Access is a right and a design goal
Students learn to identify barriers, select accessibility features, communicate support needs, and improve tools or environments rather than treating disability as the problem.
Curriculum foundation
Safety is practiced, not assumed
Cybersecurity, pedestrian decisions, public transit, emergency communication, and community travel are explicitly modeled and rehearsed in simulations before any authorized real-world use.
Technology serves human purpose
Students select tools for learning, creation, communication, organization, and community contribution while protecting privacy and questioning whether a tool is accurate, fair, and useful.
Implementation standard: Real-world travel occurs only when authorized by the school, family, and student team, with trained supervision and individualized safety planning. Technology instruction follows school privacy rules and never requires students to disclose account credentials, precise home locations, or other sensitive information.
Enduring learning goals
01
Operate common devices, files, communication tools, and accessibility settings with an organized support system.
02
Protect accounts and personal information by recognizing scams, using strong unique passwords, multifactor authentication when available, and safe update practices.
03
Evaluate online information, digital media, and AI-assisted output for source, evidence, bias, purpose, and possible harm.
04
Read maps, signs, schedules, landmarks, and route information and communicate location or support needs.
05
Demonstrate safe pedestrian, passenger, and public-transit decisions in simulations and authorized practice.
06
Use technology and mobility skills to solve a meaningful school or community access problem.
9 weeks
Devices, Files & Accessibility Features
Essential question: Which settings and routines help each learner use technology with less friction?
Core learning: device care; login boundaries; files and folders; keyboard and speech input; text size; contrast; captions; screen readers; reminders; troubleshooting scripts
Culminating demonstration
Build and demonstrate a personal access profile using fictional account information and approved device settings.
Build and demonstrate a personal access profile using fictional account information and approved device settings.
9 weeks
Digital Citizenship & Information Care
Essential question: What do we owe ourselves and other people when we communicate online?
Core learning: privacy; consent; respectful communication; digital footprint; source checking; copyright; AI disclosure; responding to cyberbullying; asking an adult for help
Culminating demonstration
Create an accessible digital-citizenship guide for a realistic middle-school scenario.
Create an accessible digital-citizenship guide for a realistic middle-school scenario.
9 weeks
Wayfinding, Maps & Landmarks
Essential question: How can multiple kinds of information help us know where we are and where to go?
Core learning: cardinal directions; symbols; scale; street grids; landmarks; accessible entrances; route sequencing; location language; paper and digital maps
Culminating demonstration
Design an accessible route card between two approved school locations with landmarks, choices, and help points.
Design an accessible route card between two approved school locations with landmarks, choices, and help points.
9 weeks
Safe Movement in School and Community
Essential question: How do observation, communication, and practiced routines reduce risk?
Core learning: hallways; crossings; parking lots; passenger behavior; weather; carrying identification according to policy; trusted helpers; emergency scripts
Culminating demonstration
Complete a supervised school-site mobility course and explain each safety decision.
Complete a supervised school-site mobility course and explain each safety decision.
9 weeks
Productivity, Creation & Collaboration
Essential question: How can we choose the right tool and make our work usable by others?
Core learning: documents; calendars; shared work; captions; alt text; presentations; forms; file naming; version control; audience; accessible design
Culminating demonstration
Produce an accessible digital guide or tutorial that another student can successfully use.
Produce an accessible digital guide or tutorial that another student can successfully use.
9 weeks
Cybersecurity, Scams & Account Protection
Essential question: How can we recognize pressure, deception, and risky requests before acting?
Core learning: phishing; suspicious links; passwords; password managers; multifactor authentication; software updates; device loss; reporting; recovery steps
Culminating demonstration
Analyze a set of simulated messages and create a decision tree for stop, verify, report, or proceed.
Analyze a set of simulated messages and create a decision tree for stop, verify, report, or proceed.
9 weeks
New Orleans Transit & Supported Trip Planning
Essential question: What information and backup plans are needed for a safe public-transit trip?
Core learning: RTA modes; schedules; stops; fares as teacher-provided current data; accessibility; paratransit awareness; weather; transfers; delays; help-seeking; backup contacts
Culminating demonstration
Develop a fictional or team-approved trip plan with route, time, cost, accessibility checks, and two backup plans.
Develop a fictional or team-approved trip plan with route, time, cost, accessibility checks, and two backup plans.
9 weeks
Mobility and Technology Capstone
Essential question: How can design improve access and participation?
Core learning: accessibility audit; interviews with consent; data; prototyping; user testing; revision; advocacy; presentation
Culminating demonstration
Propose and test one improvement to a school navigation, communication, or digital-access challenge.
