One of the most memorable analogies I heard many years ago was that we would not expect a person who needs glasses to learn without them. I have worn glasses for nearsightedness since 5th grade. I remember sitting in the front row and still not being able to see the board clearly. My learning suffered, so I went to the eye doctor and learned I needed glasses. It was an adjustment at first because I was not used to wearing them, but suddenly everything was so much clearer. That’s how I think about accessibility features for students.
The same idea applies to students who need accommodations. For example, a student may benefit from oral administration because their listening comprehension is strong, but an SLD affects their reading fluency and ability to understand written assignments. They may have the knowledge but be unable to demonstrate it without the support they need.
Accessibility is an important element in leveling the playing field for students who need supports. In reality, many students benefit from accessibility features whether or not they have a diagnosed specific learning disability (SLD). In this post, I want to discuss a few accessibility features that I personally find helpful for many students.
One thing I have been consistent about is incorporating accessibility features into my math and science resources. All students deserve the opportunity to learn, and providing appropriate supports gives each child a better chance to reach their potential.
Oral Administration
Oral administration (reading questions and answer choices aloud) is an important one for many students! For online resources, I do my best to add audio for instructions, questions, and answer choices in all digital resources. My Boom Learning resources are the most up to date. I am still working through my Google products and adding audio support to all of them.
Here is an example of one of my Boom Cards™ with audio for place value. Click on the image to check it out.
In the classroom, I have always provided read-aloud support when needed. Realistically, I wasn’t as consistent during my first two or three years of teaching because I didn’t know better. Once I learned more, I did better. Transitioning from a secondary teaching certification to elementary education was eye-opening, but I wouldn’t trade that experience.
When Chromebooks became available in my classroom, having technology that could read text aloud was amazing. Students could access read-aloud support without being pulled into a small group, and I could circulate throughout the room, answering content- and language-related questions.
Content and Language Supports
For many English language learners and students with SLDs, vocabulary acquisition can lag behind that of their peers. Unfamiliar words, especially multiple-meaning words and content-specific vocabulary, can interfere with understanding. Students may know the concept being assessed but become stuck on a word they do not understand. Their cognitive load shifts to deciphering a single word instead of understanding the overall meaning.
Speaking from my experience in Texas, state assessments often provide language supports for identified words. Students can hover over or click on a word to access a picture, definition, or explanation. This support can clarify meaning and help students focus on solving the math problem or understanding the passage.
Physical Manipulatives
Hands-on manipulatives can sometimes be misused as toys, and I completely understand that challenge. I have spent plenty of time reminding students that these are learning tools, not toys. Even after repeated reminders and reteaching, children will still be children.
However, for students who have not fully developed abstract thinking skills, concrete representations can be essential for understanding concepts. Even when a student’s chronological age suggests they “should” be ready for abstract thinking, some students still benefit greatly from concrete experiences.
For example:
- A non-digital clock allows students to move the hour and minute hands to develop understanding of time and elapsed time.
- Geometric figures help students identify faces, edges, and vertices by allowing them to physically touch and count each attribute.
- Fraction pieces help students visualize equivalent fractions and compare fractional amounts.
There are many more examples, but these are a few I have consistently seen benefit students. For more information about telling time in particular, you can read about it in my Mastering the Clock blog post.
Graphic Organizers
I believe most students benefit from graphic organizers. Some students can create their own organizers from memory on lined or blank paper. Other students benefit from having a blank organizer provided so they do not have to remember how to create it while also trying to understand the prompt and organize their thoughts.
Graphic organizers are most often used in reading and writing instruction, at least in my experience, but they can also be powerful tools in mathematics. Math organizers can help students break apart multi-step problems, organize important information, identify relevant operations, and represent their thinking visually.
For example, students may use a CUBES-style organizer (Circle, Underline, Box, Evaluate, Solve) to analyze word problems, a bar model to represent relationships between quantities, or a Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) framework organizer to move from manipulatives to drawings and eventually to symbolic equations. These structures reduce cognitive load and allow students to focus more of their mental energy on mathematical reasoning rather than organization.
Final Thoughts on Accessibility Features for Students
Accessibility is for everyone, not just a select few. There are countless effective ways to support student learning both in and out of the classroom.
I have mostly created math and science resources for sale because I feel I can provide high-quality materials in those areas. While working in my classroom and alongside other teachers, I have also created resources to help struggling students with writing and reading tasks. These resources have never been refined enough to post, but I am considering adding some to my listings soon, as my depth of knowledge has expanded in these areas over the past few years as a general education reading teacher and a dyslexia teacher.
As a creator, I continually think about ways to better support the students I teach and the students reached through the resources educators purchase. I am not perfect, and I know I can always improve. I constantly add and refine supports that help a diverse range of learners access content more successfully.
What accessibility features have you used that have helped your students? I would love to read about them in the comments.
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