Serving Students with Disabilities who are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse in Rural Communities: Technology Access is Essential

Before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the educational landscape, students with disabilities, especially those who are culturally and linguistically diverse, and their special education teachers who worked and attended schools located in rural communities faced barriers most schools and communities experienced nationwide. As schools shifted to remote virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rural schools were already at a disadvantage with the lack of resources with technology access. The call for addressing shortcomings in the various digital technology supports towards enhancing the teachers’ delivery of content and the students’ academic outcomes has been a continual challenge to address. This paper explores how students with disabilities who are culturally and linguistically diverse, living in rural communities are affected by their technology access, along with examining how this intersects with college and career pathways, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) degrees and interests. This paper concludes with reminders and recommendations for researchers and schools to include in their technology access work and research the utilization of virtual-reality (VR), augmentedreality (AR), and video games.