Assistive Technology, with Christine Fox

In this episode, we are joined by Christine Fox, the Vice President of Operations at CAST, to discuss assistive technology use in K-12 education. Assistive technology is technology that helps people overcome barriers to interacting with digital tools. It helps break down barriers for people with learning differences and makes the use of the technology “accessible.” CAST’s vision statement reads: “We envision a world where all learning experiences in school, the workplace, and life are intentionally designed to elevate strengths and eliminate barriers so everyone has the opportunity to grow and thrive.” Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#294 — Assistive Technology with Christine Fox

Episode of Unpacking Education podcast from AVID Open Access
28 min

Keywords

students, assistive technologies, assistive technology, accessible, teachers, education, technology, working, tools, district, iep, resources, learning, cites, cast, support, thinking, disability, assistive, talking

Speakers

Christine (53%), Rena (20%), Paul (14%), Winston (12%), Transition (1%)

Christine Fox  0:00  

When folks are working together and the teacher feels empowered then the students can. The biggest barrier comes in, it's information and communication. If you're participating in digital learning, then it has to be accessible before you can really even talk about learner variability and choice.

Winston Benjamin  0:18  

The topic for today's podcast is Assistive Technology with Christine Fox. Unpacking Education is brought to you by avid.org. AVID believes a single teacher can change the life of a student. To learn more about AVID, visit their website at avid.org.

Rena Clark  0:41  

Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I'm Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann  0:52  

I'm Paul Beckermann.

Winston Benjamin  0:53  

And I'm Winston Benjamin. We are educators.

Paul Beckermann  0:57  

And we're here to share insights and actionable strategies. 

Transition Music  1:02  

Education is our passport to the future.

Winston Benjamin  1:08  

Our quote for today is from CAST, C-A-S-T, Regarding the participation of students with disabilities in general education classes. They write "Accessible educational materials and technologies are essential to the independent participation and progress of those general ed students who function in highly varied ways—physical, sensory, and learning." What are your thoughts?

Rena Clark  1:41  

I think about it's so important that we have accessible educational materials and technologies to support the many diverse needs of students and the adults in our buildings, as well. We do have an enormous spectrum of differences as humans, and accessibility is necessary so we can truly allow for our students and even the adults in our building to thrive. But it'll be interesting, as we talk about this, I think we need to go even further than just providing accessible materials and technologies. But how do we provide those opportunities for us to learn how to use them, integrate them, empower our students to intentionally use them to overcome barriers. I know, with my own children, there's a couple of different things going on. I have a kid that's a Type 1 diabetic, who's also colorblind, who also has some hearing loss. So just thinking about, as we're navigating the use of technology for all sorts of reasons. And rather than othering him in classes because he needs these medical devices and other things. It's it's been a journey for me this year, a learning experience for us all. And then even I have another child that really struggles with the physical act of writing. One of these COVID kids that was in kindergarten, and the sheer physical act—he's brilliant, has brilliant stories—but it's just painful. So how we're providing opportunities for him to still shine, and what's appropriate, because there is a time to for struggle. So, I'm excited to have this conversation. 

Paul Beckermann  3:14  

Yeah, I love those personal examples, Rena, because, really, the word that jumps out to me as essential. I mean, if it's essential, we have to do more than just provide an opportunity, you know, we have to ensure that kids are, are getting this access. And I love that it's essential to independence, participation, and progress of these students. All those key pieces. And if kids don't have that, it's really hard for them to be successful in an educational setting. So, we need to make sure that if it's essential, that we get it done with them and for them.

Winston Benjamin  3:47  

I appreciate both of you bringing in your points of views to this conversation, and opening the discussion about the varied nature and identity of students who need accessible supports. But I want to say thank you for Christine Fox for coming in and having this conversation with us. Could you introduce yourself to our listeners, and give a understanding for those who are unfamiliar? Can you explain what assistive technology is or AT? 

