As greater emphasis is placed on the inclusion of all students in the learning process, assistive technology is seen as a vital part of this mission.  The ability of assistive technology to help ensure that all students are a part of the learning process is vital.  Prior to assistive technology, specific students were denied voice in the realm of modern education.  Educators and parents were challenged in attempting to include their experience in modern education.  This relegation of voice was stopped with the advent of assistive technology.  In this, its significance to the context of modern education is huge.  Considering this, one can see how vital it is to the modern setting of education:

Assistive technology increases a student’s opportunities for education, social interactions, and potential for meaningful employment. It also supports a student’s participation in learning experiences in the least restrictive environment. Assistive technology is a tool to help the student benefit from the general education curriculum, and access extracurricular activities in home, school, and work environments.

Assistive technololgy is the logical outreach of ensuring that no child can be left behind due to physical condition or cerebral state of being.  For example, technologies such as type to speak which allows individual thoughts to be transcribed in written form or technologies that assist with mobility in the classroom setting are now seen as tools that can be used to increase student voice in the learning process.  It is here where I think that assistive technology exerts its greatest amount of significance in the modern educational setting.