Why iPad is the only choice for Assistive Tech

Straight out of the box, the iPad offers multimedia functionality; access to a range of SEN apps via the app store and accessibility settings that go far further than any other device out there. That being said, simple built-in features can make a huge impact too as Anna details - “I had a boy who always found it hard to take down information from the board. So he would come up and take a picture on his iPad and take it back down to his desk. He would be able to use that picture to transcribe it into his copybook.” Instant access to a camera aided a child with a visual impairment and in a similar way, the camera and microphone can aid a child with hearing disabilities. Anna tells us that “children with hearing difficulties were able to use the iPad to record instructions and play them back to themselves afterwards. They can listen again and again if they need to. Or the children were able to use 'speech to text’ so that spoken directions would pop up as text on their iPad.” ‘Speech to text’ is just one of many accessibility options that we’ll explore during this case study. 

For example, you can now find the ‘Live Speech’ option within the accessibility settings of an iPad. This feature enables a child to type up sentences and have the iPad speak for them. Therefore, the touch screen keyboard can be key to a child’s communication. Anna has experienced this first-hand… “Using the iPad with a child who has limited speech gives them the opportunity to get their ideas and thoughts across without having to speak at all. I worked with a boy a few years ago who had selective mutism. The idea of him speaking in front of the class was really really tricky and he felt a lot more comfortable writing his work down. I would be happy to read it out for him and you could just see how proud he was that everyone was listening to what his ideas were, but he didn’t have to say it himself.” The iPad has therefore made a positive impact within Kilcolgan Educate Together National School for children with visual, hearing and speech impediments. 

The iPad is also adept at connecting to third-party products like hearing aids, brail tablets, eye scanners and much much more. Anna shares an example of how this kind of connectivity can make a huge difference for children with poor fine motor skills… “In the past, when I’ve worked with children with poor fine motor skills, we were able to attach a keyboard with much bigger letters and different colours which really helped to develop touch typing skills on an iPad.” She adds that… “just the act of exploring around the iPad uses all of those fine motor skills in their fingers.” The gamification of education apps can absolutely encourage fine motor skill progress, but the iPad can also help develop gross motor skills as well. Mrs McCathy offers another example from her own teaching career… “I remember teaching ‘running’ and trying to get down to the nuts and bolts of how to run, like the angles of your elbows and your knees etc. We were able to use the iPad to film some of the children running in slow motion… They were then able to break it down to tiny specific that they never would have noticed if they just ran.”   

Of course, not all additional needs are physical. Autism, dyslexia and ADHD diagnosis continue to grow year on year to name but a few. On a fundamental level, Anna says that when it comes to ADHD, “some children need to move and you can say ‘bring your iPad with you’.” However, she goes on to explain how the iPad is the perfect tool for tackling high-energy learners… “It’s great that the iPad is portable and mobile because you want the children to be active… Sometimes people will think of technology as ‘sitting there looking at a screen’ so it’s good that they can get up and move around. You can be out in a field, taking a picture of bugs, out in the fresh air and you’re still using your iPad to encourage learning.” So, the iPad follows the child wherever they might need to go and for some learners, the classroom isn’t always the best place to learn. When the discussion moves on to Autism, Anna tells us that the iPad’s consistency key… “It’s really important that the iPads work instantly and are reliable within the context of Special Education Needs. I have found that some children with special needs, lose interest and get frustrated really really quickly if the technology isn’t working right away and that just takes away from the learning objective you’re working on… They might rely on that technology as part of their routine in a day and if that little part of their routine is delayed, or isn’t there at all, it can completely throw them.” Accessibility settings can add another layer of support alongside the basic functionality of the iPad as Anna highlights… “Some children in our school with dyslexia change the colour of the screen on the iPad to help them with their reading and we use ‘speech to text’ to help them get their ideas down in written form without having to rely on writing skills. We can use the iPads to let the children listen to stories. Instead of reading the book they can listen to an audio book and then I’ve noticed that their comprehension can be a lot better.”    

Creating differentiated learning experiences, that cater for a wide range of levels and needs, is one of the hardest elements of teaching. Thankfully, the intuitive and engaging nature of applications, along with the multi-media capabilities built into an iPad, enable learners to self-differentiate. Anna explains how her approach to teaching and differentiation can change when her class uses iPads… “A book is a static object at the end of the day, I encourage children to create and not just consume and there are so many more opportunities to do that with technology. There are so many paths they can go down… if I give children one task to do, you could end up with ten different outcomes. The children get a chance to show their individuality and to show how their thinking works.” Anna continues by sharing an SEN-specific insight… “When I think about the multimedia features on the iPad and using a green screen, iMovie and stuff like that, I just keep on thinking of this boy and girl in my class a few years ago… They were really struggling across the board in a lot of areas. But they loved the idea of acting and recording and watching it back at the end… Instead of saying ‘write a report about the vikings’, they used multimedia features and it ignited something in them that gave them that thirst to learn more… I couldn’t believe the amount of detail they had soaked in… their parents came back to me and said ‘they can’t stop talking about the vikings’…  They never would have been able to get that across in written form… They would have struggled with that, their confidence would have been smashed and the outcome just wouldn’t have been the same.”  

By definition, differentiation means that a teacher is actively dividing learners up and offering different options or approaches to different children. With that in mind, teachers have to walk a tricky tightrope of providing levelled work without singling anyone out. Over time, Kilcolgan Educate Together National School has invested in enough iPads to provide each child with access to the same technological resources as Anna explains… “A long time ago, only the children who had additional needs, had an iPad… Now it's completely normal for an iPad to be whipped out, by any child, for any lesson across the curriculum. You could be taking it out for Art, Geography, English, Irish… and having an iPad doesn’t make you different. The iPad is just an extra tool in everyone’s toolbox which is great… You don’t want a child to sit in a class and wonder, ‘Why am I the only one doing this?’ You just want them to feel included and you want them to stand out for their strengths.’ The iPad’s adaptability enables individual children to have a personalised experience, but this experience is not broadcast in any way. One child might have ten different accessibility features switched on and another may well have no accessibility tools working in the background of their iPad. The key thing is that their two iPads will look exactly the same. 

The accessibility features can be found in the settings of any Apple device. Needs are wide-ranging and as a result, there are a multitude of accessibility options. Sifting through all of the capabilities can be quite overwhelming and Anna felt that Select’s support was crucial in this regard… “When you came out to the school a couple of months ago, that was the first time that I really got to know the functionality of the accessibility features on the iPad. I would have known the very basics but I did need that training to point out the extra opportunities that we could explore with the iPads in SEN.” Bespoke Apple Professional Learning from Select provides essential CPD for teachers. As Anna puts it, “It’s really important for teachers to feel confident when they’re using iPad because you want to help children to the best out of the iPad… I think that confidence comes from training… When you do the training you are opened up to other apps that you haven’t experienced before… It’s really important to keep on learning and keep things fresh.’ Select can provide training that focuses in on any aspect of classroom practice. However, many schools opt to explore ‘accessibility’ during training plans because the subject is so nuanced and complex.