Audio-Supported Reading & Students with Learning Disabilities: Giving Voice to All Learners

Key Question Being Explored in This Insight:

How can educators and policymakers ensure that students with reading disabilities, particularly those in K-12 settings, are provided with equitable access to inclusively designed digital curriculum materials?

View the page of: Richard Jackson

Institution: Boston College

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Education Professional Special and Inclusive Education

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This video video revolves around a conversation about audio-supported reading for students with learning disabilities. Richard, who has visual and hearing impairments, explains his motivation for this work based on his personal experiences. The discussion delves into the history of audio-supported reading, the impact of technology and legislation, and the importance of personalized learning approaches. Richard emphasizes the need for continuous adaptation and collaboration in designing learning systems for students with diverse needs. Future research should focus on co-designing systems that work best within the learning context and keep up with evolving technology.

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Based on the video , here are 5 key points discussed by Richard regarding audio supported reading and students with learning disabilities:

1. **Personal Background**: Richard shares about his personal experience of being born legally blind and later developing a hearing impairment, which motivated his work in special education and learning disabilities.

2. **History of Audio Supported Reading**: Richard discusses the historical development of using prerecorded audio material to support individuals with visual impairments, dyslexia, and learning disabilities.

3. **Evolution of Education Laws**: He explains the evolution of legislation, particularly the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975, which mandated tailored education for students with disabilities, leading to the concept of special education and later a focus on inclusive general education.

4. **Role of Technology**: Richard emphasizes the benefits of video-to-speech technology in audio supported reading, stating that it allows for the conversion of written video into audible speech, adjusting to the user's pace and preferences for a more human-like and user-controlled experience.

5. **Future Research and Learning Design**: Richard highlights the importance of continuous research and design of learning systems that cater to individual learning preferences and styles, focusing on collaborative approaches and the evolving nature of technology to enhance the learning experiences of students with disabilities.

These key points reflect Richard's insights on the use of technology and audio support in education, the historical convideo, and the future directions of research and inclusive learning approaches for students with disabilities.

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Here are the key quotes from the video you :

1. "What was the convideo?"
2. "I was born legally blind"
3. "With modern technology, it's really easy"
4. "It's a wonderful time to be a learner"
5. "Text to speech technology allows the written word to be converted into audible utterances"

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:90000

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Okay, Richard, so good to speak to you.

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So it is the 5th of November, as we've just been saying,

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it's 3:00 PM in London.

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We're talking about audio supported reading

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and students with learning disabilities.

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Uh, Richard. Okay, so what, what motivated this work?

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What was the context?

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It's a rather, personal,

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context for me.

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Uh, I was, born legally blind

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and then later developed a hearing impairment

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and, got my, doctorate in special education

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and, got quite interested in, learning disabilities.

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So this, this, this a a real common element,

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for the experiences I was having as a child, learning, going

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through school, not having access to printed text.

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And when I did have access to printed text, my reading

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rate was so low that, comprehension

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was a challenge for me.

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And the same was, most, students identified

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as students with learning disabilities over half,

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have a reading difficulty.

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So, I, I found some real allies

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and with, with, learning disabilities

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and visual impairment, one of the solutions is to use,

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prerecorded audio material.

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Uh, this actually began in the 1920s in the state with,

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re with, talking books for the blind.

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And then long about the fifties

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and sixties, students with dyslexia

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or, learning disabilities, reading disabilities,

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were also using these books.

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Originally developed,

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these recordings originally developed for the blind.

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So the, the idea of audio supported reading was

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how, how do we use, the advantages of modern technology

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to really, use technology

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to enhance the reading experience.

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So, dyslexics actually look at texts.

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They read texts, but they don't read it well.

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And, blind, visually impaired.

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Um, students, people, they, they look at text

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or they feel the text with braille,

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but their, their reading rate, particularly mine

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and my others like me, read it very slow rates.

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So, con comprehension

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and processing, processing of information, is really,

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really impaired.

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So with modern technology, it's really easy

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to look at the text or feel the text,

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and listen to it at the same time.

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And, this, there, there are techniques, where,

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people can, pay more attention to what they're seeing

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or feeling with braille

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or, more attention to what they're listening to.

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Depends on how familiar they are with the text.

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It depends on what their purpose is in

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reading in the first place.

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And so, the, the audio,

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audio supported reading really puts the control

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of the process of reading, in the hands of the user.

