For Mackenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros can come across as “rhinocerasous” or sarcastically “sarcastic”.
The 14-year-old girl from suburban Indianapolis can speak words, but her dyslexia makes the process so tedious that she often has difficulty understanding.
“I assumed I was stupid,” she said, recalling her early grade school years.
But assistive technology powered by artificial intelligence has helped him keep up with his classmates. Last year, McKenzie was named to the National Junior Honor Society. She credits a customized AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program, and other tools that can read for her.
“If I didn’t have them, I probably would have given up,” she said.
new technology; countless possibilities
Artificial Intelligence promises to help countless students with visual, speech, language and hearing disabilities perform tasks that come easily to others. Schools everywhere are struggling with how and where to incorporate AI, but many are creating fast-tracking applications for students with disabilities.
Getting the latest technology into the hands of students with disabilities is a priority for the U.S. Department of Education, which has told schools they should consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices. The new Justice Department rules will also require schools and other government entities to make apps and online content accessible to people with disabilities.
There are concerns about how to ensure that students using it – including those with disabilities – are still learning.
Students can use artificial intelligence to summarize complex ideas into an outline, summarize complex paragraphs, or even translate Shakespeare into plain English. And computer-generated voices that can read passages to visually impaired and dyslexic students are becoming less robotic and more natural.
“I’m seeing a lot of students exploring on their own, almost feeling like they’ve found a cheat code to a video game,” said Alexis Reed, an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students. Work with learning disabilities. But in his view, this is far from fraudulent: “We’re meeting students where they are.”
Programs reinforce classroom lessons
Ben Snyder, a 14-year-old newcomer from Larchmont, New York, who was recently diagnosed with a learning disability, is increasingly using AI to help with homework.
“Sometimes in math, my teacher will explain a problem to me, but it makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “So if I plug that problem into an AI, it will give me lots of different ways to explain how to do it.”
He likes a program called Question AI. Earlier in the day, he asked the program to help him write an outline of a book report – a task he completed in 15 minutes, which otherwise would have taken him an hour and a half due to his struggles with writing and organization. But he believes using AI to write entire reports crosses a line.
“It’s just cheating,” Ben said.
Schools consider the pros and cons
Schools are trying to balance the benefits of technology against the risk that it will bring too many benefits. If a special education plan sets growth in reading as a goal, the student needs to improve that skill. Mary Lawson, general counsel of the Council of the Great City Schools, said AI can’t do it for them.
But technology can help level the playing field for students with disabilities, said Paul Senft, director of the Minnesota-based center, where families can try out different assistive technology devices and borrow equipment.
“There will definitely be people who will use some of these tools in nefarious ways. That’s always going to happen,” Senft said. “But I don’t think that’s the biggest concern for people with disabilities who are just trying to do something they couldn’t do before.”
Another risk is that AI will track students into less rigorous courses of study. And, because it is so good at identifying patterns, AI may be able to detect whether a student has a disability. Luis Perez, head of disability and digital inclusion at CAST, formerly the Center for Applied Specialized Technology, said the disclosure by the AI and not the student or their family could create ethical dilemmas.
Schools are using technology to help students who struggle academically, even if they don’t qualify for special education services. In Iowa, a new law requires students deemed non-proficient — about a quarter of them — to receive an individualized reading plan. As part of that effort, the state Department of Education spent $3 million on an AI-powered personalized learning program. When students struggle, a digital avatar intervenes.
Teachers hope for more tools
The US National Science Foundation is funding AI research and development. A firm is developing devices to help children with speech and language difficulties. Called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, it conducted pioneering work on handwriting recognition that helped the U.S. Postal Service save millions of dollars through automated processing.
Venu Govindaraju, director of the institute, said, “We are able to solve the postal application with very high accuracy. When it comes to children’s handwriting, we fail very miserably.” He sees this as an area that needs more work, along with speech-to-text technology, which is not as good at understanding children’s voices, especially if there are speech impediments.
Sorting through the vast number of programs developed by education technology companies can be a time-consuming challenge for schools. Richard Kulta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, said the nonprofit launched an effort this fall to make it easier for districts to check what they’re buying and make sure it’s accessible.
mother sees possibility
McKenzie wishes some tools were easier to use. Sometimes a feature will be shut down inexplicably, and you will be without it for a week while the technical team investigates. The challenges can be so burdensome that some students resist technology altogether.
But McKenzie’s mother, Nadine Gilkison, who works as a technology integration supervisor at Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indiana, said she sees more upside than downside.
In September, her district launched chatbots to help special education students at the high school. She said teachers, who sometimes struggle to provide students with the support they need, were emotional when they heard about the program. Until now, students were dependent on someone to help them, unable to move forward on their own.
“Now we don’t need to wait any longer,” he said.