This week in EDCI 336, we discussed the importance of accessibility, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), as well as assistive technologies and how they foster independence, success, engagement, and inclusivity in the classroom.

In-Class Activity Reflective Questions

In class, we watched What is Accessibility and Using Technologies to Support Diverse Learning Needs to spark thought and reflection about our feelings and experiences towards adaptive technologies, and responded to discussion questions afterwards.

Think back to your own K-12 experience. Did you use any adaptive technologies, or see adaptive technologies used in your K-12 classes or schools? While I do not recall seeing adaptive technologies such as adaptive keyboards or screen readers, I do recall seeing peers use wheelchairs to adapt for mobility needs, a mobility cane for blindness, and many using noise-cancelling headphones to prevent sensory overload.

In your practicums or previous experiences, how effective have adaptive technologies been in helping the disabled? From my recollection, peers using a wheelchair or mobility cane experienced them as positive assistance for getting around the school safely, but they were also not perfect. The student using the wheelchair was often unable to get to their classes on time, as the crowded hallways of the school during transition times combined with the width and lesser maneuverability of the wheelchair made it difficult to move around. I believe that they eventually had a designated adult help them get around during transitions between classes. It was a similar story for the student using the mobility cane: when the halls were clear, they could effectively get around, but when they were busy, they needed a designated adult to assist them with getting around.

While I cannot be certain that noise-cancelling headphones were perfectly helpful for people susceptible to sensory overload, it has always seemed to me that they are effective at regulating their users when in highly stimulating environments. I have seen them become more prevalent between my time in school and now, which is likely reflective of their effectiveness.

Toward the end of the video, one teacher uses the adaptive technology analogy of giving glasses to students who have vision problems. Does that explain adaptive technologies? Why or why not? The glasses analogy effectively captures the main idea of using adaptive technologies: some students need support or tools to overcome learning barriers, and this is not unfair or unjust. However, this analogy is also quite simplistic. Glasses compensate for one physical difficulty; adaptive technologies enable students to access, communicate, participate in, and demonstrate learning in various ways.

What are some of the pros and cons of using adaptive technologies in schools? The pros of using adaptive technologies in schools are endless. Using them effectively means that students will be included meaningfully in learning activities, fostering academic and socioemotional success. This is much better than depending on adults to pull students with additional learning needs out of classrooms and away from their peers for direct instruction. While adaptive technologies may sometimes be distracting for other students, the teacher or adults in the room can take such opportunities to model and teach understanding. The video also mentioned that some parents had concerns about adaptive technologies such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text limiting reading development and spelling/writing development, respectively. I was unable to find any scholarly research indicating that these concerns are significant, perhaps because the use of these technologies does not replace direct decoding and writing instruction.

Technologies that Support UDL

Microsoft Immersive Reader: Microsoft Immersive Reader is a reading support tool that has features such as read-aloud, modifiable text size, line focus settings, a picture dictionary, and translation. This is useful for learners who require support with decoding, comprehension, language learning, vision, or attention. It is available across most Microsoft products, including OneNote, Teams, Word, Forms, Excel, Office Lens, and more.

Zoom closed-captioning: Zoom is capable of providing auto-generated live captions, manual captions, or third-party captions, and users can choose either to show captions or not. These aim to benefit deaf or hard-of-hearing users, and those who simply prefer reading to listening. Zoom also provides translated captions , which benefit multilingual or English Language Learners; however, to enable them, the host must be subscribed to one of Zoom’s paid plans, and translated captions may not always be accurate.

Immersive Learning

The immersive and embodied experiences provided by VR and AR are unique and very useful for learning involving perspective-taking and experiences not easily replicable in the real world. Having used VR before, I can say that it really does make you feel like you are in another reality, and thus agree with the article that it is important to consider the emotional experience learners may have in VR and AR. Regarding the article’s concerns about equipment barriers for people with physical disabilities, I do not see this as a limitation of the technology itself but as either an issue that will be corrected with more development or an issue with the resourcefulness of the person guiding its use.

From a UDL perspective, XR-based experiences are very powerful in that they hit the three key principle domains: representation, action & expression, and engagement. However, they are not automatically accessible. They require strong sensory and haptic abilities, which many learners need support with. This does not mean that XR-based experiences are simply inaccessible, but that there are potential issues with accessibility that need to be considered.

Benefits

The tools I’ve discussed are generally helpful for accessibility, as they offer alternative pathways for students to engage and participate in learning activities. But their benefits extend beyond accessibility – XR-based experiences enhance engagement by making learning more immersive, and when integrated properly, they make learning more meaningful and interactive as well. All of the tools also facilitate collaboration by providing students with new ways to communicate. Whether they are inside of VR or utilizing translative captions in a Zoom classroom, students can communicate and share ideas. Many adaptive technologies, including VR (depending on the game or software used), also support data-driven pedagogy by providing educators with feedback on student progress or participation.