Description

Abstract

This seminar paper discussed accessibility and utilization of ICT on educational achievement of students with special needs. ICT, which is referred to technologies that provide access to information through communications is seen as important tools in the education of all students which students with special needs are inclusive. The seminar paper discussed extensively the concept of ICT, the concept of educational achievement, the purpose of using ICT or students with special needs and the impacts of ICT to students with special needs. Conclusively, the seminar paper recommend that governmet, parents, school management and teachers should make sure they adopt the use of ICT in educational programme.

Key Words: Information Communication and Technology, accessibility utilization, special needs

Introduction

The  capability  of  assistive  technology  in  education  classes  for  students  with  special needs is enormous. Some of the advantages of using technology include promoting academic success for students with disabilities in the field of writing, mathematics, spelling, reading and comprehension, enhancing their organizing capability and most importantly encouraging their social inclusion in society (Quenneville, 2015). Support or assistive  technology offers many  advantages  by  assisting writing  for  students with disabilities who  usually  find writing  to be cumbersome  (MacArthur,  2006).  Once  students  overcome  writing  issues,  they  tend  to  be more successful within the general  education  environment. Also most of learners with disability find  it challenging  to  retain  information  from  the  standard  syllabus. Many  teachers  face difficulty adapting  curriculum  as  per  the  learning  requirements  of  children  with certain disabilities like learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities without  any external assistance. Hence, it has become all the more important to focus on this issue to help teachers incorporate technology within the classroom to promote learning of learners with special needs (Wilson & Cleland., 2011).

ICT (information and communications technology) is an umbrella term that includes any communication or application which encompassing radio, television, cellular phones, satellite systems, computer and network hardware or software and so on ( www.searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/). From the computing dictionary, ICT is the study of technology used to handle information and aid communication (www.dictionary.refrence.com.). Nowadays, ICT is rapidly developing in many of countries which due to the globalization and technological change. Recently, ICT is widely use in many areas or sectors such as education, economy, politics and social. Especially for education, many countries now regard understanding ICT as part of the core of education, alongside writing, reading and numeracy. The emergence of ICT has made an improvement on the education for every student with learning disabilities as it brings a lot of advantages for every student with special needs. For many teachers, ICT also has improve their effectiveness on the teaching process which in turn could help the student with special needs to enhance their educational performance. That goes without saying ICT has gradually become a part of the life for every student with special needs. Thus, how can we imagine that without the help of ICT on education? In recent years, the computers and internet has show their effectiveness and efficiency in education. Besides, ICT has also improved the learning environment of student with special needs. For ICT, if we used appropriately, it could help to expand the access of education for student with special needs and raise the quality of educational by reinforce the relevance of education. E-learning, blended learning and distance learning are the various types of learning that arise from the ICT.