Teachers’ use of assistive technology in Saudi special education schools: A mixed-methods enquiry

Teachers' perceived usefulness of assistive technology in Ontario classrooms

“…Bausch and Ault (2012) found that a lack of fiscal resources to purchase AT devices was a significant hindrance reported by almost half of their participants. Their finding was consistent with a later study by Abu-Alghayth (2020), who surveyed 92 special education teachers' use of AT in Saudi Arabia, most teachers either agreed or strongly agreed that funding was the dominant reason that prevented them from using AT. Specifically, they reported using low-tech AT more often than using mid-tech or high-tech AT because of limited financial resources.…”

“…At the same time, less than one-third of the respondents in the study had preservice training in AT (Lamond and Cunningham, 2020). Other studies have also found that professionals are likely to implement AT when they have more experience, especially previous successful experiences with AT (de Joode et al ., 2012; Flanagan et al ., 2013) but have reported that they do not receive enough training in AT (Abu-Alghayth, 2020).…”

“…Given the vast amount of AT devices and tools that can be implemented to assist students with various needs (i.e. up to 20,000 different tools; Davis et al ., 2013), it could be overwhelming for AT users, their families and teachers to keep up to date with the latest AT products (Abu-Alghayth, 2020). Hence, the use of AT may be reduced if not enough personnel resources are provided to meet the mass demand of students with learning disabilities (Holmes and Silvestri, 2012).…”

“…and (2) What variables predict teachers' perceived usefulness of AT? Previous research has demonstrated that teacher training on AT is critical for effective implementation (Abu-Alghayth, 2020; de Joode et al ., 2012; Flanagan et al ., 2013; Mundy et al ., 2012), that teacher knowledge of AT is consistently reported as a barrier to effective implementation (Flanagan et al ., 2013; Lee and Vega, 2005), as is access to AT resources (Lee and Vega, 2005) and administrator support for AT implementation (Morrison, 2007; Raskind et al ., 1999; Reed and Bowser, 2012). Teacher knowledge (Lamond and Cunningham, 2020) and teacher attitudes (Chukwuemeka and Samaila, 2020) are related to greater perceived usefulness of AT, but previous research on the impact of training on perceived usefulness of AT has been mixed (Lamond and Cunningham, 2020; Lee and Vega, 2005).…”

Metaphoric perceptions of special education pre-service teachers regarding assistive technology

“…Technologies used by individuals with special needs are generally referred to as assistive technology (AT) in the literature. AT is an umbrella term that relates to the products, tools, and services used by individuals with special needs (Abu-Alghayth, 2020;Anna, Sharif, Wong & Marriappan, 2014;Chukwuemeka & Samaila, 2020;Coleman, Cramer, Park & Bell, 2015;Dominic, Chukwuemeka & Babatunde, 2020). AT help individuals with special needs overcome the difficulties they may encounter in social life and provide opportunities to use their existing skills and capacities at the highest level (Mordini et al, 2018;Pettersson & Fahlström, 2010).…”