Inclusive Education in the UAE: The Role of EdTech

Inclusive education in the UAE is part of the nation’s legal fabric. The Constitution enshrines compulsory, free schooling and prohibits discrimination. Federal Law No. 29 of 2006 explicitly requires equal education for students with disabilities.

To enact this legal vision, the UAE government evaluates schools based on the common School Inspection Framework.

The Framework defines inclusive education in the UAE as:

…the process through which schools develop systems, classrooms, programmes, and activities so that all students are able to learn, develop, and participate together. In an inclusive school, the curriculum, physical surroundings, and school community should reflect the views and characteristics of its students. An inclusive school honors diversity and respects all individuals.

Students meet all kinds of descriptions: gifted and talented, multi-language learner, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and more. How do you serve everyone equally in the same classroom?

If you’re an educator struggling to manage the extraordinary diversity of student experiences, try using educational technology for inclusion.

Looking for personalized learning tools to improve classroom inclusion? Contact us to try text to speech from ReadSpeaker.

6 Dimensions of Inclusive Education in the UAE

As the School Inspection Framework says, “Inclusion does not mean treating people the same without regard for individual differences.” Students who benefit from accommodations or specialist services are at risk of exclusion, the Framework says, and the solution is different for each population. It’s often different for each individual.

Student populations who may require extra attention include students with:

• Special talents or gifts
• Special education needs
• English as an additional language (EAL)
• Social, emotional, or mental health challenges

In addition to creating an inclusive environment for these students, educators must work to ensure wellbeing for all.

This requires a safe environment, first and foremost, in which the risk of harm is minimized.

Taking all of this into account, many schools in the UAE pursue six distinct inclusion initiatives: That’s one for each population listed above, plus wellbeing (fifth) and safeguarding (sixth). These last two are of primary importance; they must come first.

Once students are safe and well, however, educators need tools to help successfully educate diverse learners. That’s where educational technology (edtech) comes to the rescue.

EdTech Solutions in UAE Schools

Here’s a quick overview of four student populations at risk of exclusion, along with some edtech that can help you conform to UAE education policy.

EdTech for Gifted and Talented Inclusion

The School Inspection Framework differentiates the terms “gifted” and “talented” as they apply to learning capability.

• It defines giftedness as an “untrained and spontaneously expressed exceptional natural ability in one or more domains of human ability.”
• Talented refers to the ability to use these gifts for “exceptional performance.”

The Framework calls for gifted and talented students to remain in mainstream classes, but with a “differentiated” curriculum. That is, educators must provide lessons that allow for “enrichment, extension, and acceleration.”

It’s not easy to provide the extra challenge that gifted and talented students need to thrive while attending to everyone else in the classroom—especially when you consider that many students have dual or multiple exceptionalities (DME), meaning both disabilities and special gifts/talents.

Greater demands on teachers lead to higher rates of burnout, which is a serious challenge in education. The University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre found that teachers have higher levels of stress and burnout than most other professions—and that outsized workloads are one of the top reasons teachers quit teaching.

Edtech solutions that can help:

Online learning resources

Free online courses or education websites like Khan Academy allow you to differentiate one student’s lesson from another’s. These resources cover advanced topics, so students with special gifts and talents can pursue accelerated learning without leaving the mainstream classroom.

Media production software

According to the School Inspection Framework gifted learners prefer to use their imaginations to “experiment with ideas.” Simple media production software like Apple iMovie and GarageBand allow these students to pursue creative projects within any subject area.

Alternative presentation tools

Students with DME may require assistive technology to reach their high learning potential. Other gifted learners may prefer multiple means of presentation for learning content. Give every student the choice of how they interact with course material by providing text-to-speech (TTS) tools, which automatically translate written content into audible spoken language.

EdTech for SEND Inclusion

Official UAE sources have adopted the term “people of determination” to refer to people with disabilities, a recognition of this population’s contributions to society. Special education needs and disabilities, or SEND, refers to the programs and services that remove barriers for people of determination.

It can be difficult to give people of determination the services they require while teaching in a mainstream classroom. A single teacher may not be able to do it, in which case SEND staff may join a class for one-on-one support. Technology also plays a role in equal education for people of determination, of course.

