New media help us accommodate individual differences.

Besides offering a more varied toolbox, there is a crucial capacity of new media: the ability to accommodate individual differences. Smart software design can help teachers and students customize the way content is displayed and the way students access tools and compose their work. The actual interface can be shaped and changed for different students to accommodate individual needs. To increase accessibility, text can be transformed to speech or vice versa; still and moving images can be described in speech; and sign language can be displayed as video. The capacity for transformation makes it possible to optimize presentations depending on the nature of the information and the access preferences of the user.

WiggleWorks: The Scholastic Beginning Literacy System, and WiggleWorks Plus, part of Scholastic Literacy Place, are early literacy curricula that take advantage of the flexibility of new media to accommodate individual differences and to support alternative styles of learning. Stories for early reading and response are provided both in print and on CD-ROM. The electronic version includes a rich set of interactive learning activities. Access to the content in WiggleWorks and WiggleWorks Plus is supported by customizable options for information display and for program control. These options support learners with a variety of abilities, disabilities, learning styles, and preferences. Among the options are customizable settings for:

• Visual display, including color options for text, background, and highlight, and an option for large text. These options support children with visual impairments.
• Physical access, including a scanning option to support control of the program via a single switch rather than a keyboard or mouse. Choices on the screen highlight sequentially and can be selected by clicking when the desired choice is highlighted. For children with motor disorders, these options circumvent the keyboard and enable participation in the program.
• Reading and writing supports, including options for pacing highlighting and reading text aloud, for highlighting by word or by sentence with or without speech, and a personal notepad for collecting words for use in later writing or word analysis work. These options support readers of different abilities, including those with attention difficulties or learning disabilities (see Figure 9).