Christine Fox  4:17  

Sure. So thank you for having me. My name, again, is Christine Fox. I have been with CAST for about two years, working on a federal grant that supports students with disabilities and their classmates on inclusive technology systems. But some of my background actually starts from the classroom. I was a second language teacher, for which some of the features we'll talk about are great also for those learning a second language. And then I was a reading coach and I spent the bulk of my career in education technology, more general education technology. But during that time, I became familiar with CAST and assistive technologies and accessible education materials because I was on the  National Ames Center's advisory board and then CITES advisory board, as well. I'm from and live in South Florida now. And I taught in the first inclusion school in our county. So it kind of all brings things of background. So for personal stories, I see the benefits for my children as well as I think about the students that I worked with. So what is AT? Assistive technologies are part of a system where an individual with a disability truly needs that tool or device to be successful. There can be low tech, all the way to high tech assistive technologies. So low tech might be the use of sticky notes or pencil grip. Some of the mid-tech tools might be a communication board, or a switch for students that have physical disabilities. And then you can get into more complex high tech, assistive technologies, such as Braille keyboards, or voice-to-text. And so the real distinction between assistive technologies and accessible technologies, which some folks blend those two terms, is that accessable technologies are things that we all use, right? You're driving your car, you're using your voice commands instead of touching your phone. Or you might have audio descriptions on when you're watching Netflix, so you don't have to be right in front of the TV. So those are accessible technologies that many of us leverage. But when they're deemed a need in an IEP, they're considered assistive technologies—A-T.

Rena Clark  6:45  

I appreciate you really framing the difference. I think that will help us in our conversation going forward. So let's talk a little bit more about the assistive technologies. So can you provide maybe a couple of specific examples of some assistive technologies that can be used or are being used successfully in classrooms? 

Christine Fox  7:07  

Yes. So, again, depending on learner variability and learners' needs, assistive technologies might be a student that has ADHD, and their hands can't keep up with how fast their brain is thinking. And so they use voice-to-text and they speak their thoughts. And then they can perhaps organize them in an online document. Some others might be the ability to change the size of a font, or the color contrast, or highlight words, depending on a student's need. And then again, I mentioned some more sophisticated things like an alternate keyboard. Sometimes the child might need an enlarged keyboard because of physical disabilities. It's hard for them to touch a regular-size laptop keyboard. Sometimes even just the ability to use screen readers. So if they've struggled with reading, or they're learning to read and there's different reasons why, depending on learner variability, then using a screen reader would read anything that they would like to hear from their laptop, or whatever device it is, get that audio version.

Rena Clark  8:21  

So kind of digging in and back to what I was talking about a little bit before. So we have these assistive technologies. How might a teacher then empower their students with those assistive technologies?

Christine Fox  8:33  

Well, you know, from our perspective at CAST, and even me personally, first, everyone has to know how to use them, right? And, specifically, if a child has an IEP, that is required. It's part of the system. Not only do you need to provide it, but also teach the families as well as the student and the teachers how to use those technologies. So I think when there's inclusive planning, where special education and general education and curriculum along with the IT, as well as the AT, your districts might have an in-house assistive technology leads, but in other cases, it might be someone they contract with. When folks are working together, and the teacher feels empowered, then the students can. And the other big part of that is not thinking of it as cheating. And that's where there's a lot of misnomers that using AT is cheating. And it's really about enabling. I like the terms that you were talking about: enabling opportunities. And the AT can and then when all students are aware of the assistive technologies that are available and how to use them, often children embrace them that maybe, officially, don't have an IEP, but they can leverage those tools.

Paul Beckermann  9:51  

What have we said in the past? If you provide it for all, then everybody gets to benefit from it, right? It's interesting for you to frame it the assistive versus accessible because I was actually on the the AT committee in my district as one of the tech integration person. I never heard it framed that way. So that's really insightful for me. I'm just curious what kind of challenges schools are facing with successfully implementing this assistive technology, and maybe how they might overcome some of those challenges because I'm sure there are people listening that are thinking, well, there's this barrier, this barrier, can you maybe outline a couple of those?

Christine Fox  10:31  

Sure. So oftentimes, the barriers are the silos. As you can imagine, being on a committee in a district, it's do folks know each other? Have they been talking and planning together? Is the leadership aware of the supports available, the funding available? There are statewide AT support in every state, but maybe your school or district is not aware of those opportunities to get that extra support. And I think that's where the biggest barrier comes in—is information and communication. And what we've seen, and particularly the grant that I mentioned, the Center on Inclusive Technology and Education Systems—CITES, we refer to that because there's not enough acronyms and education. And with that, with CITES, we really saw working with several districts over multiple years, a change and a shift. But it took time. It took dedication. It took a lot of effort, but then they can really change their processes, whether it's the procurement—earlier, it was mentioned about accessible educational materials. If you're purchasing apps, online tools, if you're purchasing online textbooks, or a curriculum—that needs to be accessible, or the child with a screenreader, it doesn't work because there's no alt text for the images, or there's no organization. They have these headers, and then they can't understand what the content is. So it really has to go throughout the district, folks working together. That is the biggest barrier that we have seen.

