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Apple iOS 6 Guided Access to Help Kids with Focus and Control
by discipline.comAlong with a long list of highly anticipated new functions and features, Apple has revealed another interesting new part of its new iOS 6 operating system that the tech giant is calling Guided Access. Although Guided Access was first described as an accessibility aid, many users are now realizing that it could open the doors for iOS devices to be used in a number of innovative new ways. Guided Access will allow users to selectively disable portions of an iOS 6 device’s screen from use, disable hardware buttons, and it will also disable certain portions of specific apps. This means that parents, teachers, and administrators will be able to confine children and other young users within individual applications by disabling the device's physical home button and the ability to travel backward out of an application.
Apple claims Guided Access will be "especially useful for test taking or helping someone with a disability stay focused on learning.” Apple specifically mentioned that the technology could prove very useful for helping children with autism and announced that the tech company was surprised at how many kids with autism have already been using smart phones, but also added that because there are controls in certain apps that parents and other do not want the children to be able to access. Apple says that Guided Access will allow adult users to reduce the touch input on smart phone devices to specific portions of the screen in order to better control a child's online experiences and serve as an aid for teaching children with disabilities.
In just two and a half short years, Apple’s iPad has already changed the way many teachers and parents interact with disabled children, and because existing iOS devices have shown they can attract a child’s attention and hold it in ways that more traditional learning methods can’t match. As a result, there are already many iOS apps geared toward kids with disabilities, and with the new Guided Access mode, Apple hopes to be able to give parents and teachers even more tools to help teach children with disabilities.
It looks like Apple’s new and intensified focus on education with its new iOS 6 features shows that the Guided Access app may not just be a tool for special education duties alone. Guided Access could eventually evolve into broader educational functionality for schools across the nation as educators will now have the ability to lock down the functions on any iPads used in the classroom during specific tasks such as test taking. Judging from the initial responses, Apple’s entire iOS 6 system looks like it will be a true home run for the company, and for parents and educators, the Guided Access feature will be a giant leap forward too.