“I started getting very good grades,” he says. “It made me feel like… I’m not stupid, I have a lot to say and it just made me think, ‘I can do this, I can go to school and I can be good at it.'”
This, says her mother, Heather Martin, is the kind of promise screens hold for students like her daughter: The students she worries are being forgotten in the national backlash against screens in schools. Screens are increasingly being blamed for hindering student learning: More than 30 states have banned cell phones in schools. Some states have gone further with proposals or policies to completely eliminate screens like laptops and tablets from classrooms. In late May, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued advice from a general surgeon warning of the “harms of screen use,” citing its effects on children’s health and educational outcomes.
Much of the move away from screens in schools comes from parents who worry that screen use will interfere with their children’s learning, an argument Heather Martin hears in her own community in Concord, 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. She shares some of those concerns, but says, “There was never an argument in the conversation, except when I brought it up to the other parents, about children with disabilities.”
Advocates worry those students will also be left out of the national conversation.
Screen Time Policy Proposals Are Often “A Blunt Instrument”
Students with disabilities make up a growing proportion of students in this country: there are more than 8 million of them. Many rely on assistive technology to get through the school day, including taking notes, reading, and writing. For example, students who are blind and have low vision may use screen reading or magnifying glass software to read. Others, like Soraya, use speech-to-text and audiobooks.
States included Alabama, Tennessee and Utah already have laws limiting screens which will come into force from July.
“My concern is that it’s a very rapid period of time for this to happen,” says Lindsay Jones, executive director of the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), a nonprofit educational research organization that focuses on making learning environments accessible.
Jones notes that some of these laws make exceptions to restrictions on screens for students with disabilities; Often, a line in the text mentions assistive technology. But he says that should be the minimum and worries that many policy proposals are “a very blunt instrument.”
“They’ve moved so quickly that this summer we’ve really let our educators and our disability communities take notice,” he says. Perhaps with more time and input from disabled people, policies would better protect their rights, Jones adds.
Beyond concerns about state and school bans on cell phones and screens, disability advocates note that The shrinking US Department of Education is far less equipped to enforce civil rights. Those rights include access to assistive technology for students with disabilities. The Trump administration too Recently delayed a long-awaited digital accessibility rule for public institutions, including schools.
“For some children, the screen is their accessibility tool”
At Soraya High School in Northern California, last school year was the first in which students’ phones were locked in bags throughout the school day, as is the case in many schools across the country. Heather Martin worries that the phone ban could open the door to a broader ban on screens at her daughter’s school.
“A completely screen-free environment feels like you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” she says. “It’s not about comparing ‘screen-free’ versus ‘no accessibility’. And for some kids, screen is your accessibility tool.”
As she talks about the change at her school, Soraya tenses. “I hate them,” he says of the locked bags. She says her phone isn’t just a distraction, it’s a safety net to call her parents if she has a panic attack, for example. And she feels singled out when she has to ask to take her phone out of its closed case to take notes.
sorayas individualized education program (IEP)A legal document that outlines the accommodations and modifications you are supposed to receive at school says you can use your phone to take notes, along with other assistive technology. But because the cell phone ban is new, their teachers are still adjusting. Because she has several different classes and teachers throughout the day, she says it’s easy for some teachers to be unfamiliar with her accommodations.
These are the kinds of “unintended consequences” that worry Jones as she considers a near future in which more schools will move away from technology that she says has been a game-changer for people with disabilities. When technology is used intentionally, he says, “it can actually allow us to create much more flexible environments, and those are really necessary for people with disabilities.”
Jones’ organization, CAST, invented an educational framework called Universal Design for Learning which encourages educators to design their classrooms to take into account the different ways students learn. For example, a teacher could teach a math lesson using blocks, a diagram, and a video to help convey the same lesson to multiple students. Or perhaps in-class reading will be provided as an e-book so that students with low vision can enlarge on the text, while those with dyslexia can listen.
As the limits on screens spread across the nation’s schools, Jones hopes people with disabilities won’t be forgotten. “We need educators, we need people with disabilities, we need assistive technology providers,” to have a say in how such policies are implemented in the classroom, Jones says. “That will be the best path forward for everyone to achieve their goals without trampling on people’s rights.”
For Soraya, using these types of tools has led her to accept her learning differences. In fact, he just finished researching and writing a series of essays exploring how people with dyslexia learn. He has As for the first time in his life, but more importantly, he says he can express himself in a deeper and more meaningful way.
“I have a lot more to say… It made me feel more confident in myself.”
