Last month, ADI’s special education school in Gedera transformed its robotics class into an art program that makes painting accessible to its students with severe complex disabilities.  After spending several months teaching the students how to control spherical robots with iPads, the special education teachers helped the students take the next developmental and creative leap to using the robots as brushes on a canvas.  The spheres are dipped in washable paint and placed on the canvas.  The students then use the iPad to control the spheres, creating lines, shapes and beautiful designs with every continuous finger stroke on the touch screen.

ADI has always been among the pioneers in the use of advanced technology for the education and rehabilitation of the disability community, but this new program has taken ADI’s technology program to the next level by creating an innovative workshop that can be used in many different educational and rehabilitative settings to help children with varied abilities expand their motor, social, communication and learning skills. Over the coming months, the ADI staff and students will present the program to specialist in the fields of special education and rehabilitative treatment to promote its use in special education workshops around the country.