Paul Beckermann  12:12  

Absolutely. Can you share a little bit more about CITES that you referenced and maybe the resources that listeners might be interested in there?

Christine Fox  12:19  

Absolutely. So CITES is a Technical Assistance Center. It's funded by the Office of Special Education. We were just re-funded for another five years. And the best part about it is your tax dollars at work. All of the resources are openly licensed. We want to be able to share the content with you. We provide a framework for school districts. So it's really a district leadership technical assistance center. And we focus on areas like leadership, infrastructure, teaching, learning, assessment, and family engagement. Some quick tools that we have—we have a glossary. So a couple of the definitions I gave, plus many more. That's one of our most popular supports, and me coming from the EdTech space, it was actually I said, I need a glossary, and then it kind of built out. We have a series of videos that talk about the what and why of what we're doing. And there are four- or five-minute videos, and each of those has a professional learning kit. So any school or district could take it and do a workshop for their educators. We try to make really practical self-assessments and other items that that can be implemented fairly easily.

Paul Beckermann  13:27  

Awesome. And how does how does somebody access that? Where do they find it?

Christine Fox  13:30  

Sure. So we're cites.cast.org.

Paul Beckermann  13:34  

So C-I-T-E? 

Christine Fox  13:35  

Yes. 

Paul Beckermann  13:36  

Awesome. Thank you.

Winston Benjamin  13:39  

You mentioned something earlier that I'm still rattling around in my brain, which is the lack of information as being the cause for lack of doing, right? So could you explain to me or could you help me understand how the use of assistive technology supports the new National Education Technology Plan? 

Christine Fox  14:02  

Yes. So the new the updated National Education Technology Plan, or we refer to it as NETP, was released on January 22. And one incredible part about that particular document is that inclusion, accessibility, Universal Design for Learning, were embedded throughout. So it wasn't like, Oh, we're talking all about technology. And over here, we're going to talk about assistive technology, whether it was truly throughout the examples and the organization and talking about design of instructional practices, all of this was included. And another thing that happened was the Federal Office of Education modeled what we're talking about should happen at the state and district and local level in a school building where the Office of Ed Tech was working with the Office of Special Ed. And so, with that, the Office of Special Education provided examples, resources that was embedded in the National Institute-Education Technology Plan. So we were very excited to understand that was happening. We had heard the buzz behind the scenes. And then simultaneously, the Office of Special Education, on January 22, as well, released The Myths and Facts of AT. And that is a resource document that is available. And similarly, the Office of Ed Tech was promoting that and gave input into that document as well. So, for folks in the special education space, the myths and facts was probably nothing new. But for folks in general education and Ed Tech, they were learning new things about AT and how it can be implemented, and then in some cases, what the requirements are.

Rena Clark  14:13  

And it's kind of back to that collaboration piece. And unfortunately, we don't all have that opportunity to have the time to really have our SpEd teachers or general ed teachers have as much collaboration as we would like. So, some of those resources, I think, could be really helpful. I know that Universal Design for Learning is kind of one of these hot topics right now, for good reason. But how do you see assistive technology fitting in to the UDL framework?

Christine Fox  16:22  

So as you probably know, CAST is the author of the UDL framework and the UDL guidelines, and we really consider assistive technology and accessibility the baseline, right, especially with digital. So, the UDL guidelines wasn't necessarily initially thought of with digital learning environments, but we've had such a big shift, right? So, what is the accessibility requirements so all students can participate? If you are participating in digital learning, which most schools and students are in some way, shape, or form, then it has to be accessible before you can really even talk about learner variability and choice and how to set students up for success. 

