Just slightly less than two percent of the U.S. population reports having a learning disability, or some 4.6 million Americans, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
Here in Indiana, about one in five students face a learning disability in the classroom.
Dyslexia is a common learning disability that prevents students from reading correctly due to jumbled letters and numbers, which ultimately leads to confusion.
The Alexandria, Ind. Community School Corporation has discovered a way to assist nearly 100 struggling students across the school district using audiobooks.
Those with print disabilities can now access over 80,000 audiobooks in the form of textbooks, novels, and leisure reads.
It all started with the 2013 Special Improvement Grant.
“I decided to write the grant because one of the biggest obstacles to helping our kids was we didn’t have enough audiobooks in our library for students with disabilities and we didn’t have funding to buy an entire library,” said Jenny Smithson, special education director for the Alexandria school district.
After speaking with the district’s representative of The PATINS Project, a state-wide technical assistance network for the provision of accessible technology for assisting local educational agencies in the utilization and creation of accessible learning environments and instructional materials, Smithson discovered she could access audio books through the Indiana Center for Assessable Materials (ICAM) free of charge. ICAM had direct access to Learning Ally’s 80,000 audiobooks.
“The State of Indiana had already paid for it. I didn’t even know anything about it,” admitted Smithson. “At that point I wrote the grant to get mobile devices for all of my students so they could access Learning Ally for textbooks and novels.”
The grant was written to obtain 180 iPods for the 2014-2015 school year for those in grades seven through 12th.
“It was amazing. They were reading so much more and better in their classes. Their grades went up,” she said.
The program has now expanded to include the intermediate school for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Doug Sprei, national director of communications for Learning Ally, said the program serves approximately 10,000 schools encompassing K-12 through higher education. He said he views audiobooks as an educational game-changer.
“Students with learning disabilities like dyslexia are often at a few grade levels below their peers when it comes to reading,” said Sprei. “This helps them access content at the same level as their peers. It also saves huge amounts of time in homework and studying; and it often boosts their confidence and self esteem, as they are no longer put at a disadvantage and distance in relation to their friends.”
The most popular way to use the program, which will be utilized by the Alexandria school district, is on mobile devices. Sprei said the newest playback technology for Mac and PC computers is called “Link” and has been available for the past year. The Learning Ally Audio app for Apple and Android devices has been out for a few years.
Students using the program may find it easier to use compared to traditional audiobooks, which uses robot-like voices. Learning Ally’s readers are human and subject-area experts.
“An expert in law or mathematics or chemistry will bring great knowledge, articulation and passion to their given subjects,” commented Sprei.
“And they bring greater clarity and professional competence in their descriptions of the equations, formulas, charts and illustrations on complex technical topics.”
Next school year, the district will go to a 1:1 ratio for iPads. Smithson believes using the audiobooks with mobile devices will help students feel less out of place because of their disability.
They can use their ear buds similar to other students in their schools. Currently about 100 students with print learning disabilities in the district utilize the program and Smithson estimates about one in 10 students have some sort of print disability.
Ever since her discovery, Smithson has been broadcasting a clear message to other directors in the state. “‘Get your kids on Learning Ally. It’s free and if we don’t use it, Indiana may quit paying for it,” she said.
Educators and families with blind students can also use the program noted Sprei.
“For blind students, there is the added benefit of expert description of charts, illustrations and diagrams beyond the basic text which is essential for their learning —particularly in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math). Blind students can also enjoy some of our audiobook content with accompanying refreshable Braille devices so they can “ear read” and “finger read” at the same time.”
To learn more about Learning Ally, visit LearningAlly.org.
