I came across this today and as a free resource it should be a must for educators using digital means for teaching and learning. You need to create a login and password then you can access a range of publications. I just clicked on the relevant document from an email link sent.
CAST has a long history in the field of Assistive Technology and therefore a voice worth listening to. Here is the UK we also have a long history of Assistive Technology too and comparing our experiences would be useful. I have just begun reading the book so will feedback on its content in another post. I immediately identified with the ideas and thoughts as being very much what I believe we should have in our 21st Century World.
To download your copy click on link below:-
Finally, I leave you with this thought provoking quote which resonates with our UK version of a “rigid curriculum” and what it is doing to our pupils :-
“The unnecessary barriers in traditional education extended beyond those that impeded students from accessing content and expressing knowledge. Even more important in motivating our work were the affective barriers. Students coming to school with curiosity and a strong desire to learn found that fire quenched when they were stigmatized—not because of anything that was in their control but because of inaccessible learning environments.
These environments blocked learning progress and, more significantly, blocked students from falling in love with learning, engaging with their creativity, and seeing themselves as experts in the making. Many of our early clients were students whose enthusiasm for learning had been overwhelmed by feelings of incompetence and discouragement that had generalized from a few areas of challenge to a sense of being altogether inadequate. This disengagement from the enterprise of school and damage to self-esteem was a pernicious result of a rigid system, one we felt could in fact be made flexible now that digital technologies had emerged.”
AccessAbility Solutions 