ACCESS!

ACCESS! ~
ROBBINSDALE
ASSISTIVE
TECHNOLOGY TEAM
IN THIS ISSUE

Meet ACCESS!

ATTP

Documenting AT
in IEPs

Tech Tips

Did you know??

QUESTIONS?
CONTACT US

Rachel Hemke x4196

Allison McKay

x7475

Suzanne Berg

x7477

Anne Grui

x8077

Marti Voight

x8070

Unlocking student potential

V O L U M E

1 ,

I S S U E

O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R

2 0 1 5

Meet ACCESS!
ACCESS! Is the name for the Robbinsdale Assistive Technology Team. We
are a group of special education providers whose interests and specialties focus
on the use of assistive technology to ensure access to learning for all students.
ACCESS! Meets monthly to discuss student specific issues, content learned
from webinars or workshops, and determine the need for ordering new assistive technology materials. Members include: Rachel Hemke, SpeechLanguage Pathologist & Augmentative/Alternative Communication Specialist;
Allison McKay, Physical/Health Disabilities Teacher; Suzanne Berg, Occupational Therapist; Anne Grui, DCD Coordinator; and Marti Voight, Assistant
Director of Special Education.

Assistive Technology Teams Project (ATTP)

Members of ACCESS!
Are also participating in
the second year of a
three year grant project
in partnership with the
Minnesota Department
of Education. Teams
applied and then were
selected to participate in
this three year project.
Year one (1) focuses on
policies and procedures
for Assistive Technology
(AT) teams to improve
outcomes for students
with Individual Education
Programs (IEPs).

Year two (2) focuses on

specific tools, coaching,
consultation, and collaboration with students
and staff. Including increasing independent
use of AT, integrating
AT into the general education classroom, and
reducing the possibility
of resource abandonment. The focus of the
third (3) year is to support implementation of a
comprehensive professional development plan.
This plan will be district

specific and will support

the understanding of AT
devices and services to
enable students to accomplish IEP goals and
objectives, and make
progress in the general
curriculum through appropriate selection, acquisition, and use of AT.
Participants will be required to demonstrate
mastery of professional
development objectives
of the project through a
short survey, report, or
project for each activity.

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Documenting AT in the IEP

Paint a picture of how

the student is using AT
throughout his/her day;
carry over into the
goals; document in the
adaptations

The goal of the ATTP Year 1

project was to look at how we
as a district were thoroughly
considering assistive technology (AT) in IEPs. The team
reviewed IEPs and used a formal ranking system to rate the
considering of AT across different areas of the IEP. We
discovered that staff often did
a wonderful job of describing
the AT used by the student in
the present level section; this
was not always carried over to
the goals section or was not
always documented in the

adaptations section. Others

had a complete adaptations
section, but then said AT was
considered and determined to
not be necessary. Basically
we found a disconnect and it
was our goal to remedy that
by reorganizing the adaptations
section and providing training
on how to thoroughly CONSIDER AT in IEPs; many people
are doing it, but not everyone
knows that they are already
doing it!
We have adopted an AT consideration form created by

Quality Indicators for Assistive

Technology Services (QIAT) to
support staff in carefully considering
AT; we have outlined a breakdown
of who/what should go in different
areas of the adaptation section; and
there is a voiced presentation to
further walk staff through the AT
consideration process.
Resources:
Robbinsdale AT Consideration
Form
Adaptations Section
Breakdown
Voiced Presentation for AT
Consideration

Tech TipsFREE Google Apps & Add-ons

Speech Recognition

Open a doc click add-ons from top menuclick get add-ons

search for speech recognitionclick
; After install, select it
from the add-ons menu and select start.

Story Mapping Mindmup Click on Apps on a Chrome browser

; click on web store;
search for MINDMUP; select the appropriate version; click
Select from App menu to use.
Boardmaker-like App
Picto4me

Click on Apps on a Chrome browser

search for PICTO4ME; click

; click on web store;

Select from App menu to use.

Did You Know?

PCS This stands for Picture
Communication Symbols
which are the symbols in the
BoardMaker software program. (PCS is sometimes
mistakenly interpreted as
PECS)
Boardmaker This is the
software program containing
thousands of pictures which
can be used to create picture
schedules, manual communicaACCESS!

tion boards, device overlays,

etc.
Visual Strategies/Supports
any visuals (pictures, photographs, objects, words) used
to support students to increase their understanding of
what is being said and what is
expected.

PECS Picture Exchange

Communication System. This
is a communication program
designed to develop functional
communication skills in students. It is a multi-stage program that in the initial phases
helps guide students to request
highly desired items by delivering a single picture symbol to
the hand of a communication
partner.

http://autismsupportteam.blogspot.com/2008/04/pecs-pcsvisual-supports-what-is.html

Do you have topics youd like ACCESS! To cover? Let us know!