Ruth: My journey began in high school. I worked at a standalone pediatric therapy clinic for children with mild-to-moderate disabilities running the computer lab. Through this experience I began to understand that the component parts of functional skills directly effected education. I began researching how to leverage technology to assist students with special needs in the late 80's. Using technology techniques that benefit all students has been a passion of mine ever since. As a reading specialist in a private school where parents of children with special needs did not have students identified, I learned to use technology in non-standard ways. In my private practice, I taught students to rely on technology to provide the support they didn't get in class. When I transitioned to being a technology coach, I sought out the teachers of students with special needs in order to share the information that I had learned over the years.

Karen: My journey commenced when I was 4 years old. My father took a position at a private boarding school in Western Massachusetts that served boys ages 9-16 with dyslexia or other language-related learning disabilities - and so began my first-hand odyssey to understanding that differences and limitations do not mean a child lacks intelligence or motivation. Many of us are just wired differently. I saw children receive instruction in unique and loving ways. On the flip side, I experienced a different philosophy of instruction/classroom management in early elementary. I spent a lot of time with my nose in a chalk circle on the far left side of the board. I guess that and being sent to bang out erasers with the custodian was supposed to wear the fidgeting out of me. I was fortunate that my father received a fellowship to Michigan State University and spent the remainder of my elementary years in a university-sponsored laboratory school. I had found a wonderful, embracing learning environment whose strategies have stuck with me all these years. Fast forward many years, many career pivots, and many workshops on dealing with my attention issues; I end up as the Instructional Technology and Media Services Supervisor in an economically challenged urban School division. There Ruth and I began to use our own experiences to help solve challenges for the Student Services Department (Special Education, School Psychologists, and Social Workers).