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And that's, that's kind of,

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Yep.

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Uh, that's pretty thorough.

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That's brilliant. That's fantastic. Yeah. No,

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Really good. So

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I'm just gonna follow up with a couple of questions.

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It's fascinating because I, in my previous life,

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I was a teacher and I remember a, a blind student

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who had brow when I started my career.

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And then as I got to the end of it,

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she was supportive of audio support.

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So it just made her learning so much better than

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what she'd previously got.

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But can I ask you about America and,

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and what is the Individuals

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with Disabilities Education Act about,

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and where do we stand with the use

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of audio supports in education today?

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That's a good question. Um, the, the, the federal law

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of governing special education services began in 1975,

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and it, it really mandated,

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an education for students with disabilities,

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that would be tailored to meet their,

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needs arising from the disability.

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So it, so it really, the law really empowered or enabled

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and created the, what's, what, what's known

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as special education.

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So children without disabilities got a general education

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and children with disabilities got a special education.

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And that, persisted from 75 up until 1997.

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And then in this country, there was a lot

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of concern about all students receiving a standards-based,

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high quality education, that would be linked to,

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adult outcomes.

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It would lead to independent community living

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and, into, gainful employment.

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So education became clo closely tied with,

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adult outcomes.

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The question came up, well, students

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with disabilities are not really enjoying,

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adult outcomes because the education system

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isn't really working for them.

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So maybe special education in

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and of itself is, is just quite limited.

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Uh, maybe these students really need a way to access

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what everybody else gets the general education curriculum

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and, delivered with, with high standards.

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The problem in 1997 was

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that curriculum was a one size fits all,

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and it's just not acce accessible to blind or students

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or low vision students,

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or students with learning disabilities.

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So, at the time, I was, teaching,

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preparing people at Boston College to become teachers

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of the blind and visually impaired.

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And, I got connected with, an outfit in,

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in the Boston area called this, the Center

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for Applied Special Technology.

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They were, they were working on a framework called

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Universal Design for Learning.

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Uh, that, looked not so much at the problems

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of the learner, but rather, the, the, the, the problems

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with the environment, the context,

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and, this, 1997 revision

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of the special education law, re required

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for the first time that students

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with disabilities have access to, are able to participate in

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and, have the opportunity to make progress with

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that general education curriculum.

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So that just opened the door entirely for framework

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that would, not center so much on disability,

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but on the barriers inherent in

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that general education curriculum.

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So, I, joined with this outfit, cast,

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and, formed the National Center on access

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to the general education curriculum.

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I brought, Boston College, in, as a,

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as a university partner.

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And, that law has had tremendous,

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that framework has had tremendous impact on,

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making curriculum, accessible, not only for students

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with disabilities,

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but for all, students that struggle with, with learning.

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We've, now moved into, a digital shift where,

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the curriculum, the one size fits all curriculum is now

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deliverable digitally,

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and that just opens the door for enormous flexibility.

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So, somebody like me, when I got to Boston College,

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I couldn't do anything independently.

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I couldn't use the library independently.

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And now, the entire world, it is available

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to me from my basement,

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using the technologies that we have.

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It's just astounding.

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If I could tell you a quick story, I was at

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that famous library in Dublin, at,

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at the university in Dublin.

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I think it's called a cow library.

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It's just enormous, enormous, books

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that go way, way up.

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And, you know, back when,

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Bishop George Barkley was in residence there,

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you, you, you would have to be so privileged to,

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to get access to those, those texts, you would,

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you would have to be member of, of the aristocracy.

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You would have to be able to read, you'd have to be able to,

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read the print that's in those,

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in those archived in those texts.

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So today, you could put

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that entire collection on a jump drive even better.

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You can stream that entire collection without any hardware.

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So the world has changed.

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There's just never been a better time in history

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to be a learner who's blind or have a learning disability.

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It's just a whole transformation,

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wonderful time to be with it.

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I wish I had another 30 years. Oh,

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You may still do. Let

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me just talk to you about these accessible educational

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materials, I think you were just referencing.

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Um, what ways can they be used to actually support

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specific reading related needs of students

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with learning disabilities?

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Well, with learning disabilities in particular, you can,

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you can,

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not just, have access to the text,

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but, you can, you can also,

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mark it up, highlight it.

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Uh, you can, if you have, your,

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whatever learning strategies you are using, you can,

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capture it.

