Participants of the included studies reported mixed perspectives on assistive technology (AT) to aid in their academics. Some students reported positive feedback and were consistent users of AT. Other students reported negative emotions towards AT related to technical issues and feeling socially stigmatized for their use of AT. Asynchronous online course components were noted to be useful because students were able to work at their own pace. These reports suggested that AT may be beneficial when systems are customized to the student's needs.
The included quantitative studies demonstrated a large positive effect (g) for word processing-based assistive technology on writing error rates (g = 1.626). Results indicated that text-to-speech and smart pens had small effect sizes (g = 0.445 and g = 0.449, respectively) on reading comprehension outcomes. Studies indicated speech-to-text and multimedia interventions to have large positive effects, but due to heterogeneity of intervention protocols and outcomes, authors were unable to perform a meta-analysis on these interventions.
