The increasing number of students with special needs is encouraging students and professors at Haverford College to work together to increase accessibility and ensure the best possible studying environment for all, writes Maggie Heffernan for technical.ly.

According to Sherrie Borowsky, Coordinator of Access and Disability Services, the uptick in enrolments in recent years means sixty to seventy students will need special accommodations next school year. This increase in students with disabilities coincides with a push to make the school’s technological services more inclusive and accessible.

Just one example is Daniel Gillen, a legally blind student who worked with his professors to brainstorm ways for him to fully participate in classes. The collaboration between Gillen, a double major in physics and music, and his linguistics professor, Brook Danielle Lillehaugen, led to the creation of a tactile International Phonetic Alphabet magnet-board system.

The device allows Gillen to arrange magnetic embossed tiles to reproduce the information Lillehaugen writes on the chalkboard. It is now available in the Haverford library for students and instructors, as well as other colleges, to borrow.

Read more about such admirable efforts at technical.ly by clicking here.