Accessibility for Students in Special Education

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Technology places a significant role in education. This has grown since the time of COVID pandemic where teachers and students spent many hours in Google Classroom, Google Meets, Zoom, and other online resources. Students and teachers had to dig into learning how to implement technology to grab the attention of students. Teachers had to step out of their comfort zone to teach everything online while engaging with their students. Most teachers were used to teaching in the classroom and not online. Students and parents had to navigate at home on how to access Google Classroom, Zoom, and Google Meets. How did parents, teachers, and students get through this weird time?  

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Accessibility 

Let us fast forward to the current day. Classrooms all over the world see an increased amount of technology being used in the classroom. Whether it is Smart Boards, iPads, or Chromebooks, technology is weaved into day-to-day lessons. Students and teachers have access to these pieces of technology, but the use of them can be customized to every individual to process the information presented easier. These devices used can give accessibility to students and teachers to assist students in processing information easier just by changing the setting on their device by accessing their device settings. 

Accessibility in Special Education 

 As I have stated before, I work in a Special Education Resource room. There are students that come to the resource room that have learning disabilities and other disabilities. The students use mostly iPads when they need to work on independent assignments for Language Arts and Math. Honestly, in my research, I did not consider the accessibility options on the iPads for them. I decided to check out the Apple website on what tools are available for the students on iPads. Here is an artifact(poster) I created showing tools that would be beneficial for the students I work with in the classroom:  

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The tool, AssistiveTouch for mobility, is not one we would use in the resource room, but I would find useful in the self-contained Special Education rooms as they work with students. They often work with students who have disabilities in movement and need to be in a wheelchair. AssistiveTouch works with one tap or an adaptive accessory. This tool assists in providing a way for students to access information on an iPad when they have issues with touching or pressing buttons on the device. The rest of the tools on my artifact would be great for the students in my classroom. As the features that apply to special education focus and support vision, hearing, and cognitive. The features that apply focus on zooming in on text or pictures, eliminating distractions, providing quiet times for breaks, and captions for videos. These features help support the students by giving them the ability to access devices in a way that works for them, leaving out frustration and being able to participate in a classroom setting without feeling excluded. Every student deserves an opportunity to learn and keep up with advanced technology. As technology grows, educators and students must adapt to learning my learning what their devices can do for them to help them be successful for the future.  

Comments

  1. Aron (he/they)October 7, 2023 at 8:14 PM

    Hello, Sara! Thank you for sharing your insights on such an invaluable topic. I find it interesting how many educators have normalized technology use in the classroom, but still have room to grow for learning assistive technologies (myself included!) I certainly learned a lot thanks to your blog on this topic and your poster on IPAD accessibility.

    I also enjoyed learning about Assistive Touch. The article you linked was super helpful for learning more, and I appreciate that you contextualized why it's important to learn. As you said, these accessibility features mitigate frustration and cultivate engagement - ensuring students feel included, rather than excluded, in the classroom.

    Out of curiosity, what kind of background sounds does the IPAD play? I can imagine this feature would be tremendously helpful for self-regulating.

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    Replies
    1. sarabelvinOctober 7, 2023 at 8:29 PM

      Hi Aron, I have not tried it yet with my students, but found this online that shows the sounds : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9-mt1LKaOY. I honestly work with a lot of students so far this year that would find this useful and helpful for calming breaks.

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