Special Needs Children Deserve More Than Clipart

For students who depend on visual learning the most, our educational tools remain stuck in the era of PowerPoint icons.

Walk into almost any special education classroom or therapy room and you’ll see the same thing.

Stick figures. Generic icons. Simple feature characters.

Flat clipart faces recycled over and over.

These images are everywhere—on AAC devices, social stories, classroom schedules, behavior charts, worksheets, and communication boards.

For the population that relies on visual learning the most, we’ve built an entire educational ecosystem out of the most basic visual tools possible.

And that should make us uncomfortable.

A System Built on Visual Learning

In the United States alone, about 7.5 million students—roughly 15% of all public school students—receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Many of those students rely heavily on visual supports to understand their world.

Visual schedules, communication boards, and picture-base…