Along with many others; I continue to be concerned about special needs students at this time.
We are living in times when online education is growing because of the covid-19 virus and understandably so. However, there needs to be a conscious effort made to be able to accommodate students with special needs.
For blind and vision impaired students, online facilities need to be thoroughly tested for accessibility, usability, and navigability. Educators need to ensure that proper testing is carried out to include the use of screen readers, magnification software, scanners, and any other related software. In the case of videos, that audio description is included.
In the case of those with hearing challenges, proper captioning needs to be included along with any other pieces of software that is needed in order for these groups of students to be able to participate fully.
Then there are those students with learning and cognitive disabilities and those with autistic challenges and those students with other types of challenges.
We also need to be concerned with regard to those many apps that are being developed for i devices and here again; accessibility needs to be considered and included.
If what we are being told is that moving forward online learning is going to play a larger role in the education environment, then I can only implore the educational experts to please include the needs and requirements of our students with special needs.
Just my two cents for today.