Ministry of Education Briefing

Special Educational Needs

A conversation about access, accommodation, and what comes next

Bridge Point Scholars  ·  Castries, Saint Lucia

"Used carefully, technology can support learning.

Adding more tools is not the same as helping more students."

Bridge Point Scholars is a Caribbean-wide educational resource hub. We are not a replacement for classroom or specialist instruction.

You are the experts in this room. We are here to walk through what we have, share ideas we are considering, and listen to what you would prioritize.

Quick orientation

A Caribbean learning hub, primary school through CAPE

Aligned to the curricula students are actually taught — OECS primary and CXC CSEC live today; CAPE syllabus library coming this term.

30 Subjects with content
35,000+ Practice questions
K → CSEC Levels covered
87 Interactive simulations

Online across the Caribbean and in-person in Saint Lucia. Free tier with two subjects per student; paid tiers unlock the full library.

What students do here

Practice, explore, and work with a tutor

Past papers and practice

Real CSEC questions with mark schemes, Paper 02 stimuli, and structured-response practice. Primary practice mapped to OECS strands and CPEA prep.

Interactive learning

PhET simulations, GeoGebra, Desmos, virtual manipulatives, drawing tools, Reading Corner and Writing Corner.

AI tutor for between sessions

A subject-aware chat that guides students through problems when a human tutor is not available. Cites the study guide passage or past question it used so the student can verify.

One-on-one tutoring

Vetted tutors, online across the Caribbean and in-person in Saint Lucia. Families book Bridge Point's service; we assign the tutor.

Today's conversation

Three parts

1

What we already have

Accessibility and SpEd-supportive features that are live on the platform today.

2

What we could add

Candidates we are considering, grouped by student need. Nothing is promised.

3

Your feedback

What you would prioritize, what is missing, and where we should be cautious.

Part 1

What we already have

Grouped by what the student needs, not by the technology used

Reading access

For students who need help decoding text

Math access

When the symbols themselves are the barrier

A student who cannot decode the symbols can still hear the math.

Math-to-speech (Clearspeak)

Equations written in standard math notation are read aloud in plain English.

A fraction is read “a over b.”
An exponent is read “x squared.”

Pacing and level

Meeting students where they are

Adaptive difficulty

Practice automatically tunes easier or harder based on a student's recent performance.

AI-personalized study plans

Built from each student's diagnostic results, focused on their specific weak topics. Paid tier.

Grade-adaptive scaffolds

Reading and Writing Corners with different supports for Grade 2-3, Grade 4-6, and CSEC.

Visual and conceptual learning

For students who learn by doing

PhET simulations

87 curated science and math interactive simulations.

Drawing & manipulating tools

GeoGebra, Desmos graphing calculator, and tldraw whiteboard.

9 virtual manipulatives (Didax)

Unifix cubes, ten frames (1-20 and 1-100), 20- and 100-bead rekenreks, two-color counters, number lines, 120 number board, and dice. Primary-focused.

Reading Corner & Writing Corner

Curated, scaffolded literacy practice with grade-appropriate prompts.

Guidance and safety

AI that asks, doesn't answer

Socratic AI tutor

Designed never to give the final answer first. Asks guiding questions, then adapts to each student using their tutor's observation notes and recent diagnostic results.

Guardian PIN & profile switching

Parents control who can access which child's account, with Netflix-style profile selection.

Parent dashboard with safety monitoring

Flagged conversations surface to parents. Weekly digests in plain language.

For families who want less AI, not more

Hand-vetted, human-reviewed content

Many parents of special-needs students prefer reviewed materials over generative AI. We make that path obvious.

554 Curated YouTube videos
across 38 subjects
33 Study guides
29 Reference sheets
38 Flashcard decks
Part 2

What we could add

Candidates we are considering. Nothing on this list is promised.

A standing principle

We will scope what comes next based on what you tell us matters most. Not the other way around.

Gaps we openly acknowledge

What we don't yet have

Recently shipped (since this deck was first drafted)

Extended-time / untimed mode for practice and mock exams. Font-size and line-spacing controls. High-contrast theme. Site-wide respect for the device's reduced-motion preference.

