SMART Boards are being made accessible to visually impaired children through a project titled SMARTer Boards: Girls Solve Visual Accessibility Issues.

Headed by ISU staff and Laboratory School teachers, the project encourages educators and pre-service teachers to incorporate interactive features of the SMART Boards used in classrooms.

“Technology is so advanced that we always need to be working to make it accessible to all students,” said Metcalf Elementary School faculty associate Lisa Tabaka, who cochairs the initiative.

Design teams involved include visually impaired students, middle school students and teachers from Metcalf, Illinois State pre-service teacher candidates, computer science instructors from Heartland Community College, and students from Illinois State’s computer club.

Ideas from the teams were implemented this fall at Metcalf for students with visual impairments, with findings from the project shared with other school districts.