Federal law and national education policy requires students with disabilities to be educated in the most inclusive setting possible.  For many students with disabilities, assistive technology (AT) is a key component to their classroom success.  Unfortunately, classroom teachers are typically not trained to assess or implement AT solutions.  Instead, they rely on the services of district level AT experts.  School districts may have hundreds, or even thousands of students with disabilities and very few AT specialists, often only one or two.  As a result, children may wait years for effective AT assessments, or never receive them at all.   ATSTAR, an acronym for Assistive Technology Strategies, Tools, Accommodations and Resources, is a series of online teacher training modules developed to empower schools-based teams to effectively assess and implement assistive technology (AT) for their students with disabilities.  Originally developed in 2002 with a grant from the Texas Education Agency, the ATSTAR system was piloted in rural and urban settings for the next three years.  In 2005, using data collected from the pilots, the system was improved with funding from the Meadows Foundation.  The newly rebuilt technology platform is now ready for national dissemination. Students may have different needs in different environments. The ATSTAR system builds teams of school based educators who are able to meet individual student needs, within the classroom setting. Team members include general education teachers and special education teachers, parents and administrators may also be part of a team. As the law requires, AT decisions are collaboratively as everyone contributes to the plan of how to best meet the needs of the student to make him/her successful in the classroom. ATSTAR modules include proven techniques for working as a team and considerations of AT.  ATSTAR provides an online curriculum and support system that gives teachers access to problem-solving tools that are proven to improve outcomes for K-12 students with disabilities. ATSTAR is an innovative system that meets a previously unmet need in assistive technology services, increasing the success of children with disabilities in inclusive classroom settings.

WHAT WE NEED:

Funding! Also, a podcasting engine and accessible forum software. Our application was developed using Ruby on Rails, and the product-feature matching tool would potentially also be developed using this if we can find resources which fit into our budget.

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