The QIAT Leadership Team: Gayl Bowser, Diana Foster Carl, Kelly S. Fonner, Terry Vernon Foss, Jane Edgar Korsten, Kathleen M. Lalk, Joan Breslin Larson, Scott Marfilius, Susan R. McCloskey, Penny R. Reed, Joy Smiley Zabala
Due to popular demand, the authors of the Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology: A Comprehensive Guide to Assistive Technology Services now offer this practical companion to the original book, which will help students, families, school professionals, and communities work together to meet the educational needs of every student.
The original Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology, or QIAT, were developed by a team of experienced leaders in the field of assistive technology (AT) in education over nearly two decades. Drawing on contributions and feedback from thousands of educators and families, the Indicators offer extensive support for the development and implementation of AT services, including research-based information, resources, and scenarios. They collectively support AT decision-making and actions at all points of AT service delivery and ensure that they
The indicators, intent statements, and supporting materials for each area are used as guideposts for developing and sustaining effective, efficient, and ethical AT services across the country and internationally.
The QIAT Leadership Team is a group of individuals who since 1998 have explored and disseminated ways to improve the implementation of assistive technology. Team members come from many different professional training backgrounds and most have family members with disabilities. They donate their time and expertise to improve and further the implementation of the Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology.
Gayl Bowser is an independent consultant and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Wyoming. Her work focuses on the creation of service systems that encourage the integration of technology into educational programs for students with disabilities.
Diana Foster Carl is a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology in Texas. She has more than 35 years of experience in various capacities in public education, including leadership roles in national, state, and regional organizations.
Terry Vernon Foss is a special educator with more than 35 years in classrooms for students with autism and with severe and profound disabilities including speech, intellectual, and motor impairments. She is a coauthor of Every Move Counts and Every Move Counts Clicks and Chats.
Kelly Fonner has been a teacher, para-educator, instructional media specialist, and assistive technology specialist since 1986. Currently a consultant, Kelly has worked for a statewide AT project and has been a university instructor in AT.
Jane Edgar Korsten works as an independent consultant, a speech pathologist, and AT resource for individuals of all ages. She has worked in public schools and supported settings for adults' development of Every Move Counts, a sensory-based approach to communication.
Kathleen M. Lalk is an assistive technology (AT) specialist in St. Louis County, Missouri. Her work includes support of students with disabilities, their families, and their educational team in the consideration, implementation, and evaluation of AT.
Joan Breslin Larson is the supervisor for low incidence disabilities and the special education workforce at the Minnesota Department of Education. She is also a consultant to other state organizations and schools on systems issues in AT.
Susan R. McCloskey is a speech-language pathologist and chairperson of the Volusia Adaptive Assistive Technology Team (VAATT) in Daytona Beach, FL. Susan has consulted nationwide with teams whose focus has been to integrate assistive technology into the classroom.
Penny R. Reed has been a teacher, consultant, and administrator in the field of special education and assistive technology. She founded and directed the Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative, a statewide technical assistance project. Dr. Reed is the author of numerous publications about assistive technology.
Joy Smiley Zabala (1946-2021) was Co-Director of National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning based at CAST. She was an experienced general and special educator and the developer of the SETT Framework, a four-part model intended to promote collaborative decision-making in all phases of assistive technology service design and delivery.
When Stone reached the fairground, having been misdirected twice, he thought it looked more like a gigantic amusement arcade. A couple of paper cups tumbled and rattled on the shore beneath the promenade, and the cold insinuating October wind scooped the Mersey across the slabs of red rock that formed the beach, across the broken bottles and abandoned tyres. Beneath the stubby white mock turrets of the long fairground faade, shops displayed souvenirs and fish and chips. Among them, in the fairground entrances, scraps of paper whirled.
He shrugged vaguely and turned to leave. Perhaps he could drive to the fairground at Southport, though it was a good few miles across the Mersey. His holiday was dwindling rapidly. He wondered how they were managing at the tax office in his absence. Slower than usual, no doubt.
