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Benetech's role in advancing inclusive education

Benetech is a 24-year-old global nonprofit focused on education for students with disabilities. Benetech delivers technology, services, and programs to empower the most underserved to learn and pursue their dreams, regardless of ability.

Benetech envisions a world where learning is inclusive and equitable. No person should be excluded because learning approaches and materials are inaccessible.

Benetech has active programs in the US, India, Philippines, Kenya, and other countries.

Training support for educators, librarians, and community organizations to improve education equity

Capacity Building

Designed to make content accessible both within and outside the academic setting, such as the certification program Global Certified Accessible

Content Services

Tech platform that converts multi-modal STEM content (e.g. math equations, graphs) into inclusive learning materials for neurodivergent students

PageAI

The world’s largest online library of accessible books, catered to neurodivergent students, students with disabilities, and struggling learners

Bookshare

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Live Demo (that’s right!)

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Thank you

Ayan Kishore

ayank@benetech.org

www.benetech.org

www.bookshare.org

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Backup slides

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Question

How does a _________ student read?

blind

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India program: Pathways to Independence

3-year program, 2021-2024
29 special ed and inclusive schools
15 states in India
Focus on improving outcomes for 2000 blind students, across grades 5 to 12

High usage of accessible books and learning materials
No detriment in learning outcomes by removing scribes supplanted by independence in learning
Students made history by taking national examinations themselves without scribes and outperformed peers
A few students secured non-quota jobs in the private service industry

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Benetech’s Saksharta Model

3 Cs / Components:

Computers or assistive devices that are affordable
Capacity Building
Content that is accessible

साक्षरता

“Literacy”

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1. Computers or assisted devices that are affordable

Low-cost smartphones and keyboards, ideally 1:1
Facilitate donation of devices to schools
Alternatively, shared workstations (computers)

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2. Capacity Building

Training of trainers, educators and administrators on

Using devices with assistive features
Using free and mainstream digital tools for inclusive education
Setting up classrooms to teach with digital aids
Incorporating digital resources and UDL in literacy and math instruction

In-person and virtual trainings, coaching and mentoring.
Access to self-learning modules

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3. Content that is accessible

Convert state/national curriculum TLM to accessible digital format
Provide access to these accessible materials via Bookshare platform available to all
For student with print disabilities, additional access to a million supplementary books in many languages via Bookshare for free
Train local/regional publishers to produce “born accessible” books
Train local organization to support and certify publishers on accessibility standards

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Bookshare

Bookshare provides access to millions of ebooks, including textbooks, in alternative accessible formats
Learners can listen to books, read aloud, follow along with audio and highlighted text, or read in large type or braille, to focus on comprehension
Bookshare can be used via phones and tablets (Android & iOS), web browsers (laptops and Chromebooks), braille devices, smart speakers (like Alexa), etc.
FREE in low- and middle-income countries
bookshare.org

Live demo

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Bookshare increases reading comprehension and learning

2023 RCT in nine grade 6 and 7 classrooms in schools in low-income communities
Students with Learning Disabilities independently read for 15 minutes, 3 times a week, for 5 weeks
Treatment group used Bookshare to read with accessibility features, and the control group a document/book viewer
Bookshare students gained a half of a grade level more than the Control Group in their reading comprehension change
Reading fluency increased significantly in both treatment and control groups, but no significant difference between groups

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What about math content?

Math content is full of equations, graphs, diagrams, and other types that are images in books which can’t be read by screen readers
When there is no alt-text – screen reader reads this as “IMAGE”
Math and STEM content more broadly is expensive and takes a long time to remediate manually

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Benetech’s PageAI solution

PageAI is a groundbreaking AI solution that segments and automates the conversion of math content to an accessible format

Makes it possible to detect, identify and convert math images and equations using AI and machine learning to create universally designed accessible math equations. Resulting content can be translated into any other imaginable output format, for example it can be rendered with synthetic speech, be utilized with synchronized highlighting, and be also converted into braille math code.

MathML

y = 3x - 5

y equals 3 x minus 5

<math>

</math>

View video of demo

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Beyond math books

8.5 million math equations remediated in thousands of books on Bookshare
Created the largest labelled dataset of graphs (~65K images) and automated categorization of 4 graph types and conversion to a more accessible, tabular format
2024 PageAI advancements:

Test and enhance PageAI's capabilities with supplementary educational material such as handouts
Expand our AI capabilities into chemistry and other STEM subjects
Beta launch an app to covert a handout or other learning material to an accessible format on the fly

Accesible TLM helps all

Students’ experiences can be enhanced when we pair words and representations to convey a concept (Fletcher and Tobias, 2005; Mayer, 2002)
The most successful learning environments are those that use multimodal presentations (Moreno and Meyer, 2007)

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