{"id":20211,"date":"2023-07-20T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=20211"},"modified":"2024-07-16T11:49:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:49:01","slug":"how-ai-can-improve-digital-accessiblity-in-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2023\/how-ai-can-improve-digital-accessiblity-in-math\/","title":{"rendered":"How AI can improve digital accessibility in math"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every week, maybe even daily, my 14-year-old shows me changes in technology, such as the new cherry blossom grotto mod in Minecraft, new moves an NCP (non-player character, in case you\u2019re wondering) can perform in his other games, or how he can add new sound effects to his stop-motion videos. He also shares how he uses AI to help him study for his science and math tests. That\u2019s right. You read that correctly: \u201chelp him study,\u201d not \u201chelp him cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like with many things in technology that get a bad rap, AI has certainly had its time being scrutinized. However, not all AI is bad. Like my son, the accessibility committee at NWEA is using AI for good with the support of Microsoft\u2019s AI for Accessibility grant<\/a>. The grant is funding our research into AI<\/a> and how it can empower people with disabilities at home, in the community, and at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploring the potential for AI in education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At NWEA, we were lucky to be awarded a Microsoft grant and are using it to study how to improve access to mathematics materials for students with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or have low vision. My colleagues and I are focused on making complex middle school math materials more accessible for screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and voice activation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 school closures highlighted just how many barriers there are for students with disabilities attempting to access online math materials. While kids who are sighted had multiple way to access online materials during remote learning, students using assistive technology, such as refreshable braille and screen readers, had very limited options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research conducted by the US Department of Education<\/a> found that 75% of visually impaired students are behind sighted peers in math by at least a full grade level. We want to ensure blind and low-vision students have equal opportunities to access math materials provided by their teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process-Driven Math as part of the solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Process-Driven Math (PDM)<\/a> has helped us use our grant funding to find viable solutions for using AI to improve access to online math materials for screen reader users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PDM is a strategy that uses chunking to simplify complex mathematics. In \u201cProcess-Driven Math: An auditory method of mathematics instruction and assessment for students who are blind or have low vision,\u201d<\/a> professor Ann Gulley and her team explain that PDM was developed at Auburn University-Montgomery to support a student who is blind and unable to learn braille due to the lack of feeling in his fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gulley et al. explain that PDM is \u201ca fully audio method of mathematics instruction and assessment.\u201d PDM reduces the cognitive load students need to rely on to solve a math problem because it reads a math problem to a student one piece at a time, while also giving the student control over how quickly the information is read. In Gulley et al.\u2019s words, PDM \u201cdelivers the overall landscape of the expression without overwhelming the student\u2019s working memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our sample video on YouTube<\/a> demonstrates how a screen reader might break down an equation for a student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A summary of our research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the first year of our research, we learned from existing studies that blindness or low vision does not affect a student\u2019s ability to build strong math skills. It is lack of access to math materials that leads to this. The primary goal of our research, then, is to provide multiple means of output for math questions, that is, to make the questions easier for students to access using assistive devices such as a screen reader, refreshable braille, and voice-command chatbot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our work toward our goal, the first year of our study focused on understanding which MAP\u00ae Growth\u2122<\/a> math questions posed barriers to students who use assistive technology. As we explain in our technical brief<\/a>, we looked at data from nearly 30 million middle school students taking standard versions of MAP Growth and data from nearly 50,000 middle school students taking accessible versions. This helped us identify questions that succeed in measuring math achievement for students with visual impairments and questions that fall short. This, in turn, is helping us develop prototypes that rely on AI and PDM to improve the accessibility of all kinds of online math materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are now in the second year of our work and have expanded our study to also explore the effective use of both UEB and Nemeth<\/a> refreshable braille as well as voice command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are relying heavily on artificial intelligence to do this work by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n