The moon had risen. It glided along the rooftops as Stone emerged from the back of the funfair and hurried along the terraced street. Its light lingered on the tips of chimneys and the peaks of roofs. Inside the houses, above slivers of earth or stone that passed for front gardens, Stone saw faces silvered by television.
Anxiety hurried him onwards while he wondered if he should turn back. His car was on the promenade; he could reach it in five minutes. They must be the boys he had seen in the pinball arcade, out for revenge. Quite possibly they had knives or broken bottles; no doubt they knew how to use them from the television. His heels clacked in the silence. Dark exits from the alley gaped between the houses. He tried to set his feet down gently as he ran. The boys were making no sound at all, at least none that reached him. If they managed to overbalance him they could smash his bones while he struggled to rise. At his age that could be worse than dangerous. Another exit lurked between the houses, which looked threatening in their weight and impassivity. He must stay on his feet whatever happened. If the boys got hold of his arms he could only shout for help. The houses fell back as the street curved, their opposite numbers loomed closer. In front of him, beyond a wall of corrugated tin, lay the old fairground.
He halted panting, trying to quell his breath before it blotted out any sounds in the alley. Where he had hoped to find a well-lit road to the promenade, both sides of the street ended as if lopped, and the way was blocked by the wall of tin. In the middle, however, the tin had been prised back like a lid, and a jagged entrance yawned among the sharp shadows and moonlit inscriptions. The fairground was closed and deserted.
As he realised that the last exit was back beyond the curve of the street, Stone stepped through the gap in the tin. He stared down the street, which was empty but for scattered fragments of brick and glass. It occurred to him that they might not have been the same boys after all. He pulled the tin to, behind him, and looked around.
The circular booths, the long target galleries, the low roller coaster, the ark and the crazy house draped shadow over each other and merged with the dimness of the paths between. Even the merry-go-round was hooded by darkness hanging from its canopy. Such wood as he could see in the moonlight looked ragged, the paint patchy. But between the silent machines and stalls one ride was faintly illuminated: the Ghost Train.
Nothing happened. Nobody was attending the ride. Stone strained his ears. Neither the boys, if they were there, nor the attendant seemed to be approaching. If he called out the boys would hear him. Instead, frustrated and furious, he began to kick the metal inside the nose of the car.
Before he could pursue this, he saw a greyish glow ahead of him. He felt an unreasoning hope that it would be a window, which might give him an idea of the extent of the darkness. But already he could see that its shape was too irregular. A little closer and he could make it out. It was a large stuffed grey rabbit with huge glass or plastic eyes, squatting upright in an alcove with its front paws extended before it. Not a dead rabbit, of course: a toy. Beneath him the car was clattering and shaking, yet he had the odd notion that this was a deliberate effect, that in fact the car had halted and the rabbit was approaching or growing. Rubbish, he thought. It was a pretty feeble ghost, anyway. Childish. His hands pulled at splinters on the wooden seat beneath him. The rabbit rushed towards him as the track descended a slight slope. One of its eyes was loose, and whitish stuffing hung down its cheek from the hole. The rabbit was at least four feet tall. As the car almost collided with it before whipping away around a curve, the rabbit toppled towards him and the light that illuminated it went out.
Having spent its energy on the curves, the car was slowing. Stone peered ahead, trying to anticipate. Obviously he was meant to relax before the car startled him with a sudden jerk. As he peered, he found his eyes were adjusting to the darkness. At least he could make out a few feet ahead, at the side of the track, a squat and bulky grey shape. He squinted as the car coasted towards it. It was a large armchair.
He had one hand on the side of the car when he realised that if the car moved off while he was out of it he would be left to grope his way through the darkness. He slumped back, and as he did so he glimpsed a violent movement among the clothes near the seat of the chair. He glanced towards it. Before his eyes could focus, the dim grey light was extinguished.
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