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It has become increasingly apparent that one's perception of issues depends largely on his or her personal history. Human beings, professionals, and stakeholders vary in their perspectives, strategies, and solutions. Rather than arbitrarily selecting issues or seeking consensus among interdisciplinary but disparate groups, it is critical to examine the broader array of values and issues that impact learners with exceptionalities and the future of special education. In addition, it is important to conceptualize effective techniques to reverse traditional problems or difficulties while considering the “cycles” of change in general and special education. These cycles are based on the view that educational perspectives have their time since they come and go. When they are innovative, they become the status quo and become finally obsolete as the next group of methods, beliefs, and educational initiatives takes hold. In special education, we have fundamental values that must be respected and followed to deliver services to learners with exceptionalities. These values are sometimes not valued by ill prepared and unprepared professionals, especially since good professionals believe in change. This chapter focuses on how these values can be respected to protect and advance special education and education as a whole.

The twentieth century is sometimes characterized as a technological era; and most people find this description easy to accept because they have seen a dramatic proliferation of technological goods and services that are readily available in all societies. In fact, life for most people throughout the world has changed mostly because of the rapid pace of technological advances. For example, medical technology has vastly improved the health of much of the world's populations; and modern communication technologies have made the world more accessible, thus helping diverse learners with disabilities to enjoy the benefits of the twenty-first century life. The challenge now is how to improve the educational opportunities offered to individuals who have highly variable abilities. One promising way to relieve this pressure is the use of educational and assistive technologies to provide appropriate support that is differentiated based on learner needs. In this chapter, we discuss the use of technology to enhance special education. Embedded in our discussions are future perspectives on dealing with roadblocks that face general and special educators using technology in learning processes.