STUDENTS

Student Information

Welcome to the Austin Independent School District's ATSTAR program website. We hope that your path to technical accessibility is both quick and informative! This page is designed to introduce you to ATSTAR and to answer some of your questions.

The ATSTAR Project is a $2,269,239 collaborative effort between the following 8 agencies: Austin Independent School District (fiscal agent), Austin Community College, The University of Texas, Austin Harvard School, Mountain Shadows Academy, Sylvan Learning Center, Far South Community Schools, and Region XIII Education Service Center. Its purpose is to increase parent, educator, and community awareness of Assistive Technology (AT) and increase Assistive Technology expertise within K-12 and higher education settings. Currently, there are fourteen AISD Campuses in the Crockett vertical team.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE AND WHAT IS THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS?

Assistive Technology (AT) services and devices are available for every student with a disability. As asserted in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guidelines, AT must be considered for every student with a disability. In determining whether an Assistive Technology device or service, or both, are required for a student to receive a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE), the individual needs of the student must be considered. A student's educational team makes the determination that an individual student needs a particular Assistive Technology device or service. This device or service may be required in the school environment and/or in the home environment. This determination will be made to maintain the FAPE and enable the student to learn in the least restrictive environment (LRE).

The determination of need for Assistive Technology requires an evaluation to determine the most appropriate intervention for the identified student. As with the provision of Assistive Technology devices and services, the IDEA also requires assessment in the area of Assistive Technology for every identified student. This will be addressed in every child's comprehensive individual assessment (CIA) and will include formal and informal procedures with recommendations for Assistive Technology.

Along with the CIA, in AISD there is a district level Assistive Technology Team. This team consists of: Carye Abete, Special Education Technology Specialist Piret Sari-Tate, AT Instructional Specialist Julie Miller, Augmentative/Communication Specialist. This team coordinates with the campus teams that include, as appropriate, a special education teacher, a regular education teacher, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a speech/language pathologist, school counselor, an educational diagnostician and the parent.

The district level team is a consultative team that works to: * Assist the campus teams in assessing student needs for individualized assistive technology and/or augmentative communication * Assist with the acquisition of need assistive technology devices/materials to enable students to access the curriculum and gain control of their environment within the least restrictive environment * Assist with the coordination of all services available to a student that will support the use of assistive technology. * Provide all members of the campus teams with training and ongoing staff development regarding recommended assistive technology, implementation/integration strategies, and additional idea for modifying the educational environment to meet the needs of the students they serve and maintain consistency in the use of the assistive technology. There is a referral process established in AISD for accessing the Assistive Technology Team. If you have questions regarding this process you can e-mail Carye Abete at cabete@austin.isd.tenet.edu for information on how the process works.

WHICH CAMPUSES PARTICIPATE IN THE ATSTAR PROGRAM?

All of the schools involved in the ATSTAR program are on the same vertical team. Vertical teams are used in the Austin Independent School district to direct the populations of the Greater Austin Area, with its numerous elementary and middle schools students, into fewer high schools toward the end of a students' basic education.

There are two High School campuses:

3 Middle Schools campuses:

10 Elementary campuses:

DO ANY PRIVATE SCHOOLS PARTICIPATE IN ATSTAR?

Ensuring that the content of the ATSTAR training modules reflects best practices in the field of Assistive Technology is key to the success of the ATSTAR project. Austin Harvard School and Mountain Shadows Academy specializes in intervention strategies for students with learning difficulties, bi-polar disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, and auditory processing disorders.

WHAT AT TOOLS ARE AVAILABLE IN THE CLASSROOM?

Assistive Technology is a piece of equipment or a software product that is used to increase, maintain, or assist the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. In short, it can be any device or technique that assists people in removing or reducing barriers and enhancing their everyday life activities. Assistive Technologies include magnifiers, screen readers, closed captioning, keyboard enhancements, and highlighting software. Assistive Technology uses the coding and content of your Web site and makes it accessible.

The following is a list of links regarding specific tools available in the classroom:

1. The Blazie site
   http://www.blazie.com/pages/hardware.html


Portable Word Processors for People with Visual Impairments:
* Braille 'n Speak
* Braille Lite 2000
* Type 'n Speak * Type Lite

Refreshable Braille Displays for People with Visual Impairments:
* PowerBraille 40

Braille Printers for People with Visual Impairments:
* Braille Blazer Embosser
* VersaPoint Duo

External 3 1/2 " disk drives for Blazie portable word processors for people with visual impairments:
* Disk Drive Accessory



2. The AlphaSmart site
   http://www.alphasmart.com/products/as3000_overview.html


Portable Word Processors:
* AlphaSmart 3000


3. The Streettech site
   http://www.streettech.com/archives_Hardware/dreamWriter.html


Portable Word Processors:
* DreamWriter T400


4. The Franklin Store
   http://www.franklin.com/estore/category/dictionaries.asp


Portable Spell Checking:
* Spelling Ace with Thesaurus (SA-98,SA-206)



5. The Attainment Company
   http://www.attainmentcompany.com/


Miscellaneous low tech - augmentative communication


6. The Don Johnson site
   http://donjohnston.com/catalog/catalog.htm


Auditory Word Processing & Word Prediction Software:
* Write:Outloud & Co:Writer


7. The Intellitools site
   http://www.intellitools.com/


This is a picture of children using an IntelliKeys board which is an alternative keyboard.


8. The Edmark site
   http://www.edmark.com/prod/tw/


Touch Window

WHO CAN I CONTACT IF I HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ATSTAR?

Project managers are Carye Abete and Jan McSorley. Please direct inquiries to jmcsorley@earthlink.net

WHAT ARE SOME USEFUL LINKS?

Assistive Technology Reference Links:

Texas Technology Access Project
http://tatp.edb.utexas.edu/

Washington Assistive Technology Alliance
http://wata.org/wata/index.htm

Assistive Tech
http://www.assistivetech.com/

Assistive Technologies
http://assistivetechnologies.com/

Virtual Assistive Technology Center
http://www.at-center.com/

Alliance for Technology Access
http://www.ataccess.org/

Atia
http://www.atia.org/

Assistive Keyboard Products
http://www.fentek-ind.com/lrgprt.htm

Tech Connect
http://www.iltech.org/

D R D
http://www.kansas.net/~cbaslock/assist.html

Resna
http://www.resna.org/

Teach the Deaf
http://www.teachthedeaf.com/

IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Related Links: