems anywhere else in the world. The better this integration is
realized, the more blurred the distinctions become. We can reach the point where the user
does not know whether the information resource being accessed is held on the local
machine and (more significantly) does not care where it comes from. This convergence
is what is referred to as information and communication technology or ICT.
One of the difficulties of special education is that it requires special facilities and
skills. These may be hard to find and expensive. At the same time, the number of children
needing them within any group, may be relatively small. Again, ICT may have a role to
play in disseminating and sharing special forms of education.
It should not be forgotten that ICT is part of the curriculum in all developed
countries. The very ubiquity of ICT in society means that to not be educated in its use
could itself be a handicap. Thus, though the emphasis in this paper is on use of ICT in
education, it should not be forgotten that students with disabilities should also be
educated regarding the technology itself. There is some disagreement as to the
appropriate description for this discipline. Computer literacy is a generally accepted
term. Reading literacy implies the basic ability to read and not necessarily a facility at
reading. Therefore, to some people the analogy is that computer literacy would imply
only an elementary familiarity with the technology, whereas what is required is a fluent
facility with it.
Another role for technology is in assessment. People change and develop. Some
impairments are progressive, but beyond such a medical view, people change in reaction
to their education and other changes in their environment. It is important therefore that
assessments should be carried out regularly and these can be assisted by the use of
technology.
In this context it is inevitable that the technology should be applied to education.
Furthermore, it has particular strengths in educating people with disabilities, as discussed
in the following section.
5.

ICT in Special Education: An intermediary role

5.1.

Prosthetic uses
Many forms of disability affect learners ability to access standard educational
materials and ICT can surmount some of these barriers.
5.1.1.

Access to text
The key to many uses of ICT is the availability of data in a machine-readable
form. This is most malleable and capable of being transformed into different formats.

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Printed text is not accessible to people with a number of impairments, but if the same
material is available as a computer file then it can be presented in any one of a number of
ways (including enhanced printed forms, such as large-print text).
Conditions that affect text access:

blindness;
partial sight;
dyslexia;
illiteracy3.

Most text is of a literary form, which is to say that it is composed of the

alphanumeric characters that are found in the ASCII code set. However, a significant
amount of text is written in special notations (beyond the scope of ASCII). Most notable
among these are mathematics and music. Technology is less well developed for handing
and transforming these notations.
5.1.2.

Graphics
Pictorial forms of information can take a vast range of forms from simple line
diagrams to rich paintings. They differ in form and purpose and correspondingly means
of accessing them vary. The same conditions, which affect access to text, also apply to
graphical visual presentations. Though there are no recognized conditions equivalent to
dyslexia or illiteracy with regard to pictures, it is clear that some people are better at
mentally processing and understanding them than others.
As special case of access to graphics is the graphical user interface (GUI) as
found on all modern computers. The interface consists of graphical items, such as
windows, icons and menus as well as text, and their interpretation is a complex visual
task. Thus, the advent of the graphical user interface led to significant fears of blind
people being excluded from computer use. However, efforts put into addressing that
problem have paid off and a number of screen reader programs are commercially
available which give good access to these interfaces.
As well as needing to read and appreciate graphics, it can be important to be able
to create them. Drawing programs can make it possible for many people to generate good
quality pictures and in some cases they may make it possible for people to create pictures
who could not using conventional materials (notably blind people).
5.1.3.

Writing
Some students lack the physical ability to write. There are a number of
alternatives that can be applied. Some are able to use a standard keyboard and to type
instead of hand writing. For those who may have restricted dexterity, tools exist which
can speed up their input by reducing the number of key presses required, by anticipating
subsequent keypresses. Other people who lack the dexterity to type may be able to

There can be some debate as to whether illiteracy is a disability; one of the major objectives of
education is to impart literacy. However, there are cases in which a student has a cognitive impairment
which makes learning to read difficult or impossible.

