Dr. Keller's Interview

First of all, I think the availability of the interview in such a wide variety of mediums was very appropriate considering the content of the interview, and personally much appreciated as it meant I could combine listening to it with training (I'm training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk-a marathon and a half, so training is unfortunately rather time-consuming, so thank you for making it available as a podcast.
I thought that Dr. Keller had some really interesting perspectives both on technology and on special education. I found his connection between the different paradigms relating to special education and the terminology used for technology particularly interesting. As I have had little experience with technology I assumed that there was a difference between assistive technology and adaptive technology and didn't realize they were interchangeable terms. However, after Dr. Keller acknowledged this fact and explained his preference I found myself really relating to what he said and able to see how these different terms are indicative of the paradigm that he connected them to. As he said assistive implies the person requires assistance from others, that the person is broken and needs to be fixed, this definitely follows the medical model assuming that there is some inherent problem to be fixed or corrected in the way a person's body works. Whereas adaptive technology makes me think of technology that simply changes the environment so that this person's unique needs and strengths can be used more advantageously in a new surrounding that suits them. This focus on changing the environment feels to me like the way that special education reform should be moving, it is truly representative of the type of equality that is supposed to be our country's foundation.
Along the lines of adapting the environment rather than assisting the person was Dr. Keller's comment about the creative use of materials. The compensatory use of materials is something teachers often don't consider, myself included, and can be of enormous benefit to everyone. Rather than waiting for the money for the perfect piece of equipment, which as we know can take a long time if government funds are required, or for the perfect equipment to be created we can look around ourselves and find something that will work just as well, as Dr. Keller did with his in-flight audio recorder. However, I do acknowledge that this isn't always the easiest thing to do. In fact often I think the easiest solution is sometimes the most difficult to see, even when it is right in front of your nose, as I'm sure was the case with the pencil for the astronauts scenario.
From there, Dr. Keller went into his story about Washington Square Park. I think that story would be a wonderful story for not only teachers, but students with disabilities to hear. As I have never been a student with a disability I know that I can't even begin to imagine the struggles that my students will have not only in learning, working, and everyday tasks, but in coming to terms with who they are including their strengths and weaknesses, as we all do, but with the addition of their disability and how that affects their life and how others perceive them. I think for students to be able to hear from someone who really has accomplished so much in his life about how hard it was for him, they will be able to understand that those types of feelings are normal and expected.
Dr. Keller's next story involving the color identifier brought a question to my mind that I don't know if there really is an exact answer to. Dr. Keller talked about the independence and control he felt at being able to choose to learn that information, the colors of his surroundings. However, Dr. Keller did used to have sight and therefore has an association with what he perceives brown or gray or blue as, but what about a person who has never had sight or has always been colorblind, would this person really benefit from a color identifier? Would there be any association for them of what brown or gray or blue means?
Finally, the last thing I wanted to discuss was when Dr. Keller brought up the curb cuts for people in wheelchairs and the negative impact these have for some others with disabilities. I hadn't ever thought before about how one person's access to an environment is actually a potential block of access for another. It made me sad when he said there's no perfect solution because I suppose I had never thought about that truth before, that there isn't any way to really meet everyone's needs regardless of how long we work at it or how thorough we try to be.

As for the Points to Remember document, to be perfectly honest I didn't find either one particularly clear. I definitely found the word version easier, but the print was still small and close together. The PDF format was very difficult for me to read as there was little sense of directionality and presented itself more as an image then text. As was discussed in Chapter 3, everyone has different issues or strengths in perception and I suppose that my strength coincides with our society's norm, print. I find things easier to follow that are in a sequential order and I am lucky enough to be a good reader, a definite advantage in our print-focused society. On the other hand, the PDF format appeared to me to be more of an image with less of a sequence, allowing students to read it in the order they choose. This could definitely be beneficial for students that have issues in sequencing.