Noncommercial Instructional Software for Students with Severe, Multiple Handicaps

Abstract

A nationwide search was conducted to locate noncommercial instructional software appropriate for students with severe; multiple handicaps. Members of the Technology and Media Division of the Council for Exceptional Children were asked to identify locally developed programs; 46 Apple II series programs were obtained and analyzed for curricular content, mode of information presentation, and student response mode The most common curriculum areas were cause and effect training, language and communication, and cognitive development Authoring programs were well represented, while academic programs were relatively rare Programs presented information to students via graphics, color, and synthesized speech; text was less common. The most typical response mode was switch input Results suggest the existence of a substantive body of noncommercial software of potential value in the education of students with severe, multiple handicaps.