Candidate · Dyslexia & reading differences

Microsoft Immersive Reader

Free Azure service. One drop-in integration covers six features at once.

What it provides

Word-by-word read-aloud with highlighting
Syllable splitting
Picture dictionary
Line focus
Font & spacing controls
Translation into 80+ languages including Haitian Creole & French

Why this one first

The single highest-leverage addition we could make. Used by classrooms globally. Well-tested with screen readers. Free at the point of use.

Candidate · ADHD & executive function

Reducing pull on attention

Distraction-free study mode

Hides nav, gamification badges, and leaderboards while inside a question.

Built-in focus timer

Pomodoro-style with structured break prompts that lead to a calm video or breathing animation, not free-roam.

"Where was I?" resume

Students return to the exact question or scaffold they left.

Task chunking display

Long study guides shown as sub-tasks with explicit progress, like "3 of 7 steps."

Candidate · Autism & sensory processing

Predictability and regulation

Calm / quiet mode

No sound effects, no celebratory animations, muted accent colors.

"What's coming next" indicator

Knowing the shape of an activity before starting matters.

Literal-language tutor tone

Strips idioms, sarcasm, and encouragement that could read as ironic.

Motor and visual access

Dysgraphia & motor

Speech-to-text everywhere

Generalize what we have for languages today to all written-response questions. Word prediction for academic vocabulary.

Visual impairment

Full screen-reader QA

High-contrast theme already shipped. Next: audit with NVDA on diagnostics and the AI tutor, and add audio descriptions where the source video has them.

Three more student profiles

Hearing impairment

Captions on every video

Audit all 554 videos. Generate transcripts via Whisper for the gaps. Visual alerts paired with every audio cue.

Dyscalculia

Counting + scaffolds

Touch-counting overlays for primary. Fraction and number-line scaffolds in answer entry, not just as reference tools.

School anxiety

Low-stakes mode + tutor tone

Hide scores and percentages. AI tutor tone preset: warm, neutral, or direct. The student picks.

Caribbean-specific accessibility layer

Often overlooked. Helps SpEd families disproportionately.

A line we will not cross

What we have decided NOT to build

If you asked us to pick five

Our current top five, in order

But we would much rather hear what you would pick.

1

Microsoft Immersive Reader

Single highest-leverage addition. Free.

2

Captions audit + Whisper transcripts

Immediate impact for hearing-impaired students.

3

Lightweight accommodations profile

Teacher or parent flag. Not a full IEP system.

4

Distraction-free / calm mode

Helps ADHD and autism populations both.

5

More natural text-to-speech voices

Robot-voice TTS is a deal-breaker for many SpEd educators. Already on our roadmap.

Part 3

Your feedback

The real reason we asked for this meeting

"I've talked enough. We are here to listen to you."

On what we just presented

Two questions

Question 1

Of the features we just walked through, which would you be cautious about, and why?

Question 2

Are there learner profiles where you would actively prefer we did NOT recommend our platform?

On what is missing

Three questions

Question 3

If you could fix one accessibility gap across Caribbean education technology in the next year, which one would you pick?

Question 4

Where do special needs students in Saint Lucia lose access to learning first: materials, assessment format, classroom support, or something at home?

Question 5

What does the Ministry consider responsible AI use with minors who have disabilities?

If time allows

Two questions on parents

Question 6

What do parents of special-needs students most often misunderstand about their child's options?

Question 7

Who do these parents already trust: a specific church, a clinic, certain teachers, a WhatsApp group? And how do they typically hear about new resources?

What happens next

Three commitments

1

Nothing today is promised

We will scope what comes next based on what you have told us. Not the other way around.

2

A written summary, within the week

Capturing what was said and the priorities we heard from this room.

3

Who else should we talk to?

Before we make decisions here, who do you think we should be hearing from?

Thank you

For your time, your expertise, and your honesty.

Bridge Point Scholars Limited  ·  Castries, Saint Lucia
chani@bridgepointscholars.com  ·  bridgepointscholars.com

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