The people designing educational technologies are far removed from the students who end up using them. Perhaps most obviously, they’re adults, often many years away from their own time in a classroom. But the differences don’t end there. These designers almost always work in cities, and about 70 percent of U.S. students go to school outside cities. Designers also don’t have the range of language abilities represented in U.S. classrooms or all of the disabilities represented among students.
This matters when it comes to designing educational technologies because it’s hard to assume what very different people need from a piece of technology or understand the ramifications of ignoring certain things. If someone designs a program full of pictures and the pictures aren’t labeled, blind users effectively have no idea they’re there. If a learning platform uses videos to explain concepts, and a designer doesn’t think about the effect of slow internet, students with spotty access are shortchanged.
Read more: Accessible education technology can be costly, but demand is rising