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10

wordprocess nevertheless by some form of keyboard emulation such that they generate
input on some other device, which is fed into the computer as if it came from a keyboard.
There is a wide range of such devices available. The lowest level of input is a
single switch, which might be used by someone with severe physical impairments, such
as a tetraplegic. A switch would be operated by a part of the body, which might be: a
hand, foot, eye blinks, breathing (through a sip and puff switch), the head or
whatever part of their body they have sufficient control over. Although simple, this form
of input is also very slow. Different techniques have been developed for the interpretation
of single-switch input. One such method is Morse code, which has the advantage of being
long-established, and has even been taught in mainstream education in some countries.
Morse is quite difficult to learn and remember, though, and some people chose instead to
use scanning, menu-based systems, which involve less learning and memorization. A
number of approaches exist which will maximize the amount of information extracted
from each switch press.
At the other end of the spectrum some keyboard alternatives provide a high rate of
input. Notable among these is speech input. Current software can provide a good level of
recognition of speech at conversational speeds. There are some features to note though.
First, current speech recognizers are speaker-dependent and require training. Secondly,
although recognition levels are high, anything less than 100% can still be inefficient in
some real applications. Finally, English is the predominant language for current systems.
With time, we can expect improvements in all these aspects.
There are other people who have no difficulty with the physical process of
writing, but do have problems with composition. The largest such group are those with
forms of dyslexia which affect writing, but there are also others who have different
degrees of language impairment, perhaps due to brain damage (possibly caused by
trauma or stroke). A variety of tools exist to assist such people. Modern word processors
often have tools such as spelling checkers, grammar checkers and outliners built in but
there are also specialist tools that will help with composition.
5.1.4.

Speaking and face-to-face communication

Some people cannot communicate in speech. This may be due to an inability to

physically generate the sounds of speech or it may be due to some language processing
deficit. Clearly this is a handicap in most daily activities, but will clearly have a particular
effect on education.
A wide range of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices
exist. They employ a range of input strategies, aimed to suit the abilities of different
users. Output may be in a written form, but most often they produce synthetic speech,
which is perhaps natural as it is speech that they are intended to replace. The quality of
the speech generated is most important and is constantly improving. In spite of the fact
that English (and particularly American English) has received the most attention,
synthesizers for other languages are available and are constantly improving. Sign
languages are languages in their own right, but they tend to be used only by people who
need to use them. In other words, many deaf people learn sign, but not many hearing

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11

people do. Also, there are a variety of sign languages, and they are distinct from the
spoken languages used in the same countries, so that, for example, American Sign
Language is quite different to British Sign Language even though the spoken language is
the same in those countries. All these factors can contribute to the isolation of deaf people
from the rest of the community. For those who would prefer not to be so isolated,
technology may have a role to play. As yet, sign language interpretation and translation is
somewhat limited, but again it is probably only a matter of time before adequate
translation (such as sign to speech) is available.
There are a number of other possible uses of ICT in relation to sign language. It
has to be remembered that to many deaf people, sign is their first language, and they can
have difficulties with spoken and written language. Sign may be presented through
technology, so that an animated figure on a screen might sign a message in place of text
or speech. Also, sign is by nature dynamic, so that dictionaries of sign with animation on
a computer screen are much richer than books with static pictures.
5.1.5.

Other therapeutic applications

The flexibility of ICT and the variety of input and output forms that can be
handled, creates possibilities for therapeutic uses. For instance, speech inputs can be
processed and displayed visually to help deaf students improve the quality of their
speech. Another example is that gesture-based input has been used as the basis of
physical therapy (Wong 1991; Pausch and Williams 1995).
5.2.

