Everyone Can Achieve

As a teacher, we are gifted each year a number of young people to inspire, engage and educate. Each of those young people is an individual with a unique perspective on the world around them. As everyone reading this will recognise, the jigsaw puzzle of ways to engage and support pupils is complex with the days of 'chalk and talk' long gone as we need to understand what each of our students requires on their bespoke journey through the curriculum.

I grew up thinking differently to the people around me but feeling like I could access everything that was being set for me by the teacher. It is only as an adult that I realise the curriculum and teaching I experienced didn't provide me with the tools I needed to excel. I struggled to access my secondary school education because of limitations to retain facts, my poor reading stamina and my desire to construct and reconstruct sentences over and over again until they were perfect.

I wish I was being educated now. Technology opens up new doors for everyone to access the curriculum in a bespoke way. Inspired by my own struggles as someone who went through school internally battling life and inspired by those I've taught who have a benefited from the tools iPad gives us, Why Use Accessibility was borne.

This book explores ten ways we can given our learners access to the curriculum using technology. From my dream (as a 12 year old) of spoken content using voiceover to the joy of a coloured filtered the book helps educators open us the exploration into the accessibility features that could benefit them and their learners regardless of who they are and what their internal and external struggles may be.

The book is part of a 30-book series that aims to look at how Apple technology can be used innovatively in the classroom to advance teaching and learning. They are a starting point for anyone who wants begin embedding iPad in their classroom and delve deeper into how we can inspire, engage and ultimately educate.