Paul Beckermann  17:04  

I'm glad you reminded us that CAST was the author of the UDL Framework. We do talk about UDL quite a bit on the show, and we appreciate having somebody from the cast organization with us today to draw some of these connections for us. So what do we need to do in order to empower our teachers and our students, you know, with assistive technology? Are there training opportunities? What what do we need to do for them?

Christine Fox  17:27  

I think one of the most important things is we really need to make sure that they're aware. They're aware of the resources that are available. The National AEM Center has resources around teacher-created, accessible education materials, short little videos and guidelines so that what teachers are creating and implementing are accessible. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, there is a statewide support. So the National Assistive Technology Act Technical Assistance, that's a big name, but we call it the AT Act. Those centers are available to schools and districts to provide support around AT, whether it's training, lending devices, there are opportunities that maybe folks aren't aware of. And I think when teachers don't feel alone, and they know that there are a variety of resources out there, they will feel more empowered and more excited to try to drive change and try new things.

Winston Benjamin  18:24  

Man, I appreciate you so much, and being able to help us engage with the hoops of technology. So as leaders are working in trying to figure out what to do with all the emerging technologies coming out due to AI and everything of that sort, what should be on their minds regarding AT, assistive technology, and learner variability as they're engaging with these online or multiplied resources?

Christine Fox  18:54  

I think they need to ask questions. When I go to conferences, and I go to the showroom floor, you know, there's lots of shiny new tools that teachers want to try. But ask the vendor, ask the salesperson, whoever comes to your building? What accessibility features does your tool have? Sometimes it's this incredible answer of showing and sharing, and then other times, you get sort of that deer in headlights, and then you know, this might be an issue. And so there are federal guidelines on the types of requirements for web-based and also apps. But I think asking those questions and then knowing what to look for. The other thing about students with disabilities and AI and some of the other tools is where's the privacy around this, right? How are we protecting those students so they're not immediately identified or that information is not being shared because they're leveraging a feature that typically would be deemed someone with a disability. It doesn't mean that company has any right to label and or share that student's information. So I think the most important is asking questions. And in paying attention to what they're trying, and if all of their students can truly access that tool at the same time and access the same information, because that is their right.

Rena Clark  20:17  

So I feel like we're talking about tools and accessing the right tool. So we're gonna go ahead and get into our toolkit. 

Transition Music  20:28  

Check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Rena Clark  20:39  

So what's in our toolkit today? What are y'all thinking?

Winston Benjamin  20:43  

Well, I'm gonna throw in the Office of Special Education and the National Education Technology Plans, Myths and Facts About Assistive Technology. Y'all go learn something as I learned something when I started looking up this information, because again, is it cheating or is it providing students with the opportunity to do the work? 

Paul Beckermann  21:04  

I have a clarifying question, I think, to ask Christine. So a assistive versus accessible tech. Is it somewhat determined by who and why it's being used? Because it could be the same tool?

Christine Fox  21:18  

Correct, correct. So, it's really deemed AT, assistive technology, when it is a need in an IEP in an education setting. So, there are the same tools that we, or many, can use whether or not they have a disability, but then when it is a need in an IEP, it's required for that individual to access the content. 

Paul Beckermann  21:43  

Then I have a toolkit item. I needed to know if I was sharing the right thing. But yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. So like text to speech. Speechify is a is a favorite add-on for me. Speech-to-text, Google Voice Typing works really well. I know at AVID Open Access, we use Otter.ai to transcribe our audio from these into transcripts so that we can post them online. So then people can have screenreaders read those to them. And even little things like alt text you mentioned earlier. If you're creating a web page of some kind, there's a little box that pops up and says alt text, and it's like, well, what is that? And that's alternative text that a screenreader can use to help somebody with visual limitations to read the screen, basically. Right? So those are a few that that I'm thinking of.

Rena Clark  22:36  

And I'm thinking that it really all starts with, again, knowing and understanding your students. And so, really reading through IEPs and 504s. And then I know I've read through some of those and I was confused or didn't understand. So then it's partnering and making sure that you have a relationship with the different educators and people involved— family, special education teacher, if you're a Gen Ed teacher, and so on, so that you really can understand and communicate and then use the assistive technology. Christine, do you have anything you want to add?

