Emilia Śmiechowska-Petrovskij
Niepełnosprawność, Nr 21 (2016), 2016, s. 106-120
Communication and information assistive technology competencies for teachers of blind and visually impaired students
This article considers the issue of the assistive technology competencies for teachers of blind and visually impaired students. It is an important factor to provide effective services to students with visual impairments. Results of international studies show that teachers have significant deficits in knowledge and skills in many assistive technology competencies and have lacked adequate confidence about teaching assistive technology to students. In Poland there are no studies, which refer this situation. That is why there is presented an inventory of 111 assistive technology competencies developed by Smith, Kelley, Maushak, Griffin-Shirley and Lan (2009) and its shorter version, of 74 competencies, modified by Zhou, Parker, Smith and Griffen-Shirley (2011), which shows, what competencies should teachers of students with visual impairments have on completion of a training program. It can be a basis for modification and adaptation to Polish future studies on this area.