Accessibility Tools

Funded Oct 24, 2019

How has technology affected or improved your life? Do you take for granted how technological devices and tools empower us?

Students are empowered to reach their potential when given access to essential tools. Headphones and wireless mice are a functional branch of the digital tools that give my students access to the curriculum. Struggling readers can have documents or stories read to them using applications like Microsoft's Immersive Reader. Immersive Reader gives students the ability to have documents read aloud, a picture dictionary for a word, increase the spacing between letters in words, change the background color for better readability, and so much more. In a recent study using brain scans of individuals reading, data showed how our brain files words by sounds. According to an educational article produced by Amplify Center for Early Reading in 2017, called Learning to Read Primer, brain scans show how a brain works when reading. The written word is seen, therefore triggering the visual processing part of the brain in the occipital lobe. Yet, the written word triggers speech whether you speak the word out loud or not. The same circuit is involved in articulating a word or just recognizing it. This visual message starts in the occipital lobe then expands to the temporal lobe where sounds are processed. Therefore, implying the importance of phonemic awareness, in that we file words for recall by strings of sounds. So, hearing a string of sounds in words when learning to read, will help the brain improve its ability to decode fluently. The headphones provide my students with the ability to see a word and hear it. Thus, giving them the ability to take the sounds (phonemes) and attach them to symbols/letters (graphemes). This type of multi-sensory learning can provide all learners the ability to learn in a way that is best for them.

Thanks to the digital age and the improvements in artificial intelligence apps, my students can learn in ways like never. Thank you for giving students access to tools that empower them to reach their potential!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Rachel