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You can, put it in another location to repurpose it in,

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in creating an essay

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or just a, a informational text, to retain

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for future uses.

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So it's, it's not just, absorbing the material,

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it's also setting it up so that it matches your, the,

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the way that you interact with material, how you,

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clues for, for, for holding things in mind.

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Um, I think that learning has to be understood from,

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from the perspective of information processing.

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So you, you, on a sensory level, you have to be able

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to interpret what you're looking at.

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But on a, on a brain level, you have to be able to

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segregate,

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the essential features from the irrelevant features.

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And then you, you have to be able to have structures,

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that, allow you to categorize the material.

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So your, the flow of information comes from the source

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that you're accessing the book,

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whether it's recorded or not.

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Uh, but, it also has to, match up with

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what you expect to find what you've learned previously.

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So this, this whole process of learning

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and interacting with the curriculum, transpires over,

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over years, in collaboration with other learners.

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So what's what's wonderful about this day

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and age is that,

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everybody participates in this technology revolution,

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and learners can learn together.

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So it's, it is not like,

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blind students just being restricted with their braille

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that cied people can't read

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or learning disabled kids having to go to remedial reading

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or to a separate school

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because they learn so differently that, they,

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they can't keep up with the classroom pace.

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So it's just a, it's wonderful, wonderful time.

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So you are a proponent of technology,

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but are you a proponent of artificial intelligence?

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This is a contentious question,

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I'm just trying to wind you up, really.

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How does audio support, yes.

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How does audio supported reading, using text

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to speech technology, how does that benefit students?

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Well, the, the, the text to speech technology allows the,

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the written word,

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or string of words to be converted into,

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utterances, audible utterances that,

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have the posity

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and the pace, that, that that human speech has.

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So it's, it's, it, it's not so artificial anymore.

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It, it sounds, human and, the user can speed it up

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and, the, the technology recognizes the structure

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of the text and can insert appropriate,

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atrocity

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and in intonation, rising intonation at the end

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of a question, for example.

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So it, it's, it's intelligent in the system

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that is just, mocking

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or making,

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text sound like human speech within the control of the user.

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I think that's, that's really important.

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It's when you, when you're doing audio supported reading,

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as I've defined it, it's not sitting back

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and passively listening to a narrator.

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It's rather, looking or feeling the text

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and, controlling the rate of it.

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It's stopping and pondering, it's, stopping

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to grab the text,

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however you choose to move it, to another location so

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that you can, if you wanna mark it up

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or gather it later on, all of these things

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really simulate the way that, human

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humans learn, in interacting with information.

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Fantastic, Richard, thank you for that.

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Okay, final question, sir.

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Um, what are your sort of takeaways?

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Obviously this is a huge body of work.

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You spoke about a complete generational shift,

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but what are the conclusions from this study,

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and what should future research,

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where should future research be?

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Well, I, I think that, we look for

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science, strives to really understand

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how to design, learning systems that,

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match up with, learning styles.

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And sometimes learning styles are,

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are defined by the disability.

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I don't believe in learning styles.

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I think there are learning preferences

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that e evolve over time,

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and that, if, if we're, if we have, wonderful,

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enriching, engaging experiences with,

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all the technologies that are available, you know,

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through a very rich early education experience, then,

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then people tend to, discover, their, their,

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their best way of, of learning.

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So the, the future really lies in, not,

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trying to figure out how best to design technology

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to speak well, or how to, whether people,

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listening, learn better than people, looking,

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I, those experiments that just kind of isolate, break down

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the, the experience of using technology to read,

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miss the point.

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Um, the science of the future needs to be a design-based,

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system where we're exposing students

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to approaches in collaboration with others.

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They, they, they co-design with others, to find systems

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that, that really work,

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best in the learning context.

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And keep in mind that this is a,

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this is a continuous moving pro, target.

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Uh, what's accessible today, what works today,

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it's gonna be very different in six months.

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You know, I described my early years, at Boston College

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where I, I couldn't do anything independently.

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I was reading print at 150 words per minute.

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It just way below

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what a high school senior would be expected to do.

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And, and today, I'm, with all my years of experience

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and with the advances in technology, I'm able

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to function completely independently,

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but it's changed all the time.

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And the speech that I started, I originally,

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when I first heard speech, I couldn't stand it.

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It was just machine stuff.

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And it wasn't until I timed myself, that I said, wow, I,

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I, I'm learning so much faster with the speech,

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I better just pay a lot more attention to it.

