Abstract:

PICOGAC is a research project that supports accessible teaching and the automatic generation of accessible class notes. This paper presents the use of the PICOGAC prototype by teachers in actual classes involving students with sensory or intellectual disabilities. To make a class accessible, it is necessary to ensure that students with disabilities receive the information according to their needs. The prototype provides automatic transcriptions to support students with hearing disabilities. Moreover, other students with hearing disabilities may need sign language interpretation using a specific channel provided by the prototype. Students with visual disabilities may need the audio description of the slides.

Furthermore, to take advantage of the class and to ensure education on equal terms to other students, the students with sensory disabilities will have material adapted to their needs at the end of each session available on the platform. In this way, students can study at home, but when they cannot, their parents or other professionals can use the notes to help them. PICOGAC automatically generates notes based on the lecture transcript, supplemented by screenshots of the presentation the teacher is giving. The teacher can edit these notes to include additional information. In addition, it generates an abridged and simplified version of the notes, which helps students with intellectual disabilities. In addition, summarised and simplified versions of the notes make it easier for all students to understand and study subjects. However, apart from having the technology to ease access to the class for all students, teachers must consider the needs of the students with disabilities and prepare their classes accordingly.

This article describes how teachers can organise, prepare and teach their classes with the PICOGAC prototype with experiences in different contexts.

Acknowledgement:
This work is part of the grant PICOGAC, TED2021-132182A-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.

Keywords:

Education, Technology, Inclusion, Disabilities.