cosn and CAST last published a comprehensive report titled “ai and accessibility in education.” Written by Blaschke Scholarship recipient Fernanda Pérez Pérez, the report explores the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (ai) to improve educational accessibility and support for students, particularly those with disabilities. As ai technologies such as Generative ai (GenAI) and assistive tools become increasingly prevalent in educational settings, it is critical to understand both their benefits and limitations.
The report serves as a comprehensive guide for educators, district leaders, and policymakers, providing insight into the benefits and challenges of ai in education and offering practical strategies for its effective and ethical implementation that enables accessibility.
“The ai and Accessibility in Education report emphasizes that the integration of ai in education holds great promise for improving accessibility and support for all students,” he said. Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. “By placing a strong emphasis on inclusive design, implementing comprehensive policies, and encouraging continued professional development, we have the opportunity to create a future where every student, regardless of background or abilities, can thrive and reach their full potential through education.” careful integration of ai.”
Highlights from the report include:
- Potential of ai for accessibility
- ai tools can significantly improve personalized learning by tailoring educational content to meet the unique needs and preferences of each student, especially those with disabilities. For example, text-to-speech software, voice recognition systems, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools integrated with ai enhance the learning experience for students with diverse needs.
- ai can alleviate teacher burnout by automating administrative tasks such as grading and attendance tracking, allowing educators to focus more on direct student interaction and support.
- Use cases and examples
- Case studies from various educational settings illustrate practical applications of ai to improve accessibility. For example, artificial intelligence tools have been used to create individualized learning materials, facilitate communication for students with speech disabilities, and develop accessible mathematics assessments for blind students.
- Challenges and risks
- Despite its potential, implementing ai in education poses challenges such as data privacy concerns, algorithmic biases, and limitations in personalized learning. ai systems must be built by diverse people and trained on diverse data sets to avoid inaccuracies and ensure true representation, especially for students with disabilities.
- Ensuring that ai tools are designed and implemented with accessibility in mind is crucial to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities.
- Policies and frameworks
- This report highlights the importance of policy frameworks and guidelines to ensure the safe and ethical use of ai in education. Key policies include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title II updates (Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services, 2024), which require state and local government entities to provide fully digital resources accessible.
- The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework provides a guiding principle for creating inclusive educational environments that meet the needs, interests, and preferences of all students.
- Recommendations
- This report proposes a three-tier solution for safely implementing GenAI, focusing on short-term actions such as professional development, medium-term actions such as ensuring accessibility for special education students, and long-term goals of universal access to ai tools.
- Continued collaboration between educators, policymakers, and technology developers is essential to effectively address the complexities of ai in education.
For additional information, read CoSN's blog posts:
”The Blaschke fellowship has been an invaluable experience, allowing me to deepen my experience conducting research on ai and accessibility in education. “It gave me the unique opportunity to collaborate with leading experts in the educational technology industry, which significantly shaped my career path,” he said. Fernanda Pérez Perez, 2024 Charles Blaschke Scholarship Fellow. “This project has allowed me to contribute significantly to the evolving intersection of technology and inclusive education.”
“When I learned that this report would focus on ai and accessibility in education, I was very happy, as it perfectly combines the interests that my husband Charles and I share,” said Kathy Hurley, CEO of Kathy Hurley Consulting and former executive vice president of the Pearson Foundation. “As a former special education teacher, the issue of inclusion has always been paramount, and Charles dedicated much of his career to researching revenue streams to support special education, Title I, and accessibility. I look forward to sharing this report far and wide.”
“At CAST, we believe that the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework plays a crucial role in harnessing the potential of ai to make education more accessible and inclusive,” he said. Lindsay Jones, Executive Director of CAST. “By leveraging ai technologies within the flexible framework of UDL, educators can better support diverse learners and remove barriers to learning. “This report highlights the transformative power of ai to create educational environments where every student has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their abilities or background.”
The full report, “ai and Accessibility in Education,” is available for download (accessible to members only) on the CoSN website at https://www.cosn.org/2024-blaschke-executive-summary/.
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