Kara Peters Endowed Chair
In Special Education Assistive Technology
Illinois State University

Illinois State University has a strong history of teacher preparation and advanced study in special education. In 2001 the Special Education Assistive Technology Center (SEAT) at Illinois State University was created. The center focuses on teaching preservice and practicing professionals necessary skills to meet the technology needs of people with disabilities, dissemination of information about how technologies can help people with disabilities, research regarding applications of instructional and assistive technologies and technical assistance to schools and agencies that support people with disabilities.

Announcing Professor Phil Parette
Kara Peters Endowed Chair

Professor Phil Parette is the former Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. He received his Ed.D. in special education (multidisabilities) from the University of Alabama, and his M.E. in Special Education (learning disabilities) and B.S.E. in elementary/special education from the University of Arkansas.

Professor Parette has focused his scholarly efforts in the area of assistive technology since 1998 at which time he was Director for a state cross-disciplinary technology planning initiative that culminated in the first assistive technology curricula in the U.S., along with one of the first nine funded state grants under P.L. 100-407, the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988..

Dr. Parette published numerous books, monographs, chapters and articles and has made over 100 presentations in scholarly venues. He has published extensively regarding children with special needs, with emphasis on assistive technology applications for children with disabilities and their families. In recent years, he has focused particular attention on cross-cultural applications of assistive technology. He has developed an interactive, bi-lingual CD-ROM that can be used with families across cultures, teachers, and related service personnel during augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) decision-making. This CD has received international recognition, having won six major film awards from groups including the International Association of Audio Visual Communicators, International Communications Film and Video Competition, International Association of Business Communicators, and the National Council on Family Relations.

Professor Parette routinely reviews textbooks for publishers and has served as a special editor or reviewer for several journals, including the Journal of Special Education Technology, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Education and Training in Mental Retardation, Teaching Exceptional Children, and the Capstone Journal of Education. Professor Parette is an active member of the Council for Exceptional Children, Division on Developmental Disabilities, and has been involved with numerous other professional organizations over time, including the American Association on Mental Retardation, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education, RESNA, and the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, and Council of Graduate Schools. He has taught at Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and has been a Research Associate in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He has also served as the Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator for the Arkansas Easter Seal Society, providing compliance evaluations to business across Arkansas.