Software Development in Special Education

Abstract

Over the last ten years, special educators have developed a variety of software programs which attempt to address the unique needs of mildly handicapped students. Much of this work has been funded by the Division of Innovation and Development in the Office of Special Education Programs. This article examines software development techniques used by many of these special educators through the perspective of the software lifecycle. This perspective, which is used intimately by professional software developers, is rarely discussed in the special education technology literature. With rapid advancements in computers, particularly the graphical user interface, the authors argue that traditional programming techniques are becoming less and less viable for software development within the typical funding levels and timelines of federal initiatives. Instead, a trend toward the use of commercial software tools is viewed as inevitable, given these constraints. The article concludes with a brief description of two recently completed, technology-based assessment programs.