The Ontario Ministry of Education offers a Specialized Equipment Grant for students in elementary and secondary schools. This grant provides computers and AT software to students.

The Assistive Technology Training and Volunteer Program is a collaborative project involving the four school boards in Ottawa. The aim is to support student learning and achievement by providing practical and cost-effective training and support to students as well as school staff. The overarching objectives are:

• enhance academic success for students using computer-based assistive technology to complete their school work, and
• increase the awareness, knowledge, confidence and use of assistive technology among students, parents/guardians and school staff through the innovative use of Web2.0 tools and online video.

The OCRI Volunteers in Education (VIE) program, in partnership with LearniT-TeachiT, OCSB, OCDSB, CECLFCE, CEPEO, and the Learning Disabilities Association of Ottawa-Carleton, are creating an online environment to host e-learning content that will better enable the use of computer-based AT. The content will be created in both French and English and designed for the use of students, teachers, parents/guardians, volunteers, and communty members.

The core training material will consist of a suite of online videos containing in-depth knowledge of AT subject matter experts . These videos will demonstrate how to apply AT technologies in an educational context, using actual curriculum as the focus. A Web2.0 social environment will also be used to support peer-to-peer communication including a means for teachers to create and contribute lesson plans. The videos, resources and workshop modules will be hosted on the LearniT TeachiT website, uTube, Teacher Tube, and have links on many websites. Technically anyone with internet access will be able to view the videos.

Volunteer-led workshops will introduce students to the training material after which ongoing training will take place independently in a self-paced manner using the online videos and the social networking environment. The training will provide a resource for the students, parents and teachers to return to and review or augment their knowledge.

To become an Assistive Technology Support Volunteer please refer to the VIE – Become a Volunteer page.