Students with Disabilities Praise Assistive Technology Using AI

01Assistive technology involves special equipment and computer software that is meant to help people with disabilities.

02The latest assistive technology is being powered by artificial intelligence, or AI, which might help many students who have difficulties with speaking, reading, writing, and working with language.

03Although many schools are struggling with how and where to use AI, some are welcoming AI applications for students with disabilities.

04The U.S.

05Education Department requires schools to provide assistive technology to students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a U.S.

06federal law.

07The Education Department has told school officials they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices.

08New rules from the Department of Justice also require schools and other government organizations to make apps and online content available to people with disabilities.

09However, there is concern about how to make sure that students using assistive technology are still learning.

10Students can use AI to organize thoughts into an outline, summarize complex reading material, or even translate the works of William Shakespeare into today's English.

11A computer can read materials aloud for students who have vision and reading problems.

12More and more, those voices produced by machine sound closer to human voices.

13Alexis Reed is an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students with learning disabilities.

14Reed said, I'm seeing that a lot of students are kind of exploring on their own, almost feeling like they've found a cheat code in a video game.

15But Reed said, It is far from cheating.

16We're meeting students where they are.

17Ben Snyder is a 14-year-old freshman from Larchmont, New York, who was recently told he has a learning disability.

18He has been increasingly using AI to help with homework.

19He sometimes uses AI to explain math problems.

20He likes a program called Question AI.

21One day, he asked the program to help him write an outline for a book report.

22He finished the work in 15 minutes.

23Usually, it would have taken him an hour and a half to create the same outline.

24But he said he would not use AI to write the report.

25That's just cheating, Ben said.

26Paul Sanft is director of a Minnesota-based center where families can use assistive technology tools and borrow devices.

27He knows some people will use the technology to do the work they should be doing by themselves.

28That's always going to happen, Sanft said.

29But I don't think that's the biggest concern with people with disabilities, who are just trying to do something that they couldn't do before.

30The U.S.

31National Science Foundation is providing financial support for AI research and development.

32One group receiving support is called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and is linked to the University of Buffalo in New York State.

33It is developing tools to help children with speech and language disabilities.

34Vinu Govindraju is the director of the institute.

35He said, speech-to-text technology is not as good at understanding children's voices, particularly if there is a speech problem.

36He said, A.I.

37technology is not good at understanding children's handwriting either.

38Mackenzie Gilkison had trouble spelling words.

39The 14-year-old, from near Indianapolis, Indiana, has a condition called dyslexia.

40It makes reading difficult.

41I just assumed I was stupid, she said, thinking of her early grade school years.

42Last year, Gilkison was named to the National Junior Honor Society, an organization that supports leadership and academic success among middle school students.

43She said she improved her school performance by using a special AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program, and other tools that read for her.

44I would have just probably given up if I didn't have them, she said.

45In September, Mackenzie's school system started using chatbots to help special education students in high school.

46She said teachers sometimes struggled to provide students with the help they needed.

47The students were happy when they heard about the program.

48Until recently, students needed to wait for someone to help them, unable to move ahead on their own.

49Now, we don't need to wait anymore, she said.

50I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

51And I'm Jill Robbins.