When 10 year old Danny, a 5th grade student entered Ms. Jonah's Physical Education (PE) class, she became an advocate for "assistive technology" in providing inclusion for Danny and other students with disabilities in her PE classes.
When 10 year old Danny entered Ms. Jonah’s Physical Education (PE) class with his fifth grade class, she wasn’t sure how she would adapt her PE curriculum to meet his disability needs. Danny had a malformed spinal curvature that prevented him from engaging in 99% of the PE activities. Danny sat day after day watching his classmates run around the gym engaging in normal pre-teen behavior that included being a part of volleyball, touch football, dodge ball, running exercises and a host of other activities that kept the entire class busy for 52 minutes of Physical Education.
After a week of watching Danny and Danny watching her and his classmates have fun in PE, Ms. Jonah’s met with Danny’s Case Manager and IEP team that included his Physical Therapist, Ms. Miller. Ms. Jonah’s expressed that it was cruel to allow Danny to attend her PE class if the expectation was that he was there simply to watch. His Case Manager reiterated that his IEP included a legal caveat that Danny must have access to the least restrictive learning environment even though his disability precluded real inclusion. The team left the meeting at an impasse.
Danny’s case just like many real life experiences of students with disabilities would have become status quo if not for the work of Ms. Jonah who did some Internet research to find participatory inclusion for Danny and students like him in Physical Education classes all over the world. When she looked up “assistive technology,” on the Internet, she found a plethora of resources for Danny and other students with disabilities that presented barriers for real inclusion in mainstream classes. At one website http://www.eSpecialNeeds.com/, “eSpecial Needs,” a provider of therapeutic equipment for students with special needs, she found a tricycle that was perfect in meeting Danny’s mobility needs around the gym and around the school community.
Using resources from the District’s Special Education Technology Grant, Ms. Miller and Danny’s IEP team were able to present Danny with the “ProSeries 1412 AmTryke Tricycle, http://www/eSpecialNeeds.com/ a therapeutic bicycle that came complete with backrest and safety belt. With a basket included for school supplies, Danny was able to ride his AmTryke Tricycle to his mainstream classes and use it in participating in group activities with his classmates in PE. Danny was no longer watching from the sidelines. He was one tricycle closer to full inclusion in his fifth grade educational journey.