Technology for Inclusive Education

Microsoft works from one principle: design for those who need it most, and everyone benefits. What helps a student with dyslexia to read also helps the distracted student, the multilingual student, and the teacher themselves. Inclusion is not a retrofit — it is the standard.

This session is designed for teachers and SENCOs in special education and inclusive schools. We explore which Microsoft tools support students with and without specific needs, how to deploy them in the classroom, and how Copilot helps you adapt lesson materials and step-by-step plans to individual students.

Programme

	Inclusion as a foundation: the UDL framework (Universal Design for Learning), Microsoft’s inclusion philosophy (built into every app, not as an extra layer), and an overview of all learning accelerators and accessibility tools — and where to find them in Teams, Windows, and the Microsoft apps.
	Immersive Reader & accessibility tools: the Immersive Reader in Word, OneNote, Teams and Edge (syllabification, text-to-speech, colour and font adjustment, translate into 81 languages). Dictation for students who struggle with writing. Live captions for auditory support. Accessibility checker in Word and PowerPoint.
	Reading Coach & Reading Progress: Reading Coach lets students practise independently and at their own pace, in three modes (generate a story, select a library text, or insert your own text), with the Immersive Reader built in and direct AI feedback. Reading Progress gives the teacher class-level monitoring and data per student.
	Reflect & the emotion board: Reflect as a daily check-in ritual for wellbeing and social-emotional learning. The emotion board — a particularly powerful feature for special education: students choose an image that represents their feeling, even without their own device; one teacher device is enough.
	Copilot for inclusive lesson design: adapting reading level to individual students, reformulating complex instructions into simple steps, creating step-by-step plans for daily skills and independence (packing a lunchbox, filling in a diary, tidying the classroom). Creating suitable icons or illustrations. Differentiating within the same class without starting from scratch every time.
	Apply it yourself: during this session you have the chance to apply the tools yourself in a demo environment or with your own student group (where possible), with support from the trainer.

After this session

• You know the Microsoft tools that support students with and without specific needs, and when to use which tool.
• You have tested Reading Coach and Reading Progress in a special education or inclusion context, and know how they complement each other.
• You use Reflect as a daily check-in ritual, including the emotion board for students who cannot yet read.
• You know how Copilot helps you create step-by-step plans with icons for daily skills and independence.