EdTech: (Pt. 2) Navigating the Intersection of Accessibility, Technology, Innovation and Special Education with Joe Brazier

Unlock the transformative potential of technology in the special education space with our guest, Joe Brazier from Microsoft, as we navigate the vital role of inclusive tools designed to empower students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This episode promises to reveal how educators can be equipped with  devices such as iPads and smartphones to facilitate seamless transitions for students from classroom settings to active community participation. Joe provides a deep dive into the world of personalized learning and effective communication, enhanced by groundbreaking advancements like generative AI, which are defining the essential skills for our students' futures. You'll learn how Microsoft's approach to universal design in educational tools is not only reshaping how we think about learning differences but also how these innovations are scaling to benefit every student.

📍 Introduction:

• Welcome to the Fast 15 podcast.
• Part two of the conversation with Joe Brazier, leader of Microsoft's K-12 strategy.

📍 Guest Introduction:

• Joe Brazier's role in Microsoft's worldwide education team.
• Over a decade of experience in special education.
• Passion for equity and inclusion.

📍 Discussion Highlights:

1. Transition to the Community:
   • Using technology to prepare students with disabilities for work-based learning.
   • Making tasks more accessible, discreet, and independent.
   • Bridging the gap from school to community.
2. Generative Artificial Intelligence:
   • Tailoring education to individual student needs.
   • Focusing on essential skills and leveraging generative AI.
   • Balancing flexibility and structure for effective learning.
3. Functional Academics Curriculum:
   • Emphasizing the end goal of independence.
   • Beyond typing and reading, understanding instructions and interacting with the world.
   • Tracking progress and incorporating data seamlessly.
4. Inclusive Tools Evolution:
   • Universal Design for Learning vs. designing for specific needs.
   • Microsoft's approach: empowering more through tools like immersive reader and Xbox Adaptive controller.
   • Continuous evolution and adaptation in response to changing needs.
5. Accessibility for All:
   • Tools designed for specific needs but benefiting a broader audience.
   • Addressing co

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey listeners, welcome to the Fast 15, and today we are picking up part two of a great conversation with Joe Brazier. Joe leads Microsoft's K-12 strategy on the worldwide education team. He works closely with education industry colleagues and device teams to help refine, develop and deliver Microsoft's vision for the ever-evolving landscape of K-12 education. Prior to taking this role, he spent over a decade working in special education at all levels of the K-12 system. He spent that time providing technology access and skills for students with social, cognitive and physical obstacles to the typical learning experience. This passion for equity and inclusion continues in his work building a more inclusive education experience for all.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Join me in welcoming Joe Brazier to the Fast 15. I was thinking about the things that we were doing in the classroom as far as with my students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and getting them ready to go out into the community, actually doing some work-based learning and that type of thing, and being able to program in their task lists and being able to have them, instead of relying so much on a job coach or the prompting of an adult, what's built into an iPad that they can be navigating themselves. How do we make that more and more accessible for them? So they're doing it on their phone so that it is more discreet. How do you see that bridge from school to community?

Speaker 2: 1:34

There is cheese. This is like the most creative part of the conversation because it really is student-dependent. That's one of the things that I think is important. Is that flexibility? What are the skills that actually need to be built In proliferation of generative artificial intelligence? Right now, people are really asking the questions of what are the actual skills and things that are needed and necessary. When talking with teachers about students and how we do accommodate it, I was like they can't do all this busy work. What are the actual things that they need to accomplish to show mastery, competency, proficiency in that and being able to shrink that down.

Speaker 2: 2:13

Generative AI gives us the opportunity to say what is important. What does this student need to do? What can the technology do? What are the skills? I don't think to mean soft skills, but they are now considered critical to the future of AI In terms of what it is. It's hard for me to say. I think it's these things because it's always been very student-specific that if I can help them understand various ways to teach about the world, then it gives them the best opportunity to interact with what changes may come.

Speaker 2: 2:45

I always would look at structure for the sake of flexibility. I had a student who used a picture schedule on their phone. We talked about that, but it had to work every environment. If I could get him to take a break here, then I need to be able to get him to take a break there. And when we were out in the community and hear there and the other, it wasn't just the typing piece of functional academics, it was the. Can you get your thought across? When we go out to the community, we'd say, pull out your phone, text your parents where you are. There's a lot of things that have to happen within there and, yes, they might need to be able to use a capital or use a period, but the idea was Mom, I am here and that would be what they would need to be able to express and you share the thought.