Propose and test one improvement to a school navigation, communication, or digital-access challenge.
Weekly instructional cycle
ConnectActivate prior knowledge, culture, purpose, and the student’s personal goal.
ModelTeacher demonstrates the complete process with clear thinking aloud.
PracticeStudents rehearse one step at a time with visuals, feedback, and repetition.
ApplyStudents use the skill in an authentic task, simulation, studio, or community context.
ReflectStudents document growth, revise work, and choose a practical next step.
Daily practice: Instruction may combine mini-lessons, visuals, movement, music, hands-on materials, role-play, small groups, assistive technology, independent work, and teacher conferencing. Pacing changes when student evidence shows a need for reteaching, more practice, or extension.
Signature learning experiences
Personal accessibility profile
Students identify helpful features, communication preferences, environmental supports, and troubleshooting steps without publishing private disability information.
Cyber-safety campaign
Students turn realistic scam, privacy, and account-protection scenarios into clear posters, videos, role-plays, or AAC-accessible scripts.
New Orleans route portfolio
Students compare paper maps, landmarks, and current RTA information while documenting accessibility questions and backup choices.
Access-design challenge
Student teams observe a barrier, gather consented feedback, prototype a solution, test it, and present evidence for revision.
Assessment without high-stakes testing
Frequent evidence
- Observation with a task-specific checklist
- Student explanation, demonstration, or role-play
- Portfolio artifacts, photographs, audio, or video when consented
- Brief reflection and goal-setting conferences
Culminating evidence
- Authentic unit demonstrations and projects
- Application across more than one setting or format
- Student self-assessment, revision, and explanation
- Teacher rubric tied to the stated skill—not disability characteristics
Reporting progress
Progress reports identify what a student can do independently, with a prompt, with a model, or with direct assistance. Reports also name the next teachable step and the supports that improve access.
Reteaching and reassessment
Students receive a new explanation, adjusted materials, additional guided practice, and another reasonable opportunity to demonstrate growth.
Inclusive and IEP-aligned supports
Task strips and screen maps
Annotated screenshots, keyboard overlays, short videos, and numbered steps support memory and navigation.
Assistive technology choice
Speech input, switch access, AAC, screen readers, captions, text-to-speech, magnification, reminders, and low-tech alternatives are taught as valid tools.
Protected simulations
Students practice phishing, route decisions, money for fares, and emergency communication with fictional data before any live application.
Travel rehearsal
Social narratives, video modeling, miniature maps, role-play, repeated routes, and planned regulation breaks prepare students for authorized movement.
Communication backups
Printed cards, AAC messages, visual identifiers, and rehearsed help scripts provide alternatives when speech, a device, or a network is unavailable.
Flexible demonstration
Students may navigate, direct a partner, annotate a map, record a tutorial, operate a device, or explain decisions according to the target and IEP.
Individualization: Teachers follow each student’s IEP, present levels, accommodations, communication system, behavior or safety plans, assistive-technology needs, and specially designed instruction. Independence is never confused with withholding necessary support.
Digital, location, and travel safeguards
The course increases informed participation without promising or forcing independent travel for every student.
No credential or location collection
Practice uses fictional usernames, addresses, account numbers, and routes unless a specific authorized plan requires otherwise. Students never share passwords or precise home locations in class products.
Travel is team authorized
A classroom lesson or successful simulation does not authorize unsupervised travel. The student, family, school, and relevant IEP or safety team determine real-world practice and support.
Current local information is checked
Transit routes, fares, accessibility details, alerts, and emergency procedures can change. Teachers verify them directly with official sources immediately before instruction or travel.
Research and instructional reference points
Teachers use these sources as planning references, then adapt instruction to Aberewa students, local requirements, current safety guidance, and the expertise of qualified educators and community partners.
ISTE Standards for Students
Current framework for empowered learning, digital citizenship, knowledge construction, design, computation, communication, and collaboration.
CISA: Secure Yourself & Your Family
Current federal guidance on phishing, strong passwords, multifactor authentication, and software updates.
New Orleans RTA: Know Before You Go
Official current rider information for buses, streetcars, ferries, and trip preparation.
NHTSA: Pedestrian Safety
Federal safety resources, including safer-journey materials for young people.
Family and community connection
With consent, families and community partners may identify accessibility features, trusted routes, technology routines, and help-seeking strategies that already work. Students may also examine a fully fictional profile so no family must disclose travel, disability, or device information.
Privacy and choice: Family participation is welcomed but never required for a student to succeed. Students may use teacher-provided examples whenever sharing household, financial, health, cultural, or personal information would be uncomfortable or unsafe.
← Return to the complete curriculum