"To confront a system head on with innovation is extraordinarily difficult. Everybody marshals their forces and comes straight at it," said Joyce Hakansson, Creative Director of the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST), an educational organization developing tools for a universal design in learning. "But it's in the margins, in those somewhat silent and unexpected areas, that innovation truly comes. We have such an opportunity now in the educational system." CAST is a WestEd RTEC partner that works with technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.
The former executive director of the Alliance for Technology Access pointed out that "the greatest impact of new technologies is on those students for whom the old technologies are least successful: for students who can't use the written page, for students who can't read it, who can't see it, who can't hold it. The new technologies are not only an improvement for these students, they're critical."
Hakansson asserted, "No one disagrees that technology enhances learning for students with disabilities. That population, I believe, is the in-road into changing education."
The Continuum of Ability, Disability
Disability is actually a long continuum, Hakansson said, and society determines at what point on the continuum one is labeled "disabled." She explained, "If society had decided that Michael Jordan or Venus Williams was the 'norm' where would you stand? It's only by definition that we have placed a point and said 'this is disability' because all of us have abilities and all of us have disabilities."
Many disabilities are visible such as the inability to see, hear or walk. But there are many more invisible disabilities, or learning disabilities, that "affect all of us in one way or another," she said.
"At what point is someone who can't get organized, who can't put things in order, called 'creative,' and at what point are they called 'dysfunctional?'" she asked. "Or at what point is someone who has no tolerance for change, has to keep things in the same place all the time, has to keep track and record things, called 'concerned and efficient,' and at what point does it become 'autism?'" Hakansson said everyone at one point may demonstrate a disability.
'Canaries in the Mine'
Students with disabilities are often "merely canaries in the mine," she said. "They are the ones who offer early warning systems that the general curriculum is poorly designed for many, if not all, individual students."
Hakansson advocates for new learning technologies that are flexible enough to meet the challenges of individual differences. These learning technologies include increasing font size, changing the color, or talking books. They have a dramatic effect on students with disabilities enabling them to participate in the curriculum in the classroom. They also can benefit all students, she said.
"When a student's weakness may not be intense enough to be called a disability, it still may inhibit the child's joy of learning. Why not provide multimodality so everyone can choose, switch, and go where it's comfortable?" she asked.
Personalized New Learning Technologies
Flexible, multisensory learning environments may be more interesting learning environments, and they can be personalized - a great benefit for all students, according to Hakansson.
She pointed to assistive technologies, those that provide adaptive tools and media, as having the power "to open up the world for students with disabilities, giving them opportunities to express themselves, move, speak, and be a part of the community. But, if these technologies are seen as only for students with disabilities, she warned, they become barriers to full participation.
The opposite strategy for personalizing new learning technologies is developing universally designed digital technologies. When all curricular content is digitized, a myriad of instructional and learning strategies can be embedded in the text. Prediction and outlining strategies can be hidden as "hints." Unclear words and sentences can be defined. Complex figures can be configured differently for clarification. Text can be configured on the computer monitor to suit the learner's strengths. "You build into the content itself a method of structuring it, viewing it, learning it, and understanding it for all learners," Hakansson explained.
Universal Design for Effective Learning
She proposed that all older, print-based curricular materials be digitized and universally designed for learning by all students. All new learning environments must incorporate universal design, she said. And a rich research agenda must be created to inform future universal designs so that learning is effective for all students.
Hakansson predicted that "the future is in the margins. By designing learning technologies that are better for students who need them most - including English language learners and students with 'disabilities' - we will design learning technologies that are better for all students."
As an RTEC partner, CAST, a not-for-profit organization, uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.
