Assistive Technology Specialist

Job Summary

Assistive Technology Specialists provide specialized expertise in evaluating, selecting, implementing, and supporting assistive technology (AT) for students with disabilities. They help ensure that students can use AT effectively with the educational materials, technologies, tasks, and learning environments required to access and participate in the curriculum. They collaborate with students, families, educators, and others to address barriers and support effective curriculum access.

Job Essential Accessibility Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities related to accessibility.

• Assess students’ assistive technology needs and recommend appropriate options.
• Configure, implement, and support assistive technology for individual students.
• Train students, families, educators, and other relevant personnel in the effective use of assistive technology.
• Monitor how well assistive technology is meeting student needs and recommend adjustments when needed.
• Identify and troubleshoot barriers affecting the use of assistive technology with instructional materials and technologies.
• Collaborate with students, families, educators, related service providers, and technology personnel to support assistive technology use.
• Support students in developing proficiency, independence, agency, and self-advocacy related to assistive technology.
• Document assistive technology assessment, recommendations, implementation, and outcomes.
• Evaluate how AT options interact with the educational materials, technologies, tasks, and learning environments students are expected to use, including accessibility, compatibility, and interoperability considerations.
• Trial, configure, implement, and support AT for effective use with educational materials and technologies, including addressing compatibility and interoperability considerations.
• Train and support students, families, educators, and other relevant personnel in the effective use and implementation of AT with digital educational materials and technologies.
• Monitor whether AT provides effective access to digital educational materials, technologies, and learning activities, using student feedback, observation, and other relevant information.
• Identify and investigate barriers affecting AT use with digital educational materials and technologies, including barriers involving accessibility, compatibility or interoperability, configuration, implementation, and student proficiency.
• Collaborate with students, families, educators, special education personnel, related service providers, educational technology personnel, information technology (IT) personnel, and others to identify and address barriers affecting students’ use of AT with digital educational materials and technologies.

Required Qualifications

Minimum requirements to perform the job:

• Knowledge of digital accessibility and how accessibility barriers in digital educational materials and technologies can affect students who use AT in K–12 educational settings.
• Foundational knowledge of digital accessibility requirements relevant to K–12 education, including ADA Title II, and their relationship to individualized accessibility-related supports under IDEA and Section 504.
• Knowledge of how AT and accessibility features interact with digital educational materials, educational technologies, and learning environments.
• Knowledge of factors affecting compatibility and interoperability between AT and digital educational materials and technologies.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and addressing barriers affecting students’ use of AT with digital educational materials or technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with students, families, educators, related service providers, educational technology personnel, IT personnel, and others to address barriers involving AT and digital learning environments.

Preferred Qualifications

Nice-to-have skills or experience:

• Certification, advanced professional learning, or demonstrated expertise in digital accessibility as it relates to AT and accessible educational materials.
• Experience identifying and addressing interoperability or compatibility issues between AT and digital educational materials and technologies.
• Experience collaborating across assistive technology, educational technology, IT, accessibility, or instructional roles to resolve digital accessibility barriers affecting students who use AT.

Success Signals

In this role, success looks like:

• Considers the accessibility of digital educational materials and technologies when evaluating how effectively AT supports a student’s access to the curriculum.
• Anticipates and identifies compatibility and interoperability barriers between AT and digital instructional materials, technologies, and learning environments.
• Investigates barriers affecting curriculum access by considering the interaction among the student’s AT, digital educational materials and technologies, and instructional tasks.
• Collaborates with educators, educational technology personnel, IT personnel, and others to address digital accessibility barriers affecting students who use AT.
• Uses student experience, observation, and other relevant information to determine whether AT is providing effective access to digital curriculum materials and learning activities.
• Communicates accessibility and compatibility barriers clearly to appropriate personnel and contributes specialized assistive technology expertise to their resolution.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Accessibility Knowledge (WHAT / WHY)