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And that's, that's really what, got me motivated

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and to writing about, not just learn listening

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to reading, but what's going on, in the brain.

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What's, how, how is information being processed when the

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technology is in the, under the control of the user.

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Fantastic, sir.

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That's all the time we have of you, Richard.

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Lemme tell you about your next sets before.

Quick Answers

"Revolutionizing Learning: The Journey of Accessibility and Technology"

00:00:00 - I was, born legally blind, and then later developed a hearing impairment and, got my, doctorate in special education and, got quite interested in, learning disabilities. So there's this, there's a real common element, for the experiences I was having as a child, learning, going through school, not having access to printed text. And when I did have access to printed text, my reading
00:00:34 - was a challenge for me. And the same was, most, students identified as students with learning disabilities over half, have a reading difficulty. So, I, I found some real allies. And with, with, learning disabilities and visual impairment, one of the solutions is to use, prerecorded audio material. this actually began in the 1920s in the state with,
00:01:08 - And then long, about the fifties and sixties, students with dyslexia or, learning disabilities, reading disabilities we're also using these books. Originally developed, these recordings originally developed for the blind. So the, the idea of audio supported reading was how, how do we use, the advantages of modern technology to really, use technology

Title: Enhancing Reading Skills for Dyslexic and Visually Impaired Students Through Audio-Supported Learning

00:01:38 - So, dyslexics actually look at texts. They read texts, but they don't read it well. And, blind, visually impaired. students, people, they, they look at text or they feel a text with braille. but their, their reading rate, particularly mine and my others like me, read it very slow rates. So, con comprehension and processing, processing of information, is really,
00:02:10 - So with modern technology, it's really easy to look at the text or feel the text, and listen to it at the same time. And, this, there, there are techniques, where, people can, pay more attention to what they're seeing or feeling with braille or, more attention to what they're listening to. Depends on how familiar they are with the text.
00:02:42 - reading in the first place. And so, the, the audio, audio supported reading really puts the control of the process of reading, in the hands of the user. The federal law, governing special education services began in 1975, and it, it really mandated, an education for students with disabilities,

"Empowering Special Education: Addressing Needs and Access to Education"

00:03:15 - needs arising from the disability. So it, so it really, the law really empowered or enabled and created, what's, what, what's known as special education. So children without disabilities got a general education and children with disabilities got a special education, and that, persisted from 75 up until 1997. And then in this country, there was a lot
00:03:46 - receiving the standards based high quality education, that would be linked to, adult outcomes. It would lead to independent community living and, into, gainful employment. So education became clo closely tied with, adult outcomes. The question came up, well, students with disabilities are not really enjoying, adult outcomes because the education system isn't really working for them.
00:04:18 - and of itself is, is just quite limited. maybe these students really need a way to access what everybody else gets the general education curriculum and, delivered with, with high standards. The problem in 1997 was that curriculum was a one size fits all, and it's just not acce accessible to blind or students or low vision students, or students with learning disabilities.

Title: "Empowering Education for the Visually Impaired and Students with Disabilities"

00:04:50 - preparing people at Boston College to become teachers of the blind and visually impaired. And, I got connected with, an outfit in, in the Boston area called this, the Center for Applied Special Technology. And they were, they were working on a framework called Universal Design for Learning. that, looked not so much at the problems of the learner, but rather, the, the, the, the problems
00:05:20 - and, this, 1997 revision of the special education law, re required for the first time that students with disabilities have access to, are able to participate in and, have the opportunity to make progress with that general education curriculum. So that just opened the door entirely for framework that would, not center so much on disability,
00:05:50 - that general education curriculum. I, joined with this outfit, cast, and, formed the National Center on access to the general education curriculum. I brought, Boston College, in, as a, as a university partner. And, that law has had tremendous, that framework has had tremendous impact on, making curriculum, accessible, not only for students

Title: "The Digital Shift: Accessible Learning for All"

00:06:19 - but for all, students that struggle with, with learning. We've, now moved into, a digital shift where, the curriculum, the one size fits all curriculum is now deliverable digitally, and that just opens the door for enormous flexibility. So, somebody like me, when I got to Boston College, I couldn't do anything independently. I couldn't use the library independently.
00:06:52 - to me from my basement, using the technologies that we have. It's just astounding. If I could tell you a quick story, I was at that famous library in Dublin, at, at the university in Dublin. I think it's called Cal Library. And it's just enormous, enormous, books that go way, way up. And, you know, back when, Bishop George Barkley was in residence there,
00:07:26 - to get access to those, those texts, you would, you would've to be member of the aristocracy, you would've to be able to read, you'd have to be able to, read the print that's in those, in those archived, in those texts. So today, you could put that entire collection on a jump drive even better. You can stream that entire collection without any hardware.

