Abstract
In early spring 2021, the Presidential Board of ISET put together a draft of a diversity statement capturing our ongoing efforts to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in special education technology. This effort was initiated by an invitation for ISET leadership to participate in an upcoming special issue of Teaching Exceptional Children journal on diversity, equity, and inclusion. This invitation to the special issue inspired us to reflect on ways ISET could increase our field’s efforts around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and to propose a series of action steps. Some of these action steps are relatively easy to execute and their effectiveness can be clearly evaluated. Others are more long-term and ongoing initiatives that will support more inclusive and equitable access to assistive and instructional technology services and devices for all students with disabilities, but especially those from diverse backgrounds.
School demographic data indicates the current population of school aged children is increasingly diverse in race, ethnicity, language, and ability (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). Educators must consider the barriers to accessing instructional and assistive technology faced by our diverse student body and work to combat the many “-isms” (e.g., racism, ableism, linguicism, sexism, classism, etc.) that impact learners. These “-isms’’ contribute to issues of over- and under- representation of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students in special education and cultural mismatch with the curriculum (Dever et al., 2016).
ISET DEI Action Steps
With an overarching goal of weaving DEI initiatives into the fabric of ISET, we are proposing numerous action steps. First, we are embracing our DEI statement as a living document with ongoing development. For the purposes of the TEC article, the DEI statement was developed with input from the ISET presidential board. In order to reflect the beliefs of ISET members, a stakeholder feedback-loop process needs to be implemented. It is our hope to engage the ISET members in providing input to further develop this statement and vote to adopt it as an organization. We intend to request feedback on the draft ISET DEI statement with the hope of incorporating member feedback by the national CEC conference and our ISET business meeting during the conference. Our current draft DEI statement is below. As we get more feedback, we will continue to revise and update the ISET DEI statement. We will endeavor to keep the most updated version published on our division’s website. This document is to be an evolving statement enhanced by feedback from our members and stakeholders: The ISET division of CEC condemns discrimination in all of its forms (e.g., racism, ableism, linguicism, sexism, classism, etc.). We support equity, diversity, and inclusion for all people. ISET recognizes that the relationship between technology and equity and diversity is complex and always evolving. When done well, technology implementation can bring new capabilities to support the full inclusion and abilities of people with disabilities. When implemented without intentionality and inclusion in forefront, technology can be used in ways that exclude and increase division. We believe that our members have a vital role to play in preventing this type of abuse. As an organization, we aim to build awareness of equity and justice issues and to include more voices to our division. We also recognize that we need to continue to reflect, learn, and act in order to break down barriers and prevent new ones from being created. Going forward together, ISET will intentionally weave in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into our identity, organizational structure, and all future projects.
Increasing Diversity of ISET Membership and Leadership
We will strive to increase the diversity of our membership and leadership. In order to achieve this goal, we are considering two action steps: (a) including/providing scholarships to CEC conference and ISET membership for educators from diverse backgrounds, and (b) forming an ad hoc committee to help us conduct focus groups to brainstorm ways in which we can increase the diversity of our membership and leadership. Please follow the ISET social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook for some upcoming announcements on conference scholarships. If you are interested in joining our ad hoc diversity, equity, and inclusion committee or want to become more involved in ISET’s efforts in this area please reach out to ISET leadership. We want to hear from you.
JSET Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In order to recognize important work involving intersectionality ISET is adding an annual diversity article award for the Journal of Special Education Technology. This publication award could either feature a traditional research article in JSET or one of the more practitioner focused Tech in Action articles. We hope that this award will encourage researchers and practitioners to intentionally consider DEI issues in their work on implementation of accessible educational technology for students with disabilities.
JSET Special Issue on DEI
Finally, we plan to publish a special issue of JSET on DEI in special education technology. Drs. Aleksandra Hollingshead and Don McMahon will be guest editors for this special issue of JSET. We hope the readers of JSET will consider submitting their paper proposals for the special issue as well as help us disseminate the call for papers located below.
Journal of Special Education Technology (JSET)
Call for Papers: Special Issue on Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice in Special Education Technology
On behalf of JSET Editors Drs. Joseph Boyle and Michael Kennedy, we cordially invite our colleagues in the field to submit a one-page description of a manuscript that will be considered for publication in a special issue dedicated to diversity, equity, and social justice in special education technology. All manuscripts will adhere to the JSET publication guidelines: https://journals-sagepub-com-s.web.bisu.edu.cn/author-instructions/JST. We anticipate accepting and including 5-6 articles for this special issue.
All manuscripts should be clearly and intentionally focused on issues of diversity, equity, and social justice within the context of special education technology. Preference will be given to manuscripts describing empirical research, but literature reviews, position papers, and technology-in-action pieces will also be considered. The authors will clearly indicate in their one-page submission how their proposed article would address such topics. We anticipate three possible explanations (not mutually exclusive): The authors themselves identify as having a racially, ethnically, culturally, linguistically, or otherwise diverse background- we would love to amplify the voices of diverse scholars! The study participants represent such diverse backgrounds. The study clearly and intentionally addresses issues of equity, diversity, and social justice in special education technology.
All submitted proposals will be reviewed by guest editors, Drs. Hollingshead and McMahon, as well as JSET editors Drs. Boyle and Kennedy. Invitations to submit a full manuscript will follow this preliminary review. Authors are also of course welcome to submit a full manuscript to JSET at any time. If we have more proposals that look good than spots for the special issue, we will encourage authors to submit anyway for a regular issue of JSET. All proposals should be emailed to Drs. Hollingshead (
Please send all questions to Drs. Hollingshead (
We hope all the ISET members will join the ISET board on this journey to engage in a series of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Please use some of our upcoming opportunities to share your ideas and help us develop these efforts. We believe as an organization we should aim to expand our DEI efforts while continuing to provide leadership in the field of special education technology.
