Special Ed Teachers “Universally” Excited About New Student Workstations

Tool to help improve the quality of services district provides to students with special needs

July 12, 2011

HISD schools began receiving Universally Designed for Learning (UDL) workstations this month as a part of the district’s efforts to improve the quality of services it provides to students with disabilities.

Almost 600 of the stations are being distributed among 283 campuses, and district educators—who have been training on how to use the workstations for weeks—are excited about the possibilities these new tools will offer their students.

“The software was so stimulating,” said Bonner Elementary School co-teacher Callie Smith Pettway. “It was so interactive and it was engaging and it was user-friendly. The students are going to love it.”

“I found it very interesting that it allows my orthopedically impaired students an easier way to join into the writing process,” added Yates High School Life Skills Teacher Valarie Moore.

The new UDL work stations will help the district meet two of the recommendations made by Dr. Tom Hehir earlier this year on how to better serve the district’s more than 16,000 students with special needs.