Educational uses
Computer programs can be used to teach directly to students 4. They have a
number of benefits. They offer a form of individual attention to the learner. A program is
infinitely patient and can present a lesson or idea repeatedly and consistently without
variation or fatigue. That is particularly useful in drill-and-practice lessons, where
repetition is necessary in order for a concept or skill to be learned. This can be most
useful for children with learning disabilities.
It is important in computer-aided learning that a machine cannot be judgmental.
Children with learning disabilities are accustomed to failing and will often adopt
strategies such that they can avoid situations in which there is a danger they may fail
again. They avoid the risk of failure. However, when interacting with a machine there is
not the danger of annoying or upsetting another person, no matter how many mistakes
one makes.
Much of the educational software currently available is based on a playful,
games-style approach. There is relatively little that is designed specifically for children
with learning or other disabilities, but it is often possible to use software targeted at one
group with others. The increasing availability of multimedia forms of interaction is
important, too. For example, pre-literate students may be taught to read with the aid of
programs that will produce speech.

A number of different terms are used to describe this field, including Computer-Assisted Learning,
Computer-Aided Learning (both abbreviated to CAL) and Computer-Based Learning (CBL)

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12

Almost all the other features of ICT mentioned in this report can have a relevance
to direct educational use of the computer. For instance networks and communications can
mean that educational programs can be delivered at a distance. Similarly, the flexibility of
input and output channels that are available can be important. An example would be a
child using a simplified form of input such as a touch-sensitive pad, rather than a
keyboard. Thus lessons on handling money might be taught through pressing real coins
on a touchpad, to someone who would not be able to type arithmetic sums on a keyboard.
There are reasons to believe that one particular group of students with special
needs can benefit from computer-based learning, and that is those who are autistic.
Autism is mainly a social handicap, characterized by difficulties in relationships with
other people and one suggestion is that such people have less difficulty forming a
relationship with a machine. Furthermore, regularity and predictability are important to
autistic people and computers are, by nature, consistent and logical.
An important example is the use of everyday computer tools, especially word
processors. As discussed elsewhere, the word processor may be used prosthetically as a
writing aid for someone who cannot write manually. It can also be used, though, by
someone who can write but not very well. The motivational effect of being able to
produce a piece of written work which is neat and correct and printed with high quality,
can be significant, and with the facilities of editing, correcting and printing this is
possible for anyone.
Motivation is also apparent in that children often greatly enjoy interacting with
computers. Some programs notably games are specifically designed to enhance
motivation (Malone 1982), but even with more mundane programs seem to capture
childrens attention and make them concentrate for longer than they find possible for
other activities.
As has been stressed elsewhere, technology can never be a substitute for the
human teacher. It is in the area of educational software that it is most tempting to try to
make that substitution, but in general it is best to see software as a tool that the teacher
can choose to use. The best software should be intelligent. That is to say that it should
incorporate a student model, a representation of the individual student.
5.3.

Communication at a distance
ICT can be used as part of distance teaching. This can be important when
(specialized) teachers are in short supply and have to be shared between geographically
dispersed students and teachers. Communication can take place in different modes and
requires different rates of information flow (bandwidth). These are all summarized in
Table 1.

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13

Dispersion (1-to-1, 1to-many, many-tomany)7

Direction (1-way or 2way)6

Bandwidth (High,
Medium, Low)

Synchronous5/
Asynchronous
Video conferencing

m-m

Video broadcast

1-m

Audio broadcast (radio)

1-m

Webcast

1-m

Telephone

1-1

Telephone conferencing

m-m

Web pages

H/L8

1-m

Chat

m-m

Email

1-1

Bulletin board

1-m

Newsgroups

1-m

Table 1. Summary of communication styles

The different styles of communication have different characteristics in terms of
teaching objectives. For example, to demonstrate a physical action, a synchronous (realtime) connection (presumably a video link) is required, whereas the imparting of factual
information can be achieved by a low-bandwidth, asynchronous channel, such as email.

Synchronous also implies real-time.

Most communication can be made to be 2-way, but some is inherently more conversational. For
instance a note in a newsgroup may generate a follow-up article, but nevertheless the original note
was essentially a one-way communication from the poster.
Many-to-many also implies the possibility of 1-to-1 and 1-to-many.
Web pages may contain high bandwidth material such as video clips or low bandwidth, if they are
simply text.

