AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning how to use it

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For Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhino can come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastically as “srkastik.”

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A 14-year-old girl from suburban Indianapolis can pronounce words, but her dyslexia makes the process so difficult that she often has difficulty understanding. “I just thought I was stupid,” he recalled of his early years at school.

But assistive technology powered by artificial intelligence has helped him keep up with his classmates. Last year, Makenzie was named to the National Junior Honor Society. He recommends a customized AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction system and other tools that can read to him.

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“Maybe I would have quit if I didn’t have them,” he said.

Artificial intelligence holds the promise of helping many students with a range of visual, speech, language and hearing impairments to perform tasks that come easily to others. Schools everywhere have been grappling with how and where to incorporate AI, but many are urgent applications for students with disabilities.

Putting the latest technology in the hands of students with disabilities is a priority for the US Department of Education, which has told schools that they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and other communication tools. New rules from the Department of Justice will also require schools and other government agencies to make apps and online content accessible to those with disabilities.

There are concerns about how to ensure that students – including those with disabilities – are still learning.

Students can use artificial intelligence to condense jumbled thoughts into an outline, summarize complex passages, or translate Shakespeare into plain English. And computer-generated voices that can read the roles of visually impaired students and students with learning disabilities are becoming less and less natural.

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“I find that a lot of students like to test themselves, they almost feel like they’ve got a cheat code for a video game,” says Alexis Reid, an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students with learning disabilities. But in his opinion, it is not cheating at all: “We meet the students where they are.”

Ben Snyder, a 14-year-old from Larchmont, New York, who was recently diagnosed with a learning disability, has been using AI to help with homework.

“Sometimes in maths, my teachers will explain the problem to me, but it doesn’t make sense at all,” he said. “So if I plug that problem into AI, it’s going to give me a lot of different ways to explain how to do that.”

He likes a program called Question AI. Previously, he asked the program to help him draft a book report – a task he completed in 15 minutes that otherwise would have taken him an hour and a half due to his writing and editing difficulties. But you think you’re using AI to write a report all over the line.

“That’s just cheating,” said Ben.

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Schools have been trying to balance the benefits of technology against the risk that it will do too much. If a special education program places the development of reading as a goal, the student needs to develop that skill. AI can’t do it for them, said Mary Lawson, general counsel for the Greater City Council of Schools.

But technology can help level the playing field for students with disabilities, said Paul Sanft, director of a Minnesota-based center where families can try out assistive technology tools and borrow equipment.

“Of course there will be people who will use some of these tools in bad ways. That will always happen,” said Sanft. “But I don’t think that’s a big 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 academic courses. Also, because it is so good at identifying patterns, AI may be able to detect that a student has a disability. That disclosure by the AI ​​and not the student or their family could create ethical problems, said Luis Perez, who leads disability and digital inclusion at the center for accessible technology.

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Schools are using technology to help students who are struggling academically, even if they don’t qualify for special education services. In Iowa, a new law requires students who are considered non-proficient — about a quarter of them — to receive an individualized learning plan. As part of that effort, the state education department spent $3 million on an AI-powered teaching program. When students struggle, a digital avatar intervenes.

More AI tools are coming soon.

The US National Science Foundation funds AI research and development. Another company is developing tools to help children with speech and language difficulties. Called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, headquartered at the University of Buffalo, it is doing pioneering handwriting recognition work that has helped the US Postal Service save hundreds of millions of dollars through automated processing.

“We are able to solve the postal application with the highest accuracy. When it comes to children’s writing, we fail a lot,” said the center’s director, Venu Govindaraju. He sees it as an area that needs more work, as well as speech and text technology, which does not have the ability to understand children’s voices, especially if there is a speech problem.

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Sorting through the vast number of programs developed by education technology companies can be a time-consuming challenge for schools. Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, said the non-profit organization launched the effort this fall to make it easier for districts to check what they’re buying and make sure it’s affordable.

Makenzie wishes other tools were easier to use. Sometimes a feature will mysteriously shut down, and you’ll be without it for a week while the tech team investigates. The challenges can be so difficult that some students resist technology altogether.

But Makenzie’s mother, Nadine Gilkison, who works as a technology integration manager at the Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indiana, said she sees more promise than bad.

In September, his district rolled out chatbots to help special education students at the high school. He said the teachers, who have struggled to provide the students with the help they need, were saddened when they heard about this plan. Until now, students have been dependent on someone to help them, unable to continue on their own.

“Now we don’t have to wait anymore,” he said.

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