In this featured piece by Tech & Learning, the outlet reports on how Saline Area Schools in Michigan updated its safety alert system district-wide to ensure lockdown and severe weather announcements reach every student, including those with auditory and visual needs. Jay Grossman, the district’s director of technology, used InformaCast to build an accessible alert system that combines strobe lights, color-coded visual cues, and text messages on screens with auditory announcements from emergency speakers. The district also accounted for unique spaces like welding rooms and music rooms, where standard alerts might go unnoticed, by positioning strobe lights within a welder’s peripheral vision. Grossman emphasized the importance of testing the system and gathering feedback from teachers and students to fine-tune alert volume for different areas of the building.
Key Takeaways
- Saline Area Schools in Michigan used InformaCast to build a district-wide alert system accessible to students with auditory and visual needs.
- The district developed a color-coded emergency strobe light system, where blue signals all-clear and red signals a lockdown, with left- and right-side lights offering a backup cue for colorblind students.
- In welding rooms, the district positioned strobe lights above welding stations so students working with helmets on can still catch a flash of light in their peripheral vision.
- Speakers with individual volume controls let the district adjust alert loudness for different spaces, based on feedback from teachers about whether alerts were too loud or too soft.
- Jay Grossman, director of technology at Saline Area Schools, said gathering feedback from the school community after implementation was essential to fine-tuning the system.
Original Story
Saline Area Schools in Michigan has many students with special needs as well as students enrolled in adult education and life-skills programs. The district recently updated safety alerts district-wide to ensure important announcements about school lockdowns or tornado warnings, which are common in the region, are effectively communicated to all students, no matter their auditory and visual needs.
“We needed to make sure that we had something that could reach everybody under all circumstances,” says Jay Grossman, the district’s director of technology. To do that required addressing diverse student needs with effective technology and communication.