Americans with Disabilities Act Most educators are familiar with the Americans with Disabilites Act (ADA) and have been involved in efforts of schools to improve accessibility. Wheelchair ramps and large-print books are commonplace in all schools. As schools increasingly depend on technology for teaching and learning, they must also be aware that the ADA pertains to new technologies, including Web pages and digital resources. A list of some adaptive technologies that support students with disabilities was presented in the Access lesson. These include speech synthesizers, larger monitors, touch screens, scanners with scan-reading software, voice recognition systems, speech output devices, keyboards of various sizes, trackballs, joysticks, and Morse Code sip and puff switches. In addition, schools must keep these special populations in mind when developing Web-based communications and distance-based education. Persons with visual difficulties may utilize screen readers to surf the Web. These Web browsers rely on HTML tags that are easy to include but often neglected in the creation of Web pages. Distance-based courses that include video and audio elements should also include transcriptions to these. The Legislation Cynthia Waddell succinctly describes ADA Accessibility Requirements as they relate to schools in terms of Web design and access to technology in a short paper called Applying the ADA to the Internet: A Web Accessibility Standard. In this paper, she notes that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), United States Department of Education points out that the courts have not supported public entities that only respond to ADA requests ad hoc or that purchase technology or develop technology-supported programs that do not meet these requirements when technology that removes accessibility barriers was readily available. You may also view highlights of the legislation as they pertain to educational technology use in schools.