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By law, assistive technology (often referred to as “AT”) MUST be considered during the IEP process for every child. AT varies in many forms and MOST students CAN benefit from some level of AT. AT may be low tech, medium tech or high tech. I remember way back, a very long time ago my kindergarten teacher requiring us to use “fat” pencils to write with. When you think about it this is a very common but yet very low tech AT idea. All students can benefit from AT ideas that aid them in any way to better comprehend what they are learning or better manipulate various tools for learning.

What I am presenting here is an example of the SETT Framework developed by a team of educators for a class in AT. The SETT Framework model originated with Joy Zabala and is copyrighted (2001). I want to give credit to my collaborative team members that were part of developing this AT Consideration Project for Charlie, a make-believe student but in many ways represents a typical student we might see in our school and one that would require AT consideration. These are Cathy Ooterhoff, Denyel Ptacek, and Wendy Yerkes. This SETT AT Consideration Project was so well done that the instructor for the course asked us if we would give her permission to use it as a benchmark-model example for future courses. Of course we said, “Yes!” by all means.

The SETT Framework stands for “Student”, “Environments”, “Tasks”, and “Tools”. This is a four-part model (SETT) that, according to Joy Zabala promotes collaborative decisions in assistive technology from its design for the student to its final evaluation of effectiveness. I believe you will find the SETT Framework Model an extremely useful tool while considering AT for your students with special needs.

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