In today’s digital schools, providing students with technology is about more than just giving them laptops or internet access. It’s about ensuring every single student has the tools they need to participate, learn, and succeed. This is where two critical concepts come into play: assistive technology and accessibility. While related, they address the goal of inclusion from different angles, and both are essential for creating a truly equitable educational environment.
What is Assistive Technology?
Think of assistive technology as a personalized toolkit. It refers to the very specific hardware or software some students need to access their education. These tools are not one-size-fits-all; instead, they are chosen on a case-by-case basis by a collaborative team of special educators, outside consultants, and IT professionals to meet an individual student’s unique needs.
Examples of assistive technologies you might find in a school include:
- Braille printers for students with visual impairments.
- Keyboards designed for specialized input.
- Specialized displays or assistive listening systems.
These devices are often for the exclusive use of a particular student who needs them throughout their school career. The role of school IT professionals is crucial in this process. They collaborate on selecting, installing, configuring, and maintaining these technologies, and they provide troubleshooting when things go wrong. Because schools cannot deny any student access to education, providing this support is a fundamental responsibility.
What is Accessibility?
If assistive technology is about the individual’s toolkit, accessibility is about the architecture of the entire building. Guided by civil rights laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), accessibility is the practice of making sure that all educational materials—from textbooks and websites to videos and presentations—are designed to be usable by everyone, regardless of disability status.
Making digital content accessible includes practices like:
- Adding closed captions to videos.
- Including descriptive alternative text for images so that screen-reading software can describe them to a user.
- Ensuring slide shows have unique slide names and avoid flashing content.
This responsibility falls on anyone creating content. While publishers are expected to provide accessible versions of textbooks, teachers who create their own multimedia presentations must also ensure their materials are accessible. Thankfully, many productivity applications now include built-in “accessibility checker” tools that can help identify and fix issues, and IT staff can support teachers in using them.
By focusing on both assistive tools for individuals and accessible design for everyone, schools can build a technology ecosystem where every student is empowered to learn.