Remember that people of determination may possess exceptionally high learning potential, in which case they fall into the DME category. For these DME learners, educators may need to provide accommodations and accelerated learning opportunities at once.

EdTech for SEND includes:

Assistive technology.

A student with a vision impairment may use a screen reader or TTS built into the learning management system (LMS). A Deaf student may use a Braille keyboard. Students with low mobility may use an adaptive mouse or keyboard. Educators must make all these tools available as needed.

Text presentation controls.

Students with dyslexia, autism, or a learning disability may respond best to a particular text size, font, or color. (The same is true, to one degree or another, for everyone.) Text presentation tools like those found in ReadSpeaker TextAid allow each student to format onscreen text to meet their needs or preferences.

Reading focus tools.

Many people with reading or attention struggles find it easier to read one line at a time. Digital page masks and reading rulers (available in TextAid) help these readers stay focused.

EdTech for EAL Inclusion

Arabic may be the official language of the UAE, but many schools teach primarily in English. Additionally, data shows that, in the 2023-2024 academic year, 162 nationalities were represented at schools in the UAE. That leads to a lot of language diversity, with students coming into the classroom with varying degrees of English proficiency.

Students who are still learning English as an additional language (EAL) need support to avoid falling behind. This may include mentoring or EAL specialists in the classroom alongside the primary teacher. But for some students, a little boost from technology is enough to keep them learning.

Edtech for EAL includes:

Auto-translation software.

Digital translation tools allow students to get language help on their own, when and where they need it most. For best results, integrate translation tools into your LMS—and bundle them with multilingual TTS.

Text to speech.

Many language learners acquire listening comprehension before reading fluently. Text to speech in your LMS bridges the gap.

Simultaneous TTS and word highlighting.

Ultimately, of course, the goal is to improve every EAL student’s reading skills, too. ReadSpeaker’s LMS plug-ins provide simultaneous speech and highlighting, which can help students match sounds to words and learn the language faster.

Technology for Mental Health Inclusion

Students in distress can’t learn much—and at least 25% of female students in the UAE face a high risk of depression or eating disorders, says the Dubai Health Authority (DHA). Educators can help by destigmatizing mental health issues in their classrooms. Encourage students to acknowledge struggles and take care of themselves.

Technology can help create an inclusive, welcoming environment for students with mental health struggles.

Technology for mental health support includes:

AI screening tools.

In 2025, the DHA said it had plans to promote mental health screening tools that use AI to identify depression and other conditions. While the DHA’s preferred app hasn’t been announced, commercial options like Aiberry and Connected Mind are out there.

Remote counseling platforms.

Educators can’t provide mental health services. Leave that to licensed professionals. Luckily, those professionals are available via online platforms like Thrive Wellbeing Centre and Bright Shift UAE.

Self-help apps.

The DHA announced an intention to launch self-help apps for mental health care in 2024. There are also plenty of mindfulness apps available, like Calm and Medito. These may help some students manage mental health conditions—although health care professionals know best, and should always be your first source of information.

TTS Tools for Inclusive Education in the UAE

The four categories discussed above don’t represent every student. Every learner has a unique set of strengths, needs, and preferences—and the truly inclusive school makes room for them all.

But while there’s nearly infinite variety among the learners, there’s only one classroom teacher. That’s why inclusive education is such a serious challenge!

It’s a challenge worth overcoming, however, and there’s good news, too: A single tool can help multiple groups of learners reach their potential.

Take text to speech, for instance.

You might integrate TTS into your LMS primarily to assist students with vision impairments or reading disorders. At the same time:

• An EAL learner may use TTS to improve language skills.
• A gifted student may use it to multitask, listening to a textbook chapter while creating a multimedia presentation.
• Students with anxiety may find that listening rather than reading creates less stress, and find some relief.

In fact, many students, with and without diagnoses, simply prefer to listen. They may not “need” TTS, but they have a better experience when they use it. In this way, a single tool can be personalized to meet the needs of all your students. This strategy is key to achieving inclusive education in the UAE.

Find out how ReadSpeaker TTS can make your LMS more inclusive for every student. Contact us to start the conversation.