The door to education is communication, some say. And the big technology companies are opening that door more widely than ever before, not only as their products become more accessible to people with specialized needs, but also as educators find more ways to use those features in the classroom and beyond. <\/p>\n
The biggest technology companies \u2014 think Apple <\/a> , Google <\/a> and Microsoft <\/a> \u2014 include language accessibility tools in their vast array of products, and those features are available to pretty much any user. And the companies have been actively improving those tools in recent years. Each of the tech giants has a group that promotes accessibility, said Luis Perez, technical assistance specialist at the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, who himself has a visual disability. <\/p>\n The products themselves reflect those efforts, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a series of tutorials by Microsoft, really nice, that placed accessibility within the classroom. I\u2019ve been using their Learning Tools quite a bit \u2014 it\u2019s great to have them so integrated into their [software] \u2026 Being able to go in and customize is really important to me,\u201d said Perez, who is also president of the Inclusive Learning Network from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). <\/p>\n \u201cApple has this clips app; as you\u2019re speaking you can turn on subtitles [and] scribe what you\u2019re saying as you\u2019re saying it,” he noted. <\/p>\n Those advancements come as schools face more pressure from the public to improve how they serve students and families. <\/p>\n Alise Crossland, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), said it\u2019s one of the big reasons digital accessibility has become a really hot topic over the past few years. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s driven in part by schools, districts and states getting civil rights complaints over lack of accessibility to their websites or their tools,\u201d Crossland said. \u201cThe fear of getting sued helps people move a little faster.\u201d <\/p>\n Assistive learning tools go mainstream, at lower cost <\/strong> <\/p>\n Educators and administrators also are finding that fixing accessibility problems is potentially less expensive than it used to be. <\/p>\n Adding assistive technology \u2014 anything designed to make classroom learning more accessible to students with any of a wide range of disabilities \u2014 inevitably used to mean extra costs, as schools needed to buy additional hardware or software to meet specific needs. Many districts still wrestle with such acquisitions, for sure. As the big tech companies have expanded their cloud-based software products, though, it has become easier for IT departments to share a solution anywhere that a user is logged on. <\/p>\n Microsoft, in particular, has led the way in making accessibility an inherent component of its software offerings, said Gordon Knopp, director of technology at Laramie County School District 1, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It\u2019s the largest school district in the state, covering 1,600 square miles, but it has just 14,000 students. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom a district point of view, you\u2019re trying to be as systemic as you can \u2014 you don\u2019t want one-offs,\u201d Knopp said. \u201cWe have been trying to avoid Teacher A using product A, Teacher B using product B \u2026 We do occasionally have a student whose needs are so unique [that a unique solution is needed], but when it comes to the majority of assistive tech, the goal is to make it universal.\u201d <\/p>\n He said his district began to experience some issues as costs for technology increased while budgets decreased. \u201cWe have one [less] computer technician today than in 2002,\u201d Knopp said. \u201cWe had 3,000 computers in 2002, but 15,000 today.\u201d <\/p>\n When Knopp\u2019s office of technology first started looking at how to lower the overall per-student cost of technology by moving to software hosted in the cloud and purchasing less expensive devices, most assistive tools were installed on desktop computers. As the district was having a conversation about the challenge of needing dedicated desktop computers for assistive technology, \u201cMicrosoft really put a concentrated effort on their accessibility tools,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cProducts we used to buy as a third-party [package] and install on the desktop now come in Windows 365,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the cost of installing it, the manpower, the training. \u2026 It really makes it a learning-rich environment for these kids who have extra needs.\u201d Knopp added that teachers don\u2019t have to worry about whether the kids have internet access at home; as long as they have their school-issued device, they have the tools built in. <\/p>\n \u201cThe tools I hear the most stories about, the ones that bring tears to your eyes, are \u2026 the learning tools,\u201d Knopp said. \u201cText-to-speech readers, some of the word prediction, and the learning tools that scan in a document [using] optical character recognition, the ones that change the screen background for kids with epilepsy or [a condition] who may need special assistance with colors \u2026 Those are all built in.