Christine Fox  23:14  

So, I mentioned you know, the video series at CITES. I would really encourage that. One of the videos—the first one is The What and Why of Inclusive Technology and we break down AEM accessible education materials, AT and accessible technologies, and show in the video examples of students using them. So I have to give a plug for that. As I mentioned, the National AEM Center has a variety of professional learning resources. But since we're talking tool, I will also mention Corgi, which is another CAST grant and it is online graphic organizers that are accessible, they're universally designed, and they are available at no cost for STEM education. So, it's really easy to sign up. CAST will sign a privacy agreement, which whichever, you know, your district needs, and we encourage you. I think that's a cool tool that teachers could try out that are listening today. 

Rena Clark  23:20  

How do you spell Corgi?

Christine Fox  23:36  

So the Corgi is C-O-R-G-I and it's "co-organize your learning." And then we, you know, we came up with a little, there's a little dog image, and the website is Corgi, the number two, dot-CAST-dot-org.

Paul Beckermann  24:41  

All right, we've got lots of tools for our toolbox. Now let's hop into our one thing.  

Transition Music  24:46  

It's time for that one thing. One thing. One thing. Time for that one thing.

Paul Beckermann  24:56  

It's that one thing. Rena, what's your one thing?

Rena Clark  25:02  

Collaborate. Honestly.

Paul Beckermann  25:04  

That takes more than one person. So is that one thing or is that two things?

Rena Clark  25:10  

It's one thing that you have to do with multiple people. 

Paul Beckermann  25:13  

Okay! 

Rena Clark  25:15  

So, as we're talking through all of this, nothing seems to be done in isolation. Like, it's just not possible. So, really collaborating with multiple parties, different people, so that we can really benefit our students, and even our educators. I know I happen to work with somebody that needs some of these assistive technologies, as well, and they're amazing. So it's not just students, it's also adults that we work with, as well. 

Paul Beckermann  25:43  

Winston.

Winston Benjamin  25:44  

For me, it's inform yourself, so you can ask the right questions, right? Like, because we don't know what assistive or any of these vocabulary words are for the the average teacher who doesn't read the IEP, who do not have the time to focus in, I just want to say to support our students, we need to educate ourselves. 

Paul Beckermann  26:08  

Yeah. And I think my takeaway is just how many resources are available out there. You know, CAST has a bunch of them. There's so many accessibility tools, actually a lot of free ones that are out there, that that kids and teachers can take advantage of. Like you said, Winston, we know about them and have some awareness. One thing that we did in our district that I thought was helpful to sort of cut through the overwhelming number of options was we made an AT cheat sheet, which, if you're looking for text-to-speech, there's one or two that we recommend. If you're looking for speech-to-text, here's one or two, not that you can't look at other ones, but I just don't have time to look for them all. I just need a quick resource, and that can be helpful. Christine, what's your, what's your final thought for us today?

Christine Fox  26:56  

So, I'm gonna use a tagline that we use at CAST. The CAST tagline is "Until Learning Has No Limits." But inside of the National AEM Center, we use the phrase, "Accessibility is everyone's responsibility." And so, whether you're a family member, a fellow student, someone at the district level, a paraprofessional, it's everyone's responsibility. And that means educating yourself as well as sharing your knowledge, and then supporting students.

Paul Beckermann  27:27  

You know what that is, folks, that is a T-shirt, T-shirt, a T-shirt moment. That's a T-shirt right there. I love it.

Winston Benjamin  27:38  

And in that way, I'm going to say ladies and gentlemen, go read your IEPs. Go figure it out. Because again, supporting our students in what they need, and assistive technology is a very important part of it. So we appreciate you Christine for bringing in the topic to help inform others so that they can inform themselves, so that they can be supportive for their students. So thank you for helping begin our educational journey. 

Christine Fox  28:06  

Absolutely. Reach out anytime. Happy to share more or shoot someone an email if you need anything specific. So it was great to be here and I appreciate the opportunity.

Rena Clark  28:21  

Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.

Winston Benjamin  28:24  

We invite you to visit us at AvidOpenAccess.org, where you can discover resources to support student agency, equity, and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners. 

Paul Beckermann  28:39  

We'll be back here next Wednesday for a fresh episode of Unpacking Education. 

Rena Clark  28:43  

And remember, go forth and be awesome. 

Winston Benjamin  28:47  

Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann  28:48  

You make a difference.