Eric.ed.gov – EASI Street to Science and Math for K-12 Students.

This paper discusses the poor preparation of children with disabilities in math and science fields, and the perception that students with disabilities are not capable of doing work in science and math, which is often reinforced by teachers and parents. It is argued that the low expectations and waived requirements for children with disabilities are preventing children with disabilities from gaining a solid foundation in math and science. The need for children with disabilities to be trained on adaptive technology to enable them to meet basic math and science requirements in college is addressed, as well as methods for making elementary and secondary math and science text books accessible to students with disabilities. Methods include having a staff member or teacher act as a reader, providing brailled materials, audio recordings of text books, and digital audio, which combines standard electronic texts with digitized recording of a human reader. Mainstreaming students with disabilities and advocating for appropriate services are also briefly discussed. (CR)