Leading the Way to Excellence in AT Services: A Guide for School Administrators

Leading the Way to Excellence in AT Services is designed to help administrators identify critical issues and specific actions that will influence the provision of excellent assistive technology (AT) devices and services. AT experts Gayl Bowser and Penny R. Reed examine four aspects of school administration--leadership, program management, supervision, and advocacy and program improvement--and their relationship to AT. The result is an authoritative and useful guide that explains the legal, ethical, and practical reasons for providing high-quality AT to every student who needs it. In this highly practical book, readers learn to: identify ways to support educational programs that encourage and sustain students' and educators' use of AT; create and share a vision of their agency's approach to providing AT devices and services; manage material resources, allocation of personnel, time, and physical resources in a way that helps to provide an efficient, ethical, and cost-effective AT system; support educators in learning and applying pedagogical strategies for integrating the use of AT into the educational programs of students with disabilities; and regularly assess AT services and identify strategies to improve the current model. The authors showcase a number of resources, self-assessment tools, and specific strategies to help administrators and schools deliver assistive technology services that are academically effective and also cost effective.