If you truly want to remove barriers to learning one way is to get students with different challenges using technology. Some of the best technology in the last 30 years failed before it succeeded. Later on, the same technology got re-marketed and sold for a ton of money. Apple did not invent the tablet and the MP3 player, but they were able to make outstanding products that people wanted to buy. It takes time for people to catch on to the value of new technology. This is even truer with teenagers and assistive technology. When teachers want to give big clunky devices to teens, it is not hard to believe that the student will not feel comfortable with it. Children don’t want to be different. The idea of universal design for learning is eliminating barriers to learning. This might mean using technology with an entire class or including a student that learns in a different way. The technology exists to solve many of the challenges that students face. One of the biggest barriers to learning is students not being willing to try new ways of learning or technology. For instance, Google Documents has a speech to text feature that comes with it. It is under tools and called voice typing. You don’t need to have a disability to benefit from it. Your smartphone has word prediction. That concept is from assistive technology. I don’t know anyone refusing to use it because they would rather type the whole word. Now everyday people are talking to their smartphones or using speech to text. That concept originated from assistive technology. No one seems embarrassed by hands-free texting that is faster. If a child with a disability sees a peer using technology, then there is hope you can get them to use it as well. The idea is that people can do the same work in different ways. It is for everyone. Using an iPad is cool, and a big clunky assistive technology device is not. How you market the technology to students is everything. Getting people to do something that is important is a function of leadership.