The Need for Accessibility
On the accessibility front, remote access software can make educators’ and students’ lives much easier. According to an NCES report, 7.5 million students in the United States received special education and/or related services in 2022-23 under the Disabilities Education Act. That equals to about 15% of all public-school students in the country.
Among the students served under the act, the most common types of disabilities were leaning ones (32%), and speech or language impairments (19%).
The US Department of Education has even shared some guidance regarding Assistive Technology. This guidance encourages the use of emerging technologies to “reinvent approaches to learning and collaboration, reduce persistent disparities in equity and accessibility, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.”
Accessible Education and Remote Access
With that in mind, remote access software is one of these technologies. Furthermore, RealVNC Connect is easy to deploy, while learning to use it doesn’t take long.
As you’ll see below, the software can easily be used to help visually impaired students, or students with learning disabilities. It does this by bringing content closer to them, or in their safe space.
This is very simple to achieve without the need for any additional equipment. As we’re talking about a multiplatform solution, it can be used on whatever devices the school already owns.
However, the field of Education is one in which data security is paramount. Making the curriculum more accessible is very important, but the last thing you’d want is to give malicious actors to school or student data. Fortunately, RealVNC Connect is built with security at the heart of it. It provides robust security and can even be used as an on-premise solution. And this, without data having to travel over the internet.
Accessibility in Education: Examples
What follows are some real-world examples of how RealVNC Connect has been used to provide more accessible learning. These come from RealVNC customers in the field of education.
Cardinal Newman Catholic School (CNCS)
Cardinal Newman Catholic School (CNCS) is a large secondary school in Luton with over 1400 students, ranging from Year 7 to sixth form.
The school needed a solution for a visually impaired (VI) 12-year-old student. The student needed to be able to view the whiteboard from his desk, without drawing attention to his disability.
The software the student has initially used had been discontinued. Enter RealVNC Connect. The software, installed on an iPad, allowed the student to view the whiteboard. He could also enlarge teacher notes and take screenshots for later review.
Find out more in our Cardinal Newman Catholic School case study.
St Anthony’s School
St Anthony’s School is a special school in Chichester, West Sussex, for pupils with complex learning, medical and language difficulties. Many pupils have speech and language conditions (such as dyslexia and dyspraxia). The school also has a department dedicated to pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
The school found it difficult to create a positive learning experience for VI students. This was also because traditional methods, like sitting in front of the class would risk undermining pupils’ confidence.
RealVNC Connect, installed on a tablet, allows children to engage with the lesson together with their classmates.
The solution also benefitted children with mobility issues and pupils with personal space difficulties (e.g. proxemics). They could now sit in a separate quiet area or pod, without missing anything on the whiteboard.
Additionally, the school has opted to use the solution on-premise. That way, none of the students’ data was being transmitted via the internet, providing them with an additional layer of data security.
You can find out more in our St Anthony’s School case study.
Start Your Free Trial!
Both use cases began when someone at the school got a free trial of RealVNC Connect. So why not do the same? Take a free trial and see what the software can do for your students’ accessibility needs?