Transformative Advances in Accessible Learning for Individuals with Disabilities

00:07:56 - There's just never been a better time in history to be a learner who's blind or have a learning disability. It's just a whole transformation, wonderful time to be with it. I've learning disabilities in particular, you can, you can, not just, have access to the text, but, you can, you can also, mark it up, highlight it.
00:08:28 - whatever learning strategies you are using, you can, capture it. You can, put it in another location to repurpose it in, in creating an essay or just a, a informational text, to retain for future uses. So it is, it's not just, absorbing the material, it's also setting it up so that it matches your, the,
00:09:00 - clues for, for, for holding things in mind. I think that learning has to be understood from, from the perspective of information processing. So you, on a sensory level, you have to be able to interpret what you're looking at. But on a, on a brain level, you have to be able to segregate, the essential features from the i irrelevant features.

"Transformative Learning through Technology in the Modern Era"

00:09:31 - that, allow you to categorize the material. So you're, the flow of information comes from the source that you're accessing the book, whether it's recorded or not, but, it also has to, match up with what you expect to find what you've learned previously. So this, this whole process of learning and interacting with the curriculum, transpires over,
00:10:01 - So what's what's wonderful about this day and age is that, everybody participates in this technology revolution, and learners can learn together. So it's, it's not like, blind students just being restricted with their braille, that sighted people can't read or learning disabled kids having to go to remedial reading or to a separate school because they learn so differently that, they,
00:10:33 - So it's just a, it's wonderful, wonderful time. The text to speech technology allows the, the written word, or string of words to be converted into, utterances, audible utterances that, have the posity and the pace, that, that that human speech has. So it's, it's, it, it's not so artificial anymore.

"The Impact of Audio Supported Reading in Learning and Technology"

00:11:07 - and, the, the technology recognizes the structure of the text and can insert appropriate, ity and in intonation, rising intonation at the end of a question, for example. So it, it's, it's intelligent in the system that is just, mocking
00:11:33 - text sound like human speech within the control of the user. I think that's, that's really important. It's when you, when you're doing audio supported reading, as I've defined it, it's not sitting back and passively listening to a narrator. It's rather, looking or feeling the text and, controlling the rate of it. It's stopping and pondering, it's, stopping to grab the text, however you choose to move it, to another location so
00:12:08 - or gather it later on, all of these things really simulate the way that the, human humans learn, in interacting with information. We look for science, strives to really understand how to design, learning systems that, match up with,

Title: Evolution of Learning Preferences and Collaborative Design in Education

00:12:39 - And sometimes learning styles are, are defined by the disability. I don't believe in learning styles. I think there are learning preferences that e evolve over time, and that, if, if we're, if we have, wonderful, enriching, engaging experiences with, all the technologies that are available, you know, through a very rich early education experience, then then people tend to, discover,
00:13:14 - So the, the future really lies in, not, trying to figure out how best to design technology to speak well, or how to, whether people, listening, learn better than people, looking, I, those experiments that just kind of isolate, break down the, the experience of using technology to read,
00:13:43 - the science of the future needs to be a design-based, system where we're exposing students to approaches in collaboration with others. They, they, they co-design with others, to find systems that, that really work, best in the learning context. And keep in mind that this is a, this is a continuous moving pro, target.

Transformation through Technology: A Personal Journey

00:14:14 - it's gonna be very different in six months. You know, I described my early years, at Boston College where I, I couldn't do anything independently. I was reading print at 150 words per minute, just way below what a high school senior would be expected to do. And, and today, I'm, with all my years of experience and with the advances in technology, I'm able to function completely independently,
00:14:44 - And the speech that I started, I originally, when I first heard speech, I couldn't stand it. It was just machine stuff. And it wasn't until I timed myself, that I said, wow, I, I, I'm learning so much faster with the speech, I better just pay a lot more attention to it. And that's, that's really what, got me motivated and to writing about, not just learn listening to reading, but what's going on, in the brain.
00:15:18 - technology is in the, under the control of the user?

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