Better Education Opportunities for Students with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities Through Digital Technology

The provision of new opportunities to maximize learning is a fundamental right for all students. This paper explores the role of digital technology in the provision of educational opportunities for secondary age students who have been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. We describe a learning environment in which a range of technologies have been introduced to enable students' access to the national curriculum, and acquire skills that improve their ability to navigate the world outside the classroom. Through a qualitative study, we describe promising experiences of emerging technologies used to assist learning at the Inclusive Education Centre of a public secondary school located in regional South Australia. Our results suggest that emerging technologies can provide guidance to groups of students, encourage them to express their ideas, motivate physical activity, and improve general social interaction skills. In particular, we explore the impact, limitations and future opportunities of immersive virtual reality and social robots.