Assistive Technology in the School Library

Question: How do you currently meet the diverse abilities of your students with your School Library technologies, and what could you do to better serve you students? If you are currently doing a terrific job with this, tell us about it!

Currently in my library, I have 10 Kindle Fire tablets, which I acquired last year (during my first year at Neshobe) in order to make complex texts more available to readers who sometimes struggle. The Kindle Fire is a good choice for this purpose because Kindle offers quite a few books with the WhisperSync feature, which allows you to simultaneously listen to an audiobook and read along, with word-by-word highlighting. Because this tool uses recorded audiobooks, the books are read in a human voice, rather than computerized voice. Kindle Fire also offers other accessibility features, like changing font, text size, margin size and more.

I also have 10 iPads that I lend out to classrooms and use in the library for various projects. Apple has a number of accessibility features built in to the iPad, and there are quite a few apps available that can increase accessibility of a variety of class content. One reading app that I have been very impressed with is Epic!, which provides free access for teachers to a wide variety of mostly elementary-level e-books, many of which are available with audio. Because I manage the iPads, rather than the technology department, I can quickly respond to teacher requests for additional apps to improve accessibility.

Last year we had a student with an emerging problem of limited vision, and I worked with the special educators, classroom teachers, and the technology department to ensure we were meeting the student's needs. We did not have iPads in the library at the time, but the student used one of the library Kindles to complete required readings for class. 

I try to stay informed about the needs of the student population at my school. I don't believe in prematurely investing in technologies just in case we have a student who needs it in the future, but the devices I have invested in flexibly meet a variety of different student needs. I do think it is essential to be in regular communication with the special educators and classroom teachers to ensure that you are providing the accommodations students need in the school library.