Inclusive Education

Assistive Technology Sessions at EMC – Inclusive Education Team.

Students who have been identified by their teachers or support staff as needing some assistance with reading, writing or comprehending written text are invited into small group sessions at EMC to learn how to use Assistive Technology. 

Three sessions have run across all year levels so far, with more to come. Students will receive a certificate to show their teachers and parents, a set of headphones so they can use the technology immediately; and special permission to use this technology whenever appropriate in class. 

All year levels are welcome, and sessions are running each week, please email kate.laister@education.vic.gov.au or Allison.johnson@education.vic.gov.au if you think your child could benefit from these technologies and we can add them to the list to attend a future session. 

These sessions teach students practical strategies to support their learning including using Voice to Text Dictation, Text to speech and gaining access to E-Books and Audiobooks (online through an EMC platform) to support their learning. 

Assistive Technology – A different way to learn

For individuals with learning disorders, the opportunity to use assistive technology to support and reinforce the learning process along with reducing the functional impact of their learning disability, means that their overall level of success is greatly improved.

Thankfully, many versions of assistive technology are accessible and free provided you have a laptop, tablet or a phone. At EMC all student’s laptops are equipped with the technology needed to use Speech to Text and Dictation.

Using Text to Speech through Microsoft Word https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/listen-to-your-word-documents-with-read-aloud-967a1533-4ba3-4e84-8ddc-132b1564434f  a student can open up their reading for their class and using headphones they can actively listen and learn, especially if comprehending lengthy text is a concern and a challenge for them.

Free Voice Recognition technology is accessible through Microsoft word both online and in Microsoft 365 (installed on all students laptops). So, for students who need to write a story, or their responses to questions but find their brain is working faster than they can type or write, they can dictate their responses directly into a word document or google doc and the computer will type the words as they are verbalised:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dictate-your-documents-in-word-3876e05f-3fcc-418f-b8ab-db7ce0d11d3c