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Through access to assistive technology, adult students with learning disabilities can improve their literacy skills and goal attainment as a supplement to regular adult basic education classes. This article describes a project that investigated whether increased engagement with text‐to‐speech and speech‐recognition software could improve participants' foundational literacy skills. Data were gathered through careful observations as well as reflective dialogue with the learners. Three layers are explored: • The underlying framework of dialogic research • Thematic analysis of students' interactions with the equipment • Thematic analysis of the role of the coach Through a series of snapshots of students' approaches to literacy learning with assistive technology and a cross‐case analysis, possibilities and complexities are revealed in the intersection of literacy and technology.

Silver-Pacuilla and Associates discuss the needs of women literacy learners with disabilities in a large adult education program in the Southwest of the US in an attempt to address their educational goals. Among other things, the group created a set of recommendations and declarations that both contextualize and counter existing literacy and adult-learning theories and highlight the multiplicity of meanings attached to literacy and learning.

The four articles in this special issue focus on developmental education students and the research needed for an enhanced understanding of the instructional and institutional approaches that promote their success. This introduction summarizes the purpose and key findings of each article, noting implications for future research and practice.

The four articles in this special issue focus on developmental education students and the research needed for an enhanced understanding of the instructional and institutional approaches that promote their success. This introduction summarizes the purpose and key findings of each article, noting implications for future research and practice.

[...] a glimmer of change is offered by the authors as they reflect on the potential application of widespread consumer electronics: \"These common devices provide students with and without disabilities access to educational, organizational, social, and recreational opportunities, presented in a 'socially-acceptable' and nonstigmatizing manner.\" In conclusion, to move our field to a tipping point that involves effective implementation of assistive and learning technologies, we must coordinate our research efforts to provide evidence on what works for whom, where, and when; foster the implementation of innovative uses of technology; and train a new generation of practitioners and leaders to understand the potential of technology to improve the system and outcomes for all students.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how existing market research in the assistive technology (AT) field can be leveraged to create new solutions and to help those solutions reach wider markets. To do so, we discuss market research projects, focusing on seminal activities that have occurred in the assistive and learning technology field; present a collaborative market research activity involving the National Center for Technology Innovation and AbleNet®, Inc.; and offer suggestions for how an organization with little or no experience with market research can initiate such activities. As demonstrated in this article, findings deriving from market research activities can be used to benefit individual corporations responsible for conducting market research as well as the broader AT community.

This article presents findings from a December, 2005, national assistive technology (AT) Outcomes Summit attended by AT experts representing vendors, higher education, government, and public schools. Discussions conducted centered around three questions: (a) What are the current challenges with the use of technology and AT in assessment of educational outcomes? (b) How do these challenges affect the assessment of writing, reading, math, and other content areas? and (c) What is needed to measure the impact of AT on educational progress? Four overriding themes emerging from these discussions were identified, including (a) assessment, (b) evidence-based research in AT effectiveness, (c) professional preparation, and (d) technology generalization. Specific issues within each of these broad themes are discussed and supported by comments from participants. Outcomes and benefits are presented in the context of 'next steps' for the AT discipline.

Adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) is a unique social and educational site, a borderland where marginalized youth and adults can be found. This project sought the voices and stories of women literacy learners with disabilities. The project had a dual purpose of creating practical products and conducting research. The project sought to create knowledge for program improvement and produce two products, a list of recommendations to the field and a brochure of advice to new women literacy learners (both included). The research explored the social categories of gender, literacy, and disability to contextualize existing theories with the lived experiences of low-income women with disabilities. The project was grounded in critical and feminist standpoint epistemologies that were actualized through a dialogic, participatory action research design. The data collection and management technique of the Unfolding Matrix (Padilla, 1993) was adapted to an Unfolding Venn diagram with three interlocking circles labeled Women, Literacy, and Disability. Fifteen women participated in the year-long series of monthly focus dialogues. The participants ranged in age from 20 to over 60 years old, represented a range of disability and impairment experiences, various lengths of involvement in the adult education program, and a range of ethnicities and geographic areas of childhood. The structure of the dissertation follows the design of dialogic research conducted with the technique of the adapted Unfolding Matrix. Three levels of data were analyzed: contributions to the diagram, four key discussions, and focus dialogue transcripts. Specific findings are presented as chapters in Part II: Finding Ourselves in Contradictions, Part III: Hinged Themes and Dreams, and Part IV: The Way Forward. Findings indicate the critical need for adult education and literacy programs to recognize women’s unique learning needs and to engage women in dialogue so that those needs can be discovered and articulated. Access to literacy and the power of literacy includes instruction and support sensitive to individual needs. Disability issues need to be openly addressed with an attitude of critique and advocacy that can empower learners and the field to move forward on eligibility and service structures.