Summary

I commend the Congress for its leadership and its commitment to students with disabilities. Fundamental to this commitment, and to all of the things I have recommended, is the leadership implicit in IDEA. I strongly support the commitment to fund this foundational legislation for our future.

In the innovative area of educational technology it is essential not only to provide support under Part B of IDEA, it is also essential to fund discretionary programs for technology research, training, and dissemination - those under Part D. Without that support we will miss the opportunity, just at this propitious moment, to turn the power of educational technology in a direction that will leave none of our children behind. .

In specific, I have made recommendations in three areas:

1. Assistive technologies. These individual technologies are essential to overcome the barriers that students with disabilities face. Congress should support their continued development into areas where barriers remain, including cognitive as well as sensory and motor issues, and should fund technical assistance to school districts so that they can be effective consumers of these powerful technologies.

2. Digital Curricula. Most existing classroom technologies are still print based - making it very difficult to use assistive technologies, and even more difficult to individualize the curriculum in ways that are necessary for students with disabilities. Congress should provide legislation requiring that all curricula be made available in digital format so that it can be easily customized and made accessible for all students and that Congress fund a central place where teachers and parents can locate these resources.

3. Universal Design of Learning Technologies. As new technologies are developed for schools, they should be made accessible to all of the students in the school, right from the start. Congress should support efforts to make guidelines for the universal design of such technologies, to research and develop such technologies, to provide training and technical support to schools and parents. Congress should also provide leadership by requiring, purchasing, maintaining, and disseminating such technologies in all of its programs.

The over-arching recommendation that I make to you is that we extend the same kinds of protections now afforded to physical spaces and to information in the workplace to a new area, the most important space for our future - the learning space. Our future as a culture depends on us to make learning spaces, those most precious spaces in the lives of our children, accessible and supportive of every single child. I believe that if we make the leaning spaces of our schools accessible to all of our children, we will save both the short-term costs of poorly educating our children in the present and the long-term costs of NOT educating them for their future. This approach will save resources, but most importantly, it will save children. Thank you.