The use of assistive technology, and the focus on it, has greatly increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. As more and more students were forced into virtual learning environments, away from the immediate support of the teacher; students, families and institutions were forced into finding accommodations for the students to access the curriculum. The assistive technology industry continues to evolve with the times and support students with all types of learning challenges with innovations to existing technologies and the addition of new ones, and now is no exception. The changing of our learning environments means that they are far less restrictive to students, those with Individual Education Plans, special needs and/or learning disabilities (Aronson et al., 2015) which means an increased need for tools to support all learners. The World Health Organization has endeavored to create equitable access to AT for all students worldwide with the recognition that disabled or neurodivergent people are almost twice as likely to be unemployed which further exemplifies the need for these technologies.

Early intervention in literacy plays a crucial part in the lifelong achievement of students in all areas of life (Marsh et al., 2021). To build upon cross-curricular learning, or have the opportunity for high-achievement, students need the opportunity to engage in literacy meaningfully and seek interventions when necessary (Marsh et al., 2021), and without these opportunities these students continue to lag behind their peers and never develop sufficient skills to fully participate in school activities (Nordstrom et al., 2019). Assistive Technology programs or supports serve two purposes according to Nordstrom et al. (2019); to act as a stimulus and to aid in reading and writing while offering students a needed alternative to accessing texts. As such the use of AT in the literacy classroom, which really bleeds across all subject matter, has been shown to be a strong intervention in limiting the gap some students experience in the classroom (Hetrezoni & Schrieber, 2004).

In recent years, the pedagogy of numeracy has changed and moved away from rote, transactional learning to more problem-based learning and as a result students are starting to explore numbers in a more hands on, interactive way. Enter Assistive Technology. Tools that are specifically created to allow students to explore math in realistic, transformative ways that helps them see, hear, and feel math, giving them the opportunity to manipulate their own thinking as they interact with math via the tools at their disposal. Tools such as digital games, tablets, RekenTest (RT) software, digital learning assistants, braille and more are all concepts that can be explored and utilized in the math classroom (Reddy et al., 2021). According to Daroni and Legowo (2018) in order to be successful, students need to have problem solving and communication skills and the ability to make connections in math. As such students need access to tools that allow them to showcase their ideas, questions, and connections.