Excited to share about an epic adventure the four co-authors of Inclusive Learning 365 have planned. It's always an experience attending #ISTE, one of our favorite conferences. So we had to be a force for inclusive learning and design and have planned a road trip from TextHelp Headquarters in Woburn, MA all the way to New Orleans for #ISTE. Our mission is to accelerate awareness of inclusive strategies among educators, everywhere! We need you to add your favorite traveling songs to our Spotify playlist, give us podcast ideas and participate in WISH (Wonderfully Inclusive Scavenger Hunt ..read more

Register and join the fun with the co-authors of Inclusive Learning 365 as we share more details about the #InclusiveRoadToISTE!   ..read more

We are excited to announce that we (the four co-authors of Inclusive Learning 365: EdTech Strategies for Every Day of the Year) are going on a ROAD TRIP!  We want to spread the gospel of Inclusive Learning to educators everywhere. What better way than to have an epic adventure with my besties on a road trip from Boston to the #ISTE22 conference in New Orleans at the end of June! Stay tuned for more info. There's lots to share and look for more information this next week.  In the meantime, check out the website and the details here.   We are putting the pedal to the metal ..read more

Excited to share this podcast recording with Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher. Loved discussing Inclusive Learning Strategies with Vicki, another passionate educator who makes a huge difference!   365 Inclusive Learning Strategies to Help Every Child @coolcatteacher ..read more

There are numerous options for meeting the needs of all learners in our classrooms. One area that teachers often find challenging is how to adjust the reading level or adapt the content for students who are English Language Learners, have intellectual disabilities or need information cognitively rescaled for any reason. Here are some free tools to try: 1. When conducting a Google Search, did you know you can adjust your search by reading level? Learn how to do that here. This can be invaluable for many students. 2. Did you know Wikipedia offers a more user friendly version for students ..read more

Dear Teacher, I want to learn I want to be independent, but Sometimes your curriculum is the disability. When you give it to me in paper form, I can’t access it. When text is digital, I can manipulate it. I can make it bigger, pick the right font,  add more white space – it’s easier to read. When text is digital, I can add a voice and listen to it. I don’t have to struggle with reading each word. Please don’t make me read outloud; I work so hard to avoid humiliation. Do you know,  I have great ideas…but I can’t get them down on paper? Please give me another way to share them ..read more

If you care about kids please read this. This is an urgent request. The deadline for public comment is today, February 4, by 5:00 PM EST. Today is the last day for Public Comment on Reading Accommodations on the PARCC. Click here to access the accommodations and here to answer the survey. (if you agree with me that this is an important issue, please consider voting NO on the three questions).  The Promise - "When the Race to the Top (RTTT) Assessment applications were announced, all applicants were asked to describe how they would use the principles of universal design for ..read more

Questions I'm pondering this morning..... What does a "good" Assistive Technology evaluation for learning look like? How does the model used by other special education professionals (Psychologist, Speech and Language Pathologist, Special Educator, etc) influence the current AT Assessment model? How does the federal mandate that evaluations must be performed in all areas of suspected disability affect our assessments?  Is it time to rethink Assistive Technology evaluations/assessments and create our own model which includes the fact AT consideration/assessment and implementation must be a ..read more

You've heard this issue before. A parent is frantically trying to help their child receive the assistive (inclusive) technologies they need to independently access content or demonstrate their learning. But there is pushback.... I won't bore you with the details of the denial of the tools or the pushback.  Instead, let me share with you how resourceful and resilient the student was.  The student needed access to an accessible version of the book the class was reading to bypass her reading decoding and fluency challenges. She searched on her own and found the book on YouTube ..read more

     As we teach the significant work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, it is essential to provide resources that support all learners. CommonLit, a free digital tool, offers a variety of inclusive instructional materials to commemorate his important contributions to society. It includes the following embedded scaffolded supports: read aloud (text to speech) features ability to adjust the font size,  side-by-side translation into thirty-three additional languages ability to highlight and/or add annotations, guided reading mode with additional supports to help reader ..read more