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This presentation aims to share with researchers and education practitioners,especially those from China,the following:1)a brief introduction to special education and the educational use of Assistive Technology(AT)in Canada,2)features of a selected number of AT devices and,3)how commonly available AT can be used toenhance student learning.The sister-school project is a major component of Xu and Connelly(2015-2020)SSHRC Partnership Grant Project,and pairs of schools from Canada and China involved in this projectorganize a variety of activities including administrators and teachers paying visits to each other,and monthlyonline meetings to learn best practice from each other.It is noted that during the communications,specialeducation was one of the topics that attract a lot of discussions.This phenomenon motivated us to present anintroduction to AT,which plays an increasingly important role in education with the fast development oftechnologies.AT is a broad term that covers not only assistive,adaptive,and rehabilitative devices for peoplewith special needs,but also the process employed in selecting,locating,and using them.AT devices can beequipment,software program,or product system that is designed to maintain,increase,or improve usersfunctional capabilities,and the use of it may enhance their learning,working,and daily living.In educationalsetting,commonly used AT often include laptop computers with specialized programs,such as speech to text,text to speech,graphic organizers and word prediction software that are utilized to assist students who havedifficulty speaking,typing,writing,remembering,pointing,seeing,hearing,etc.Based on an extensive reviewof relevant literature on AT and teaching and learning,this paper will mainly focus on the introduction to anumber of commonly available and up-to-date software programs,and suggestions on how they can be used.