As the technologies of communication and information change, the requirements for literacy also change.

For those who grew up in a world dominated by the technologies of print, mastery of the technologies of writing and reading text constituted literacy. The addition of video- and audio-recording tools did not impact the nature of literacy in a major way because these tools were used primarily to deliver information. The primary shift brought about by computers is that audio, video, and image-based materials are no longer primarily used for delivery of information - they are now viable media for communication and exchange. With digital tools, teachers and students have the capacity to compose and construct communications in any and all media. In our view, this central shift is the reason that computers will be the first technology beyond print to have a profound impact on the very nature of learning.

We urgently need to change our curricula to prepare children for their future, not for our past. Seymour Papert, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, often says that what our children are currently learning should be called "letteracy," not literacy, since it will equip them for the culture of print but not for the culture in which they will actually live.

For children with disabilities, the change from "letteracy" to literacy will be especially welcome. For many such children, the culture of print has been inhospitable. The expanded communications toolbox and the adoption of powerful curricula that accommodate individual differences will allow many of them not only to become literate but to excel. Only when the tools for literacy are as varied and flexible as our children will we be able to achieve a literacy that is truly universal.