From an accessibility information standpoint, this week’s Apple event in Chicago was antithetical to the October 2016 event. On the latter occasion, Apple started the presentation with a bang — exhibiting the precise video being edited utilizing Change Management in Ultimate Lower. Tim Cook dinner got here out afterwards to speak some about Apple’s dedication to serving the disabled group earlier than unveiling the then-new accessibility page on the corporate’s web site.
Against this, the education-themed occasion in Chicago this week glided by with barely a point out of accessibility. The one particular call-out got here throughout Greg Joswiak’s time on stage speaking about iPad, when he stated “accessibility options make iPad a studying device for everybody.”
That doesn’t imply, nonetheless, accessibility has no relevance to what was introduced.
I used to be within the viewers at Lane Tech Faculty Prep on Tuesday protecting the occasion. As a former special educator –and particular training pupil — I watched with eager curiosity as Apple advised their story round training. Whereas Apple is focusing on the mainstream, I got here away with robust impressions on how Apple could make critical inroads in furthering particular training as effectively.
It’s Referred to as ‘Particular’ for a Cause
Apple is clearly—rightfully—constructing their instructional technique in direction of mainstream college students in mainstream courses. It’s a basic top-down method: Lecturers assign college students work by way of handouts, for such actions as writing essays or finishing science tasks. That is your entire motive for Apple’s Classroom and Schoolwork apps. Nevertheless well-designed, they lack a component.
The place they lack is there may be nothing afforded, a minimum of in particular phrases, to academics and college students in particular training settings. Apple’s technique right here is outlined, once more, by the basic teacher-student relationship, with none regard for different fashions. I’m not levying a criticism on the corporate; that is the fact.
At many ranges, particular training lecture rooms don’t operate in a means that’s conducive to Apple’s imaginative and prescient for studying right now. Within the moderate-to-severe early childhood (Pre-Ok) lecture rooms I labored in for near a decade, the construction was such that almost all, if not all, actions had been augmented by a heavy dose of grownup help. Moreover, most of our college students had been pulled out of sophistication at sure instances for extra companies similar to speech companies and bodily/occupational remedy periods.
In brief, there have been no lectures or essay prompts anyplace.
That is the place accessibility is available in. There may be monumental potential for Apple to dig deeper and develop the toolset they provide to educators and college students. To accommodate for particular training is, for my part, akin to accommodating disabled customers by providing accessibility options on every of Apple’s software program platforms.
Particular training is particular for a motive. It includes methods of educating and studying which can be distinctive, and the individuals who work and study in these environments deserve the identical consideration.
Accessibility is Apple’s Secret Weapon
Main as much as the occasion, there was a lot discuss within the Apple group of writers and podcasters that Google is consuming Apple’s lunch within the faculties market as a result of Chromebooks are grime low-cost for districts and most everybody depends on Google Docs.
I’m not within the particulars of this argument. What I’m excited about, nonetheless, is solely stating that regardless of the notion Apple merchandise are too costly and fewer succesful, they’re higher in a single significant sense: accessibility.
Contemplate Chromebook versus iPad. In lots of ranges of particular training, an iPad is way superior to a Chromebook. The pill’s multi-touch person interface is way extra intuitive, and extra importantly, iOS is constructed with accessibility in thoughts. From VoiceOver to Dynamic Sort to Change Management and extra, an iPad (or an iPod Contact, for that matter) can present a much more accessible and enriching studying expertise for a lot of college students with disabilities than a Chromebook. And lest we overlook the App Retailer impact; there are many outstanding apps geared for particular ed.
It is a essential level that many expertise pundits who lament Apple’s place within the training market at all times appear to overlook.
Making Particular Educators Extra Particular
One space the place Apple can vastly enhance the lives of academics is by broadening the Schoolwork app such that it makes IEP prep simpler and, enjoying to Apple’s core power, extra trendy. Traditionally, even immediately, IEPs are deliberate and written utilizing stacks of paperwork. Targets, assessments, and consent varieties are handwritten (typically typed) and stapled collectively. And being a binding authorized doc, academics should guarantee there are the correct signatures on each web page, or else be dinged for being out of compliance with protocols. In sum: the IEP is the bane of each particular educator’s existence as a result of they take a lot time.
To this finish, Apple may do particular training academics a grand service by including a module of types to its Schoolwork app that may permit them to extra simply create and monitor a pupil’s IEP. There could possibly be charts for monitoring objective progress, in addition to methods to collate and distribute paperwork amongst the IEP workforce (SLPs, OT/PT, and so forth) and naturally mother and father. Lecturers may even ship an electronic mail to folks with any consent varieties hooked up and encourage them to signal with Apple Pencil on their iPad, if they’ve one.
On the very least, it could make IEP prep infinitely extra environment friendly, and maybe alleviate among the stress on the precise conferences. Digitizing the method can be game-changing, I feel.
Backside Line
The concepts I’ve outlined listed below are effectively inside Apple’s wheelhouse. They might seemingly must collaborate with particular educators and districts on issues like IEP varieties and insurance policies, however it’s actually inside them to take action. They can do that if they need.
To reiterate an earlier level, particular training deserves simply as a lot considerate consideration and innovation because the training business at massive. Given Apple’s unwavering help of accessibility, that is an space during which they’ll absolutely enhance.