• Understanding of digital accessibility and how accessibility barriers in educational materials and technologies can affect curriculum access for students who use AT.
• Understanding of the distinctions and relationships among proactively accessible digital materials and technology, accessible formats, accommodations, accessibility features, and AT, and how they may work together to support student access.
• Knowledge of factors affecting compatibility and interoperability between AT and digital educational materials and educational technology.
• Understanding that AT does not substitute for the accessibility of digital educational materials and technologies, and that some barriers should be addressed in the curriculum or digital environment rather than through changes to a student’s AT.
• Understanding of the respective roles of AT, special education, educational technology, IT, and other personnel in identifying and addressing barriers affecting curriculum access for students who use AT.

Applied Skills (HOW)

• Skill in evaluating how effectively a student’s AT works with digital educational materials, technologies, and learning activities to support curriculum access.
• Skill in identifying and investigating barriers involving the interaction among AT, digital educational materials and technologies, and instructional tasks.
• Skill in supporting students and educators in the effective use of AT with digital educational materials, platforms, and learning activities.
• Skill in using student feedback, observations, and other relevant information to monitor whether AT provides effective access to digital curriculum materials and learning activities.
• Skill in recognizing when digital accessibility or compatibility barriers require additional technical or specialized expertise.

Collaboration & Communication

• Competence in clearly communicating digital accessibility, compatibility, and interoperability barriers affecting students who use AT and their impact on curriculum access.
• Competence in collaborating with educators, educational technology personnel, IT personnel, and others to investigate and address barriers involving AT and digital educational materials or technologies.
• Competence in eliciting and communicating student feedback about barriers encountered when using AT with digital educational materials, technologies, and learning activities.
• Competence in translating information about AT interactions and barriers into actionable guidance for students, families, educators, technology personnel, and other relevant professionals.

Interview Questions

Behavioral Questions

• Describe a time a student encountered a barrier when using AT with a digital educational material or technology. How did you determine what was causing the barrier? What did you do, and what was the outcome?
• Tell us about a time an apparent problem with a student’s AT turned out to involve the accessibility, compatibility, or interoperability of an educational material or technology. How did you identify and address the problem?
• Describe a time feedback from a student or family helped you identify or better understand an accessibility barrier involving AT and a digital educational material or technology. How did the feedback influence your response?

Technical Questions

• A student who uses AT cannot effectively access a digital instructional resource. How would you determine whether the barrier involves the AT, its configuration or implementation, compatibility or interoperability, the accessibility of the resource, or a combination of factors?
• During an AT evaluation or trial, you discover that a technology being considered for a student does not work reliably with a digital platform the student is required to use. What factors would you consider, and how would you proceed?
• You determine that a student’s difficulty accessing curriculum is caused primarily by inaccessible digital educational material or technology rather than by the student’s AT. What would you do next, and who would you involve?

Learning and Development

To prepare for this role, individuals should:

• Review the NCADEMI Legal Foundations page to strengthen understanding of K–12 requirements related to accessible educational materials.
• Improve understanding of the relationship between AT and accessible formats by reading NCADEMI’s supplement to the U.S. Department of Education’s 2024 AT Guidance, More to the Myths and Facts: Addressing Accessible Educational Materials in the 2024 Assistive Technology Guidance.
• Develop practical skills for creating and evaluating accessible digital content with NCADEMI’s Accessibility Fundamentals course.
• Learn the steps for determining a student’s need for accessible formats by completing the OCALI Assistive Technology Internet Module, Navigating Accessible Educational Materials: Accessible Formats.
• Build hands-on experience with assistive technology, accessibility features, and commonly used educational technologies.
• Develop practical experience in assistive technology assessment, implementation, training, troubleshooting, documentation, and monitoring.
• Learn directly from students with disabilities about their experiences, preferences, and strategies when using assistive technology.

Reminder

Use this toolkit to incorporate accessibility-focused knowledge, skills, and sample pre-screening and interview questions into your job descriptions and hiring process.