U.S. Department of Education's Technology Agenda

According to the Twenty-Second Annual Report to Congress on Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Office of Special Education Programs introduced the national technology program agenda in 1990. The goals for this agenda were identified as: fostering lifelong learning; encouraging participation in diverse educational, domestic, work, and community environments; promoting equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities; and enabling individuals with disabilities to be productive and independent. To reach these goals, four program commitments were made by which the use of technology would be advanced for all categories of disability.
These commitments were:

Enable the learner across environments by fostering the creation of state-of- the-art instructional environments, both in and out of school;
Promote effective policy at all levels in government, schools, and businesses;
Foster use through professional development by training and supporting teachers, administrators, parents, and related-service personnel; and
Create innovative tools by encouraging the development of varied and integrated technologies, media, and materials.

For the last ten years, the agenda has served as the cornerstone of OSEP's technology research and development. Using the agenda as a foundation, a series of research projects began looking at how to provide innovative technology tools that would help students to learn across educational and classroom settings. The report highlights examples from OSEP-funded projects. This report highlights examples of situations where technology helped students with disabilities participate in the classroom and learn subject matter.

The report is on-line at www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/osep/2000/index.html. It is also available for free from ED Pubs.

ED Pubs, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, Md. 20794-1398, 877.4ED.PUBS (voice), 877.576.7734 (TTY/TDD), 301.470.1244 (fax), www.edpubs.org (web), CustomerService@inet.ed.gov (e-mail).