Determining the opinions of special education teachers regarding the use of assistive technologies for overcoming reading difficulties

Abstract

Reading is one of the basic skills that the students' need to achieve, however, it is also one of the important competencies that is essential for reaching knowledge. Reading difficulty is a main problem that many teachers are coming across in their classrooms. Students' with reading disabilities not only hinder the teachers' flow of the lesson it also hinders the development of the student's life skills. With the revolution of the technology in the 21ST century, assistive technologies are seen to be applied into the education settings at all levels and in all fields. Therefore, teachers are in need to know about the available technology and special technology programs in order to help their students facing difficulties in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills. Technological enrichment of teachers' educational environment both facilitates and helps them to motivate students more easily. Technology support into the educational environments of the students with reading difficulties can improve their reading skills and enable them to succeed in reading and comprehending. The present study sought to determine the opinions of special education teachers' regarding using assistive technology for students with reading difficulties. The research design is based on the qualitative case study design with purposeful sampling and easily accessible sampling technique. Researchers developed semi-structured interview form for data collection applied content analysis to analyze the collected data. The analysis of the study found that teacher opinions towards assistive technology usage for overcoming students' reading difficulties are rather moderate. However, teachers' general opinions about assistive technology utilization is promising and developing gradually.