The touch accessible platform for interactive technology, TAP·it®, is enabling students around the world to build independence in the classroom. The dynamic learning tool revolutionizes accessibility and easily integrates with educational assistive software for individuals with special needs.
Quality Assurance Coordinator for the Barber National Institute, Kathy Bastow, comments, “This flexibility makes the TAP·it much more accessible and functional for students with disabilities than wall-mounted [interactive whiteboards]… Since the integration of the TAP·it into their classroom, our students with significant disabilities are attending longer and are motivated to persist at more challenging lessons.”
The special needs population has been positively impacted through increased interaction with TAP·it. Take Louisa, a child with Down’s syndrome from Cincinnati, Ohio who was mostly nonverbal prior to the addition of TAP·it to her classroom. Highly engaged by the technology, Louisa brought tears to her teachers’ eyes when after just a few months with TAP·it, she repeated the words “thank you,” to the screen.
Or consider Brea, a bright and witty 9-year-old with congenital limb deficiencies. She was born without three limbs, and with an extraordinary sense of courage and determination.
Minutes after introducing her to TAP·it, Brea demonstrated how the accessible device could engage students and help them develop new skills. Brea drove her motorized wheelchair directly up to TAP·it. With the touch of a button, her teacher easily adjusted the interactive workstation’s height and tilted the 42” LCD monitor to accommodate her reach, enabling Brea to interact with every portion of the screen. Later, when Brea modeled her new prosthetic legs, the screen was repositioned to just inches from the floor.
TAP·it uses intended touch technology, which means it recognizes the difference between purposeful and accidental interactions with the screen. This allowed Brea to rest her hand on the LCD panel for support while her teacher demonstrated a lesson. Any software that an educator can use on his or her computer can be just as easily used on the touch-sensitive platform.
- The interactive workstation responds to a variety of stylists, like:
- Pointers
- Mouth Sticks
- Head Pointers
- Switches/Scanners
- Balls
On-Screen Keyboards
The touch accessible platform for interactive technology serves a wide range of students’ special needs. It provides multiple modes of learning to fulfill the needs of tactile, visual and auditory learners, as well as those with:
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Down’s Syndrome
- Intellectual Disabilities
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- ADD & ADHD
- Learning Disabilities
- Vision & Hearing Disabilities
- Sensory Processing Disorder
Wheels that spin a full 360° allow a single person to easily move TAP∙it from the classroom to the physical or occupational therapy room. Additional angle adjustment features provide a “game-changing” experience by literally making learning within reach for students with physical and developmental disabilities. The wide base, tilt angles, and height adjustment capabilities make it wheelchair accessible and provide greater access to learners with:
- Cerebral Palsy
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Spinal Cord Injury
By making interactive learning accessible, students of all learning abilities are being exposed to a new world of educational opportunities. TAP·it provides educators multiple ways in which to engage students with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic interaction and supports differentiated instruction.
Browse the video library at http://www.teachsmart.org/tapit/news.html to learn how other students, like Louisa and Brea, are excelling with TAP∙it.
If you are interested in learning more about how to bring TAP·it to your classroom or how to become a distributor for this game changing assistive technology, please contact Michele Setzer, at
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