Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Inc.
School of Education
The way in which technologies support students with disability has been widely explored in recent times. Much of this research has focused on computer programs specifically designed to teach social and academic skills to students with disability. In the research reported in this paper we examined how students with disability could use technology designed for the general market. The impetus for the study was the principle of normalisation, which espouses that people with disability should have the opportunity to share in experiences of their same-aged peers. In previous research we demonstrated the benefits of using the commercially available hand-held games console Nintendo DS with Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training program with students in mainstream classrooms. This finding led us to consider how this technology could be used to meet specific academic and social outcomes for students with disability in the same settings. We implemented a small-scale study in an Education Support Centre  as this setting provided us with the opportunity for a detailed examination of how students with disability might use this technology. We found that students with disability can benefit from using the Nintendo DS with Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training program and have identified how they may use this type of technology in inclusive classrooms. © 2016, Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Inc. All rights reserved.
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