Keeping Up with the Fast-Moving World of Assistive Technology
Kindy Segovia's 2019 interview on assistive technology, updated with what federal special education rules require of schools and questions IEP teams can ask.
Assistive technology in schools explained: the IDEA rules on devices, services and home use, and questions IEP teams can ask.
In 2019, Kindy Segovia of the Kent Intermediate School District in Michigan described in a CoffeED interview how schools were moving beyond one device for one student. The section below, added in 2026, explains what federal special education rules say about assistive technology in schools and how a team can use them.
Kindy Segovia is the Supervisor of Special Education Instructional Resources for the Kent Intermediate School District in Grand Rapids, Mich. Over the past several years, Segovia has seen positive changes regarding barriers facing assistive technology. She explains, “We’re finally starting to see some implementation of moving beyond—especially in the world of assistive technology—the one-student, one-solution strategy that we’ve adopted and implemented for a long time.”
Overall there has been a greater embrace of new coaching models and efforts to increase available tools inside classrooms. “We’re trying to find tools and strategies that meet the needs of more students, if not all students. [We are looking] not just to assist the classroom teacher but make system-wide change. While that can be daunting and difficult, we are starting to see that trend have a little bit of an upswing,” she adds.
Many districts have already fully embraced one-to-one practices, but the upgrade on devices for people with disabilities has been slower in implementation. However, Segovia is intrigued by recent developments and an increase in the acceptance of technologies in the field.
“Now, we’re looking at the device in front of us to not only [see] what we can add to that device to help that student with a disability, but those adaptations, extensions, add-ons that can also help other students in that classroom.”
Although schools are generally slow to adopt trendy tech to avoid wasting resources on technologies that do not stick, Segovia sees a need to be more open to new tech tools. “Some trending technologies have a great impact on our students. Eyegaze is a good example. Eyegaze was very difficult to access and cumbersome. Now that it’s become embedded in many more mainstream devices for mainstream applications, we’ve seen not only cost points go down but the accuracy of the technology [improve.] The number of students accessing Eyegaze for both communication and general access to technology has gone up.”
Smart technologies are improving in the general culture, and Segovia feels it’s important that schools not shy away from adopting the newer “ideas” to better support students in the long run. According to Segovia, the key question is, “What can we have students use that will transfer beyond their educational life?”
Assistive technology in schools: what the rules require and how teams decide
Assistive technology in schools was the subject of Kindy Segovia’s 2019 interview above. Segovia described a shift away from a one-student, one-solution approach toward tools and strategies that serve more students, and named eye gaze as an example of a technology whose cost came down and whose accuracy improved once it was built into mainstream devices. Behind those practical changes sits a set of federal rules that tell a school team what it must consider and provide for a student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP). This section summarizes them from the text of the regulations.
What counts as an assistive technology device
Under 34 CFR 300.5, as published at the Legal Information Institute, an assistive technology device is any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. Surgically implanted medical devices are excluded. Because off-the-shelf items count, the definition includes a mainstream tablet or laptop with settings, apps or add-ons that help a student. That fits Segovia’s description of looking at the device already in front of a student and asking what can be added to it.
What counts as an assistive technology service
The rule on assistive technology services goes beyond the device. A service is anything that directly assists a child in choosing, obtaining or using a device. It includes evaluating the child’s needs, with a functional assessment in the child’s usual surroundings; buying, leasing or arranging for devices; selecting, designing, fitting, modifying, maintaining, repairing or replacing them; coordinating devices with other therapies and services; training or technical help for the child and, where appropriate, the family; and training or technical help for professionals and others who serve the child. The last two items correspond to the coaching models Segovia mentions, since a tool that staff cannot use or support is unlikely to help the student.
What the IEP team must do
The IEP content rule, 34 CFR 300.324, requires the team to consider whether the child needs assistive technology devices and services. A separate rule, 34 CFR 300.105, requires a public agency to make devices, services or both available when they are required as part of the child’s special education, related services or supplementary aids and services. It also requires that school-purchased devices be allowed in the child’s home or other settings if the IEP team determines the child needs access to them in order to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). A parent who asks about assistive technology at an IEP meeting is therefore asking about something the team is required to consider.
Questions that help a team decide
- What does the student need to do that is hard now, such as communicating, reading, writing or controlling a computer?
- Has the student tried the tool in the real classroom, with real tasks, before it is chosen?
- Who will train the student, the teachers and the family, and who will fix or replace the device?
- Should the device go home, and does the IEP say so?
- Could classmates use the same tool or feature, as Segovia suggests, so that it is supported system-wide?
- Will the tool still work for the student after school, which is the question Segovia names: what can we have students use that will transfer beyond their educational life?
This section does not rate eye gaze or any other particular device. Evidence on what works for a specific child is gathered in the evaluation the rules describe, and the team should ask the evaluator what research or trial results support the recommendation. School leaders can also use the service list as a planning checklist: a district that budgets for devices but not for evaluation, training and repair has covered only part of what the regulation defines.
For more, see edCircuit’s Special Education Guide.
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