Developing Functional Assessment Scale for Assistive Technology Skills of Blind Students in Yemen

Abstract

The use of assistive technology (AT) reduces each of these limitations. Blind people no longer have to wait for someone else to translate braille from conventional printed language for them. Those who are blind can access the Internet, read online publications, check their emails, use their chosen tablet computer programs, etc. They can directly access material that is available to their sighted peers by downloading the papers. Blind students can utilize talking maps, screen-reading software, and specially designed GPS gadgets thanks to assistive technology (AT). This study presents research on how special educators of students with visual disabilities teach functional skills in the classroom through the construction of a stand-raised functional assessment scale for assistive technology skills for educational programming for blind students as part of the expanded core curriculum available to blind students in Yemen. Therefore, the results of the present research can assist the parents, educators, and special and inclusive school’s management by providing a guideline for improving their existing educational policies that functional skills for the students with visual disability and also by developing new ones which will result in enhancing the quality of their programs and skills of the students. On the other hand, this provides teachers with an understanding of the preferred methods of learning for a blind student. As a result, teachers’ investigations and identifying learning, training needs in this paper explores the need to incorporate and use assistive technology domain under the functional skill assessment scale in the educational programming of blind students. Keywords: assistive technology, functional skills, assessment, visual disabilities.