The purpose of this study was to examine the mediated participation of middle school students with special needs as they used voice-recognition software to improve their writing in a resource room setting. Learners with special needs face academic challenges at the secondary school level that often draw attention to labels and disability at a time when they are developing distinct personal identities. The participants in this study all embraced personal writing as part of their identity (especially narrative fiction writing), but separated that from academic writing which they mainly associated with writing conventions and editing skills. According to this study and analysis of classroom use of voice-recognition software (VRS), student resistance to working with this tool became associated with special education. In students' eyes, use of Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 (DNS9, also known as “The Dragon”) conveyed a deficit identity of themselves as academic learners.

This study was designed using a sociocultural conceptual framework that views learning as a social process that is inseparable from issues of interpersonal interaction and identity. Voice-recognition technology was introduced to eight middle school boys in a study hall classroom and two research questions were developed: (a) How do adolescents with special needs view themselves as writers? (b) How does the use of voice-recognition software influence students' participation in the writing process and their writing production? Training and working together with the software, the eight teens' interests, challenges and unique agendas converged as they completed a collaborative assignment. Participants negotiated how to use available technology to enhance their writing without challenging how they viewed themselves amidst general education peers. Use of voice-recognition software in this study drew attention to how adolescents with special needs engaged “The Dragon” collaboratively and thus improved their writing by revising their work more often. Frustrations that arose with use of The Dragon's voice commands are also featured.

Recommendations to teachers, administrators and school policy makers regarding assistive technology allocations are made in light of 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Educational Improvement Act (IDEIA) mandates and current use of Response to Intervention (RtI) as a special education service delivery system that monitors how classroom interventions made on behalf of special needs learners are implemented. Suggestions for future educational research are also proposed.