\u201d <\/p>\n While cost is always a concern, Perez cautioned that school districts should be careful about standardizing. <\/p>\n \u201cLarge school districts will lock themselves into a single platform, rather than consider a range of them, which might not be perfect\u201d for all students, Perez said. \u201cThere\u2019s always that tension between the need to standardize because of business concerns and the goal of truly personalizing education.\u201d <\/p>\n Raising awareness and usage <\/strong> <\/p>\n The tech companies have worked hard to address teacher awareness and education. Apple and Google offer similar learning accessibility tools to those created by Microsoft. Google, for instance, just released <\/a> a range of new and expanded tools for teachers in its Teacher Center. But in this area, Microsoft again gets the most effusive praise from accessibility experts. <\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft has really focused on education, and recently, particularly on putting their tools in locations [within the software] where teachers can see them and access them,\u201d Christopher Lee, chief learning officer for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. \u201cThey made a huge shift on making sure the tools can be seen right away \u2026 They\u2019ve made a strategic effort to make a difference to the disability community, and they\u2019re doing it in a way that\u2019s inclusive. It\u2019s not about people with disabilities, it\u2019s about putting tools in the hands of everyone who can improve their productivity.\u201d <\/p>\n Mike Tholfsen, principal product manager for Microsoft Education, said expanding accessibility is something the company has always cared about, but the commitment deepened when Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO in 2014. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a son <\/a> with cerebral palsy who\u2019s nonverbal [and] a daughter with learning disabilities,\u201d Tholfsen said. \u201cThat\u2019s where things really started coming into more focus.\u201d <\/p>\n Microsoft, Google and the rest of the industry still have strides to when it comes to ensuring that educators truly understand what\u2019s available, though, said AIR\u2019s Crossland. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a communications piece for teachers to know these tools are available,\u201d she said. \u201cIn an inclusive classroom, a general education teacher may not know about [them] \u2026 It can be a steep curve sometimes to help them learn how to use those tools.\u201d <\/p>\n Helping to end the stigma of \u2018special\u2019 ed <\/strong> <\/p>\n The experts stress that the boom in accessibility features has benefits beyond ease of use and potential cost-savings for schools. In classrooms where the tools are built-in to existing, general-use software or hardware, students with learning challenges are less likely to feel singled out. Children can balk at having to use \u201cspecial\u201d software or designated devices. <\/p>\n \u201cStudents would rather go without than stand out,\u201d Perez explained. But if an accessibility tool is seen as an inconspicuous, regular feature of a piece of technology, that problem goes away, said Karyn Fillhart, technology training specialist with the Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County, California. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone can use accessibility tools as a productivity tool. Let\u2019s just call them tools \u2026 and not put on that label of \u2018disability,\u2019\u201d Fillhart said. \u201cI never wanted my students to feel different. Now my students with autism can carry an iPad.\u201d <\/p>\n Fillhart told EdScoop of one teacher who showed her class Immersive Reader <\/a> , which allows students to manipulate text on a screen, making it easier to read. Not only can users change the line focus \u2014 showing just one or two lines of text, akin to using a ruler under each line \u2014 but they can also highlight parts of speech or have the software read the text aloud. That teacher\u2019s students used it to read their own writings out loud, Fillhart said.\u201cWhen they listened to their stories, they said, \u2018Oh, OK, now I\u2019m hearing it.\u2019 You can scan it and think \u2018Yes, this is what I meant,\u2019 but you hear it out loud and catch things,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Another teacher had a class of students who were all English language learners. \u201cShe had the kids open up Microsoft Translator <\/a> ,\u201d Fillhart said. \u201cThey used five different languages for a whole middle school period.\u201d <\/p>\n Sometimes the line between an accessibility tool and a general-use product is even more blurred. Lauren Pittman is a special education teacher with the Cherokee County School District in Georgia, north of Atlanta, with about 43,000 students in its 28 elementary schools, eight middle schools and six high schools. She has been using Microsoft\u2019s Learning Tools, both for students who struggle with reading and writing and for students who are not proficient in English. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been really happy with, they just put out a picture dictionary,\u201d Pittman said. For example, \u201c\u2019school\u2019 has multiple meanings \u2014 a school of fish, school as a building \u2014 so the kids can see the difference in the homonyms.\u201d <\/p>\n