[ti:Students with Disabilities Praise Assistive Technology Using AI]
[al:Education Report]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2025-01-15]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Assistive technology involves special equipment and computer software that is meant to help people with disabilities.
[00:11.89]The latest assistive technology is being powered by artificial intelligence (AI), which might help many students who have difficulties with speaking, reading, writing, and working with language. 
[00:27.50]Although many schools are struggling with how and where to use AI, some are welcoming AI applications for students with disabilities.
[00:37.98]The U.S. Education Department requires schools to provide assistive technology to students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a U.S. federal law.
[00:54.73]The Education Department has told school officials they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices. 
[01:07.90]New rules from the Department of Justice also require schools and other government organizations to make apps and online content available to people with disabilities.
[01:21.43]However, there is concern about how to make sure that students using assistive technology are still learning.
[01:32.31]Students 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.
[01:49.99]A computer can read materials aloud for students who have vision and reading problems. 
[01:58.73]More and more, those voices produced by machine sound closer to human voices.
[02:06.60]Alexis Reid is an educational therapist in the Boston area who works with students with learning disabilities.
[02:18.23]Reid 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."
[02:32.96]But Reid said it is far from cheating: "We're meeting students where they are."
[02:41.05]Ben Snyder is a 14-year-old freshman from Larchmont, New York, who was recently told he has a learning disability.
[02:50.99]He has been increasingly using AI to help with homework.
[02:56.76]He sometimes uses AI to explain math problems.
[03:01.77]He likes a program called Question AI. 
[03:06.32]One day, he asked the program to help him write an outline for a book report. 
[03:12.55]He finished the work in 15 minutes. 
[03:15.87]Usually, it would have taken him an hour and a half to create the same outline. 
[03:22.66]But he said he would not use AI to write the report. "That's just cheating," Ben said.
[03:30.68]Paul Sanft is director of a Minnesota-based center where families can use assistive technology tools and borrow devices.
[03:41.88]He knows some people will use the technology to do the work they should be doing by themselves. 
[03:48.89]"That's always going to happen," Sanft said.
[03:52.67]"But 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."
[04:03.00]The U.S. National Science Foundation is providing financial support for AI research and development.
[04:11.55]One group receiving support is called the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and is linked to the University of Buffalo in New York state.
[04:23.98]It is developing tools to help children with speech and language disabilities.
[04:30.10]Venu Govindaraju is the director of the institute.
[04:35.79]He said speech-to-text technology is not as good at understanding children's voices, particularly if there is a speech problem. 
[04:47.07]He said AI technology is not good at understanding children's handwriting either.
[04:53.81]Makenzie Gilkison had trouble spelling words. 
[04:58.82]The 14-year-old from near Indianapolis, Indiana, has a condition called dyslexia. 
[05:08.14]It makes reading difficult.
[05:11.69]"I just assumed I was stupid," she said, thinking of her early grade school years.
[05:18.31]Last year, Gilkison was named to the National Junior Honor Society, an organization that supports leadership and academic success among middle school students.
[05:34.63]She said she improved her school performance by using a special AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program and other tools that read for her.
[05:50.64]"I would have just probably given up if I didn't have them," she said.
[05:58.11]In September, Makenzie's school system started using chatbots to help special education students in high school.
[06:09.72]She said teachers sometimes struggled to provide students with the help they needed.
[06:18.02]The students were happy when they heard about the program. 
[06:23.17]Until recently, students needed to wait for someone to help them, unable to move ahead on their own.
[06:33.17]"Now we don't need to wait anymore," she said.
[06:38.89]I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
[06:42.04]And I'm Jill Robbins.