Technology in the Classroom -- Special needs edition

     It's amazing how far these devices have come in such a short time.  I remember using a Dragon voice recognition software program back in the late nineties.  At the time I thought it was the coolest software I had ever seen.  In truth, I spent as much time training it to recognize my voice as I did writing with it.  I had to write the paper out first so that I could read it to the computer.  It didn't recognize punctuation so I had to include that too. "Capital I had a good time period Capital even though comma there were" and so on and so on.  Looking back at how archaic that software was I realize how ridiculous I must have seemed reading to my computer.  The software in my phone is 100x more impressive than that was and I totally take it for granted.
     I could see a number of opportunities for including these sorts of assistive technologies in my classroom.  I would recommend that a student with a hearing impairment could have videos played to a speech-to-text program so that he could then read the product.  In addition I could use the same software during the class to help the student keep up.  If the student had a computer with the software in front of them and I wore a microphone attached wirelessly to it the student would be able to read, in real time, what I was saying to the class.
    A student with poor vision could use the same technology the other way around.  By having books and other written work read aloud to them they could complete assignments.  With voice activated menus and controls the student could expand their use of the program to also use speech-to-text functions to replace their typing requirements.  The difficulty that I would find with this software is that it may not be up to the task at hand.  I own a Kindle but I am not impressed with the text-to-speech function.  It does not pause to represent inflections or changes in perspective.  The text is just shot straight ahead in one long never ending stream of words.  It is hard to keep up with.  I feel like this would be better than nothing but perhaps not good enough to call it a win.
    A student with a broken right arm could also find help from a speech-to-text program.  Obviously typing with one arm is a slow process that can cause a real handicap in a students performance.  I would also recommend a Kindle or other e-reader for this student.  They are easier to handle than a traditional book. You do not have to hold the book open with one hand and turn the page with the other.  That is all handled by one button click.
     I do not know how I would use this technology to help an autistic child.  I don't know enough about autism in general to speak to this problem and I don't see how these technologies could help with that.  These are all techs that require input from the user to work.  An autistic child incapable of communication would be at a handicap to use the software in the first place.  At least that is how I would see it with my very limited understanding of autism.