•  People with autism struggle with social interaction, sensory processing, and communication.
•  Autism can look different from person to person.
•  A few years ago, the official definition of autism changed — Asperger’s is no longer a diagnosis.

•  Unusual fixation
•  Inability to focus 
•  Disruptive behavior when ordinary patterns and/or schedules is disrupted
•  Unusual communication habits, such as not talking at all to repeating certain words/phrases
•  Difficulty understanding social interactions

•  A common feature for those with autism is an inability to handle changes in their scheduling or daily routine. When possible, a highly organized daily routine limits anxiety. A clear daily schedule with defined transitions helps autistic learners anticipate change and enable them to better prepare. Warning and preparation for when changes are expected also help to mitigate stress.

•  Autistic children often have difficulties regulating their sensory system, often referred to as sensory processing disorder. Sensory tools often referred to as fidgets, can often relieve stress and anxiety. Examples of such tools could be something as simple as a rubber band, stress balls, and weighted blankets.

•  Autistic children are often very sensitive to sound and loud noises. This could lead to being easily distracted to emotionally upset. Noise-canceling headphones of earplugs can help a student to focus or calm down. Furthermore, having a “quiet corner” or space where a student can have access to an area that is low traffic helps to prevent sensory overload. This allows the student to escape the constant noise and visual stimuli that is around them. 

•  Students who are on the spectrum often have difficulty staying on task or focused as long as their peers. These breaks can include a respite from the classroom setting and might be brief periods of movement around a classroom or retreats to the “quiet corner”. These breaks allow the learner to reorganize their thoughts and focus so that they can return back to the task.

•  Just like all learners, autistic students learn in unique and specific materials and respond differently to media. Adapting media for visual learners could be providing materials such as movies, picture books, charts, and graphic organizers. Whereas those with auditory learning styles might require audiobooks or audio recorded instructions that can be replayed. 

•  Some autistic children are limited speech or non-verbal. For these students, there are a variety of accommodations that can be made available to the learner. These could be simple type-to-speech programs that are readily found on any computer or smartphone. For more severe forms of autism, Talk Pads and other electronic communications pads/surfaces use a variety of images and symbols that the student can interact with by pressing on/selecting the idea or word they wish to communicate. 

•  Computers can often help autistic learners study and work at their own pace without the distractions of a regular classroom. Using a variety of commercial and/or proprietary computer programs or learning platforms (some commonly used among non-autistic learners) can help autistic learners study at their pace and engage with classroom content at their own pace. A typical setup might have a student sit at a computer with headphones on, where they choose the videos, documents, or other materials used to learn the objectives or content of study.  

• Screen readers: A program that analyzes the layout and content of a website and provides a text to speech translation. The playback speed can be set by the user and commands allow them to skip from heading to heading, click links, and do other important tasks.
• Braille displays: A device that translates digital text into braille dots that can be read with the fingers. (More on braille below, as it is very important to many deaf-blind people.)
• Dictation: Speech recognition software allows a user to navigate, type, and interact with websites using their voice.

• Alerting devices: A device that converts an audio alert (e.g., doorbell, alarm clock) into a visual or physical alert that the person can perceive.
• Telecommunications: Many different options are available for those who are D/deaf or HoH, including amplified telephones, TTY / TDD, Text-to-911, and video chat.
• Enhanced listening: Systems can be used to connect an audio feed directly to someone’s hearing aid or cochlear implant.
• Visual communication: Captions and transcripts (with the ability to enlarge or zoom in!) provide audio information in a visual format.

• Delay in reaching developmental milestones such as sitting up and talking
• Difficulty remembering things
• Trouble comprehending accepted social behaviors and/or understanding the consequences to actions
• Poor problem-solving skills 

• Trouble understanding new concepts
• Inappropriate behavior
• Limited vocabulary
• Difficulty accomplishing complex tasks

IDEA: Speech and language impairments is defined as
 “a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” Each point within this official definition represents a speech and language subcategory:
1 - “A communication disorder such as stuttering” provides an example of a fluency disorder; other fluency issues include unusual word repetition and hesitant speech.
2- “Impaired articulation” indicates impairments in which a child experiences challenges in pronouncing specific sounds.
3 - “A language impairment” can entail difficulty comprehending words properly, expressing oneself and listening to others.
4 - Finally, “a voice impairment” involves difficulty voicing words; for instance, throat issues may cause an abnormally soft voice.

"...it is very important that teachers teach their students the importance of inclusion right from kindergarten so that students with developmental speech delays are made to feel comfortable and accepted in their classes. He [Gelston] says that it is very important for teachers to be accepting of these students and to promote positive attitudes towards these students (Gelston, 2004). He also says that teaching inclusion early in life can help stop negative attitudes from forming towards people with speech impairments later in life (Gelston, 2004). 

