ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how use, or non-use, of assistive technology (AT) in everyday school life influences disabled students' opportunities to actively participate in ordinary classroom activities. This investigation draws on two ethnographic studies of disabled students' everyday school life that were conducted in Norwegian primary and secondary mainstream schools. Barriers to an inclusive education, such as the differentiation between students, are attributed to the persistence of a medical model of understanding disability as an individual phenomenon. In the inclusive education debate, social participation is seen as a key issue. The chapter highlights some of the unintentional consequences of everyday socio-material practices that take place in the classroom. For assistive information and communication technology (ICT) to promote disabled students' enhanced participation in ordinary classroom activities, these technologies must work satisfactorily, which requires commitment from several sources as well as close interdisciplinary collaboration.