Speaker 2: 3:25

What is the key piece of it and I think that's what I liked about the functional academic curriculum was that you could see the end goal in time. It wasn't about making change, but it was about being independent and going and purchasing things, purchasing what you needed. It wasn't about typing. Like I said, it's not so much about reading but understanding instructions, giving that information in being able to interact with the world, get that information out. So how do we do that? Track it but also try it in a bunch of different environments, a bunch of different people. But you've got to build a structure somehow for them to work in.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Right, right, not only the inclusive tools, but also the data tracking that goes along with it. Pairing those two together and I know there are some really exciting things coming up even in the next few months with functional academics and their data tracking and being able to do that more seamlessly throughout the program and putting those tools into the hands of teachers. That really makes it more visual and translates really well to an IEP meeting when you need to talk about. This is where the student was, this is where they currently are and this is where we're heading right, and having all of the tools make sense for every step of the way and through the program and through the reporting of progress. So tell me a little bit more about how it's continuing to evolve to increase the accessibility for inclusive tools and ed tests. Tell me about where it's heading.

Speaker 2: 4:54

There's two schools about where it's heading. I mean goodness nobody knows.

Speaker 1: 4:59

That should rephrase the question. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Alaska. What years was an indication is? We don't know, and it's probably heading farther than we think it is. But in terms of inclusion and in terms of, possibly, the population that we're focused on, there's two schools of thought that Microsoft, I think, employs, and I don't think that they're in competition, but they supplement what I know. One is, I think, universal design for learning, which many might be familiar with, and then there is and I don't remember the name, but it's kind of that flipped around. So universal design is in order to empower more and get more people to have access to something.

Speaker 1: 5:39

Right.

Speaker 2: 5:40

And that's where you might see something like our immersive reader and in the accessibility tools, as if we can get it in the hands of more people, then it can actually help more be able to process information and express themselves much easier. The other one is to design for one and then scale from there. And before I go into what Microsoft does, I remember a story when I was in school where they talked about a hospital had somebody who would refill their supply cabinet right who I don't know what their diagnosis was, but instead of the names actually put pictures to make it easier for them to do it. So they designed how they did that for that person, but when they left and did a different job or different role, it was so effective they kept it.

Speaker 1: 6:20

You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 6:21

Yeah, so it's that kind of thing, and so you think about what we do with technology. The Xbox Adaptive Controller was designed for one particular type of need. Adaptive Accessories designed for one specific type of need, but not just that specific need leverages it. It's really helped to support one, but then many others can use it. I have no vision issues, no contacts, no, anything.

Speaker 2: 6:47

My favorite feature is that I can make my cursor larger and teal or a different color on my computer, and it's not that I need it, but it is something that was not designed for me.

Speaker 2: 6:59

I don't have any visual diagnoses, but it's something that I use all the time, and that's the thing is that it's designed for one and Microsoft does this nothing about us without us.

Speaker 2: 7:08

So I've met some of the engineers and worked at conferences with some that helped design the experience for, like using magnifier, things like that, and they use it because they need to connect with their, but I use it for myself and some other things, right, and so it's designed for something specific, but others leverage it, and so you've got that empower more and that also there is a very specific need. It might not be everybody. We're going to design and support that and then, once you do, you actually find that more people use it and leverage it, even something like a reading coach accelerators or immersive reader design for dyslexia, designed for emerging readers. But we are also finding that higher education institutions, where the like law schools and law professors they're like I have very technical language that I need my students to be able to read. I turn that that dial up so that it really really tracks how they're pronouncing words and then they can really grow and learn for that. So it all depends on how we're doing it.

Speaker 1: 8:07

That's so powerful, the way you describe it, and I was just thinking and totally agree with you about you know, if we're designing for somebody that really has the need for it, it does work for all, and I experienced the same thing. I think we all experience cognitive load, right, it's not just people with intellectual disabilities where they have a threshold for overwhelm or the cognitive load is too much with what the information is that they're taking. All of us struggle with that right, and so these tools are helpful for all of us. Everybody benefits by those. And then you are talking of inclusion in a different way, you know, and then being a part of a community that, oh, it's not just me that's using the tool. So are three or four other people around me in my same class or in my community based instruction getting out there in vocational programs?

Speaker 1: 9:04

whatever right and so that's. That's awesome. I love thinking of it that way. Okay, so this is another thing I find you know there are teachers that I work with who are just starting out the whole range right, and some people are techies. Some people aren't for. For people who really aren't as familiar with accessibility tools, where would, where would someone start? You know what? What do you? What do you tell people that just are like, ah, I, I'm not really a techie person. That specifically the teacher that struggles that way or just isn't as familiar with technology as maybe somebody just coming into the field?