"strategies such as “turn-taking”, “object-picture matching”, and “imitating vocalization”, just to name a few, in order to promote the speech of these students (Low & Lee, 2011). These strategies help students hear the correct way of saying certain sounds, which is an effective strategy for helping to improve students’ speech skills (Low & Lee, 2011)"

“…an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psycho-social behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.” [34 Code of Federal Regulations §300.8(c)(12)]"

• "Allow additional time to complete in-class assignments
• Allow student to audio record lectures for later playback
• Provide both oral and written instructions; clarify instructions
• Exempt students from reading aloud in front of classmates because of impaired reading skills."

• "Administer long examinations in a series of shorter segments with breaks allowed between sections.
• Allow oral examinations and assist students in having responses scribed, as needed. 
• Assess knowledge using multiple-choice instead of open-ended questions. "

  "Graphic Organizers– Graphic organizers benefit individuals who experience difficulty expressing their thoughts on paper as well as visual learners who need to see their ideas mapped out. While graphic organizers completed without technology can help students with learning disabilities to improve the quality of writing (Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education, 2003), electronic versions, such as Inspiration, allow students to arrange their thoughts on the computer screen without worrying about order, level of importance or categories because the text can be easily manipulated. Graphic organizers provide an organizational framework to help writers generate topics and content for writing projects and can assist with the planning and organizational stages of writing, and using concept mapping software can increase the quality and quantity of writing (Sturm & Rankin-Erickson, 2002). Using a web-based graphic organizer with procedural prompts enabled students to produce better organized and higher quality papers, than they could produce with handwritten organizers (Englert, Wu & Zhao, 2005; Englert, Zhao, Dunsmore, Collings, & Woblers, 2007). Being taught a strategy to plan and organize writing can improve the compositions of students with learning disabilities (MacArthur, 2009)."

• Service dogs can go to public places with their owners, even places that dogs are not usually allowed to go like airplanes or restaurants.

• Ray Electronic Mobility Aid
  This small device can help users detects obstacles up to 9.35 feet away. When an object is detected users get an audio signal.
• UltraCane
  The UltraCane is a combination of an electronic mobility aid and a long cane. The cane itself emits ultrasonic waves so that the user can detect objects in front of them and at head level.

• JAWS Screen Reader
  JAWS stands for Job Access With Speech and is a popular screen reader. JAWS works with Windows operating system and provides text-to-speech and braille output.
• Kurzweil Education
  This text-to-speech software can help those who are blind or visually impaired use computers and also can read scanned printed material. Kurzweil offers various versions for individuals, schools, and institutions.
• Refreshable Braille Displays
  This page from the American Foundation for the Blind has a list of refreshable braille displays. These devices processes information on computer displays and electronically raises and lowers different combinations of pins in braille cells. It changes continuously as the user moves the cursor around on the screen.

• Avoid glare in general from overhead lights. Consider placing light filters on fluorescent lights.
• Open and close doors fully (a half-open door can be a dangerous obstacle).
• Eliminate unnecessary background noise. Consider isolation headphones.
• Eliminate clutter from the room, particularly in aisles and movement paths.
• Place materials in consistent places so that students know where particular items are always located.
• Preferential locker position and locks with keys vs. combination locks.
• Use of task lighting as needed.

• The use of multimedia and electronic information allows students with reading disabilities to improve their comprehension of a topic or idea without being dependent on their reading ability;

• Computers and word processors can reduce the burden of editing and re-writing assignments, making the writing process faster and allowing students to work more independently;

• A photo taken with any device that has a camera may be used instead of copying information from a whiteboard. This information can be stored digitally and in some cases converted to text;

• An MP3 recorder on any device can record ideas and help overcome short term memory difficulties. “

• Check knowledge through verbal responses.
• Modify assignments only as needed.
• Arrange the room to accommodate students’ equipment.
• Look at alternatives for excessive writing.
• Mark or circle correct answers on worksheets rather than filling in blanks.
• Break tasks into small parts.
• Assist with the organization of materials and lessons.
• Reduce homework amount, taking into consideration students’ physical ability to complete it in a timely fashion.
• Maintain a communication link with all individuals involved with the student-parent(s), doctors, instructional assistants, therapists, special and general education teachers – to assure appropriate and coordinated instruction.
• Make appropriate arrangements to accommodate the student’s schedule with regards to personal needs – catheterization, availability of instructional assistant or nurse, and toileting with dignity, i.e., private and as independent as possible.
• Have a clear understanding of the medication needs of the student, type of medication, when it is administered, who administers it, and its effect on the student.

• ADD and AH/HD 
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy 
• Heart conditions 
• Hemophilia 
• Lead poisoning 
• Leukemia 
• Nephritis 
• Rheumatic fever
• Sickle cell anemia 
• Tourette syndrome

• bipolar disorders,
• fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
• dysphagia, and
• other organic neurological disorders.

IDEA: Multiple disabilities means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness or intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.

There are several factors that can restrict the usefulness of many assistive technologies. These include, lack of appropriate staff training and support, negative staff attitudes, inadequate assessment and planning processes, insufficient funding, difficulties procuring and managing equipment, and time constraints.