For 14-year-old Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is a formidable challenge. The word “rhinoceros” may come out as “rineanswsaurs” or even the more playful “srkastik,” reflecting her struggles with dyslexia. Residing in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Makenzie manages to sound out words but finds the mental effort exhausting, often leading to difficulties in understanding. “I just thought I was stupid,” she reflected on her elementary school experiences.
However, advancements in assistive technology, particularly those powered by artificial intelligence (AI), have been instrumental in helping her keep pace with her peers. Makenzie gained recognition last year by being selected for the National Junior Honor Society. She credits this achievement to an AI-driven chatbot tailored to her needs, a word prediction software, and other assistive tools capable of reading aloud. “I probably would have just given up without them,” she expressed.
Artificial intelligence bears significant potential to aid numerous students facing various visual, speech, language, and hearing challenges in performing tasks that others find straightforward. Educational institutions across the country are grappling with the integration of AI, but many are prioritizing its use specifically for students with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education is emphasizing the necessity of equipping students with disabilities with tools such as text-to-speech software and alternative communication systems. New regulations from the Department of Justice will mandate that schools and governmental organizations make their applications and digital content accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Nonetheless, there are concerns about ensuring that students, including those with disabilities, are genuinely learning as they utilize this technology. Learners can employ AI to convert disorganized thoughts into structured outlines, distill complex texts, or rephrase classic literature into contemporary language. Moreover, text-to-speech technology is evolving, with computer-generated voices becoming progressively more human-like and less mechanical.
Educational therapist Alexis Reid, based in Boston and working with students who have learning disabilities, remarked, “I notice a lot of students are exploring these tools independently, almost feeling they have discovered a cheat code akin to a video game.” She clarifies that this isn’t cheating but rather meeting students “where they are.”
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Ben Snyder, a freshman from Larchmont, New York, who recently received a diagnosis of a learning disability, has started relying heavily on AI for his homework. “Sometimes in math, my teachers explain concepts, but it just doesn’t make sense. So, when I input that problem into AI, it presents me with various methods of explanation,” he noted. He favors a tool known as Question AI and recently utilized it to craft an outline for a book report, completing the task in just 15 minutes compared to the usual hour and a half it took him due to his struggles with writing and organization. However, he believes that using AI to compose an entire report crosses a boundary. “That’s just cheating,” he remarked.
Schools are striving to strike a balance between harnessing the advantages of this technology and mitigating the risk that it might do too much for the student. If a student’s special education plan targets reading improvement, it is vital that the student makes actual progress in that area—AI cannot fulfill that requirement, as pointed out by Mary Lawson, general counsel at the Council of the Great City Schools. Yet, Paul Sanft, director of a Minnesota center dedicated to assistive technology, believes such tools can provide significant help to students with disabilities. “There will inevitably be individuals who misuse these tools; that’s always a risk,” he acknowledged. “However, I don’t believe that misuse is the primary concern for individuals with disabilities, who simply want to achieve things they couldn’t do before.”
Another consideration is the possibility that AI could inadvertently place students in less challenging academic paths. Since AI is effective at recognizing patterns, there is a risk it could identify a student’s disability, potentially leading to ethical issues if that information comes to light through AI rather than through the student or their family, suggests Luis Pérez, a specialist in disability and digital inclusion at CAST.
In many schools, AI is being applied to assist students showing academic difficulties, even if they do not qualify for special education. For example, in Iowa, a new statute mandates that students scoring below proficiency—approximately 25%—receive personalized reading plans. To support this initiative, the state’s education department allocated $3 million for an AI-powered personalized tutoring system that includes digital avatars to assist students when they struggle.
More innovations in AI are anticipated soon. The U.S. National Science Foundation is actively funding AI research and development, with one organization focusing on creating tools to assist children with speech and language challenges. This initiative, referred to as the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and based at the University of Buffalo, sprang from groundbreaking work on handwriting comprehension that helped the U.S. Postal Service automate processes and save substantial costs.
According to Venu Govindaraju, director of the institute, while they’ve achieved high accuracy in postal applications, they still face significant challenges with children’s handwriting, indicating a need for further progress in this area, as well as in speech-to-text technologies that struggle with the nuances of children’s voices, especially those with speech impediments.
Sorting through the multitude of educational technology programs available can be overwhelming for schools. To address this, Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, announced an initiative aimed at simplifying the process for districts to evaluate potential purchases and ensure that the products are accessible.
Makenzie wishes the assistive tools were more user-friendly. Occasionally, essential features become disabled unexpectedly, leaving her without them for an entire week while the tech support team investigates the issue. Such frustrations can sometimes lead students to resist using the technology entirely.
Despite these hurdles, Makenzie’s mother, Nadine Gilkison, who serves as a technology integration supervisor in Franklin Township Community School Corporation, remains optimistic about the benefits that outweigh the drawbacks. This past September, her district implemented chatbots designed to assist high school students with special education needs. She observed that teachers, who often struggle to provide adequate support, reacted emotionally upon learning about the program, freeing students from reliance on others for assistance. “Now we don’t need to wait anymore,” she stated.
