Substantial Research Lacking Regarding ICT and Special Needs Students

Using ICT with People with Special Educational Needs: What the Literature Tells Us by Peter Williams, Hamid R. Jamali and David Nicholas

This British paper reviews previous studies related to ICT use of people with special educational needs. It is divided into sections focusing on various aspects of ICT and SEN, including perceived benefits, specific applications/programs, ICT for specific conditions and usability.

Discussing studies and technologies in each area, the authors conclude that while the possibilities of ICT in educating those with special needs have been recognised for several years and a wide range of technologies created for both educational and more general purposes, a surprisingly small number of studies have been conducted. The studies that have been undertaken focus mainly on those with vision and other physical impairments.

This review was conducted to advise Project @PPLe: Accessibility and Participation in the World Wide Web for People with Learning Disabilities, a project run throughout 2004 and 2005. The project focused on discovering the ways in which people with learning difficulties access and utilize ICTs, developing recommendations and guidelines for effective ways in which to deliver multimedia to people with learning impairments and developing a multimedia learning environment accessible to learners and able to meet their individual needs. The above link describes the project and its outcomes in detail.

The lack of substantive research in the area of ICT and special needs education is something that I have come up against in my research. This paper was written 4 years ago, but it seems that since that time there has not been an especially increased emphasis on these issues. This is bewildering to me as the ICT programs and initiatives for learners with special needs are many and exciting.


Williams, P., Jamali, H., Nicholas, d. (2006) Using ICT with People with Special Educational Needs: What the Literature Tells Us. Aslib Proceedings, 58(4), 330-342. doi: 10.1108/00012530610687704