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14

There is effectively a simple relationship between bandwidth and cost: the greater
the bandwidth the greater the cost. So, while video conferencing may offer the broadest
possibilities for communication, it may be too expensive, or the infrastructure to support
it may not be available. At the same time, advancing development implies that bandwidth
is constantly becoming cheaper. In technologically advanced countries, demand for
bandwidth is always slightly in advance of its availability (we always want more) and in
less developed countries the bandwidth available is less than the current state of the art.
ICT can also form a useful communication medium between people with different
sensory abilities. Coombs, (1995) shows how a blind teacher may be able to
communicate with a deaf student despite their mis-match of abilities thanks to email .
While email is normally used for communication between distant locations, it can also be
used as a means to local, face-to-face communication.
The world-wide web is a particular form of communication. It has rapidly gained
in importance such that it is almost becoming an essential information source, not the
least in education. The implication is that exclusion from access to the web for any reason
may become a handicap. There are a number of possible causes of exclusion, probably
the greatest of which is economics simply not being able to afford the equipment and
connections. The same physical and sensory disabilities that can affect any access to
computers can also hinder use of the web. Efforts are being expended on ensuring that
material on the web is accessible and that there are tools that facilitated that access.
6.
Implementation
There are a number of points that have to be considered if the introduction and
maintenance of ICT in Special Education is to be successful.
Probably the most important is the need to train teachers well. While it may often
seem hard to acquire the equipment, there is no point in doing that if it is going to lie
neglected and unused, and it will only be adopted if the people who might use it are
confident in its use and convinced of its usefulness.
There is also a need for support staff. While a well trained teacher should be
capable of diagnosing and repairing faults, that is not the best use of a teachers time and
technical backup should be available. Equipment must be maintained and repaired.
Constant monitoring at all levels is also vital. This applies to programmes of ICT
use, so that the job is not over when the equipment has been obtained and the teachers
have been trained. They should not be simply left to get on with it, but should be
supported and monitored. Similarly, individual students develop and change over time, so
that it is important not to assume that once they have a piece of equipment that their
needs will be met in perpetuity. As they develop and learn and as the technology also
improves, there should be re-assessment and updating as appropriate.
Many of the uses that ICT has been put to have been technology driven. That is to
say that people have done things with the technology because they can. At the same time,
the power of the underlying hardware has grown exponentially (Moores Law) making
new applications possible. To be led by the technology may seem inappropriate

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15

(particularly in such a human-centred area as education) it is to a large extent inevitable.

It might seem appropriate to ask special education teachers what their needs are, what the
technology might do for them, but in practice it is hard for them to envisage what might
be possible.
An example is speech input. Until quite recently this might have been seen as a
facility that would be useful for non-literate children, but dismissed as impractical.
However with the increase in computing power available, it has become readily available
and new applications including in special education are being found all the time.
It seems likely that there will be three areas in which the role of ICT will grow:

prostheses;
standard software;
educational software.

In the prosthetic role, as ICT is increasingly used by people with disabilities to

reduce their handicap, so it will be applied in special education. This is likely to
encourage integration in educational systems where that is preferred. Examples would be
the use of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices for face-to-face
communication. General applications (word processors, spreadsheets, databases etc) will
continue to be used, but with the added empowerment that they can give to users with
disabilities. There is some cross-over with the prosthetic role, so that, for instance, a
spelling checker that is useful to most users is invaluable to some dyslexic writers.
Educational software currently takes the form of games and programs designed to
teach skills and concepts. Computer-aided learning is still of a fairly general, simple drilland-practice style. This can be most valuable to children with learning disabilities.
Deeper learning will become possible as more intelligent software is developed which
incorporates a model of the learner. Such models are difficult to build for the average
student and are even more challenging for learners who are so unusual that they are
classed as having special educational needs. Such software will emerge but not for
some time yet. It will depend as much on better understanding of the psychology of
learning as on better technology.
7.
Conclusions
Children with disabilities generally have special needs with regard to their
education. Some of those needs can be met by information and communication
technologies. As the technologies become more advanced and more available there is a
significant opportunity to improve the quality of life of this disadvantaged group
significantly.
Recommendations of the Meeting of Experts (Moscow, February 2000):