Speaker 2: 9:44

Had a customer come into Microsoft and we were talking about this whole visual transformation has a long tail, right. You've got people on the cutting edge, which I think a lot of people see, and then you also have people who are, I think, what you described, but just like, not very techie. This is the studio paths, all these kinds of things, right, but there's a huge range in between there, and one of the thoughts that always comes to mind is skills over tools, like what is the thing that you need as opposed to the thing you need to do it? Right, and there's that phrase if you're a hammer, the whole world is nail, right, you don't need. Just because I have any tool doesn't mean that it solves every single problem, right. And and working with students on an autism spectrum, people would always say it's like, wow, this worked for this student today, we'll see if it works for them tomorrow. And just because it worked for this student doesn't mean it'll work with that student and it might switch around. So you really kind of have to take it a day at a time, right? So, as a tech coach in my district, I would ask people I was like, what is it that you want to be able to do, and then I'll tell you how technology can help you do it. And that's what we're doing at Microsoft. It's not saying Microsoft tools will allow you to do X, y and Z when we say, here's the issue, here's the strategy, here's how you accomplish it, and then here's how a tool can help you do that. Right, I need to paint a house. I need paint brushes, edgers, things. Right, but I might get a digital liner to help me do this thing. Right, I know what I need to do to accomplish it and then I grab the tools for that job, and Microsoft has a lot of tools to be able to do that.

Speaker 2: 11:11

I also wanted to stress that, for those people who are looking at new, it's like you kind of need to have an eye for tomorrow. Right, you kind of have to leverage what you have today, but think about tomorrow, right, not what has always been done, not what you've always happened and I think the pandemic was the worst and best thing to happen to education because you can't settle, you can't just say this is how we've always done it. You kind of have to keep an eye forward, the things that are happening or changing so quick that we need education and educators to have their hand on the wheel, not wait, hope that society understands what is needed and does what's there for it. We need educators, special education, slps, ots, special ed directors. We need them to be at the forefront, to have their hand on the wheel to direct it for the students. We need to make sure that they are the ones saying here's the students you need to think about first. Here's the ways that it needs to be safe first.

Speaker 2: 12:08

If I had the ability to have my students sign into their device with their face and not have to have things written down and all stuff, then they could have securely logged into their environments and that is a huge boost based on what we had at the time, and then with generative AI, with all of these things and all of these tools, it is important for education not to wait and special education, especially special ed, to be second, not to be third, but to be at front To when we have a motion or something coming out that we understand, that it is inclusive, that we understand how it's going to help our students, and it's a culture shift more than a technology push that we need to be in the front and it's something that I saw in my school.

Speaker 2: 12:55

As small as my principals, they, hey, we're going to do this assembly, this type. Where would you want your students to sit before we do the rest of everything else? It'll be like this kind of assembly. I only have like two students that have come. This kind of assembly, I'll have more. This is exactly where I would like them to be, and then they plan the rest after that. We've got this great assembly, oh right.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Oh, by the way, let me ask you what will work for your students.

Speaker 2: 13:20

And then be like, oh, but we already set everything up and we can't change it now. Right, we need to have our hand on the wheel and be in the front of what's coming.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Okay, I have one last question for you. What word of advice would you give to yourself as a para educator just starting out in the classroom that first day, when you were overwhelmed and you didn't know what you were walking into? What would you tell Joe at that point?

Speaker 2: 13:49

I would tell myself that and I found this to be true that special education is about relationship building. They say that students will learn from who they trust they will learn from who they like. That's true in every classroom. It really is about relationship building. I'm not there to fix or do your or to do anything, but it's about relationship building Students with parents, with other stakeholders, with my special ed director. That's how I was able to get some cool things from my classroom, but it really is about getting to know the students, helping my parents get to know the students, not just do things and making connections to, with and for those students.

Speaker 1: 14:36

That's awesome. That's awesome and you couldn't say it better. I think the same way. I think that it's all about relationships. I really appreciate your time with us and with our listeners and we're going to be linking some resources for people who are interested to learn more in the show notes and I just want to thank you so much for being a part of our discussion and being a part of our podcast today.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Absolutely Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Take care. A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors. Specially designed education services. Publishers of the functional academics program, Please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive functional academics program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, While creating accountability with data driven, evidence based results. Visit sdesworkscom to learn more.