UNESCO and Member States should turn their attention to the fact that the real
break-throughs in special needs education could be provided by introduction of ICTs
in their learning, training and self-training;
IITE should become an international clearing house for the application of ICTs in
education, in particular special needs education, and promote exchange of information

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16

and experience in this field. The examples of good practice of application of ICTs in
exclusive and especially inclusive education of people with special needs in countries
with different economic, social and cultural environments should be found and
disseminated;
There is a need for stocking existing data and knowledge bases on the use of ICTs in
special needs education and making it available for learners with special needs, their
teachers, teacher trainers, other educators, and decision-makers, in particular through
the IITE information facilities. Thus, for this purpose an information sub-system
ICTs in Education for People with Special Needs within the framework of the IITE
international project ICTs in Education: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives
should be created. Specialized questionnaires are necessary for its continual up-dating
and replenishing;
Education modules on application of ICTs in special needs education, first of all such
modules for teacher training and re-training, should be developed within the
framework of the intersectorial UNESCO project The Status of Teachers and Teacher
Education in the Information Society and included in the IITE educational
programme.
8.

Glossary

AAC

Alternative and augmentative communication. Use of technology as a

replacement for speech. The user specifies utterances and these are
(usually) translated into synthetic speech.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Pronounced

Askey. A standard data transmission code, which is capable of
representing 127 distinct codes, including all the Latin letters (upper- and
lower-case), the digits, 0 to 9 and punctuation characters, such as brackets
and full-stops. It also includes some unprintable control codes for
formatting and printer control (e.g. formfeeds to end a printed page).

Asynchronous communication
See synchronous/asynchronous communication.
Bandwidth

Broadly, the rate at which information can be communicated along a

channel. A high bandwidth interface can communicate a lot of information
quickly and is required for rich forms of information, such as video.
However, it will also be expensive. Simple information, such as text
requires lower bandwidth and is less expensive.

GUI

Graphical user interface. A computer that is controlled mainly through a

visual form of interaction, based on a screen, keyboard and mouse pointing
device. Also sometimes referred to as a WIMP interface (windows, icon,
menu and pointer).

ICT

Information and communication technology. The term that has been coined
to described the convergence of technologies that process information
(mainly computers) and those which communicate it (networks).

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17

Keyboard emulation
This software generates output which is indistinguishable from keys
pressed on a keyboard to other software (such as a word processor). In this
way, someone who cannot physically press keys can nevertheless use
standard, keyboard-based software through some other style of interaction
(such as selecting letters from menus on screen, using a single switch).
Prosthetic technology
Use of technology to reduce the handicapping effect of a disability. That is
to say, using technology to perform actions that the non-disabled person
might achieve without technology. An example is communication through
an AAC device, in place of natural speech.
Screen reader A piece of software which effectively interrogates the contents of a
computer screen and converts it into a non-visual form. That form may be
presented to the user in the form of synthetic speech or braille.
Sip and puff switch
A switch that is activate by a tube placed in the mouth. The switch has
three states: neutral (off), one activated by blowing into it and the other by
sucking on it.
Synchronous/asynchronous communication
Loosely, synchronous communication involves both participants
simultaneously. For instance, a telephone conversation requires both
people to be on the line at the same time, to respond to each other in turn.
Asynchronous communication does not require immediate responses. For
example, an email message will be normally read and responded to the
next time the recipient logs on to the system and not necessarily as soon as
it arrives.
9.
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9.11.

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10.

Web sites

ABLEDATA
http:// www.abledata.com/index.htm

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EagleEyes drawing software for physically disabled people

http://www.cs.bc.edu/~eagleeye
IBM Special Needs Home Page
http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns
Microsoft Accessibility Support
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Morse Code
http://www.uwec.edu/academic/hss-or/Morse2000
Trace Research and Development Center
http://trace.wisc.edu/
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
http://www.w3c.org/wai

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