Across Spokane Public Schools, teachers balance the challenge of meeting the diverse needs of students within the same classroom.

During the 90-day Clicker pilot, occupational therapists, special educators, and classroom teachers explored how the tool could support students with very different needs—from those who are nonverbal or at a tracing level, to students in general education who struggle with handwriting, spelling, or sentence construction.

Students had plenty of ideas but no access to write them

Teachers observed the same pattern in inclusion and self-contained classrooms. Students had ideas to share, but no reliable way to get them down on paper. One student could only trace letters, another wrote her name with constant prompting, while others flat-out refused handwriting because of the effort it required.

To capture student ideas in these classrooms, teachers relied on scribing. This limited student independence. As OT Anne Hopkins Vallee explained, "I've been using Clicker a lot with a large continuum of ability levels, including students who are not very verbal, if at all, and who literally cannot write with a pencil or even really type effectively."

Adding to this layer, many students lacked foundational writing skills, such as building a coherent sentence. "There were kids I thought would be much higher—like they'd just need the Word Bank," said OT Jen Carter. "But then I realized they weren't even able to build a sentence or understand how to put together a coherent thought."

Choosing Clicker

Staff were drawn to Clicker because of its flexibility and scaffolding. Teachers could set it up as an errorless learning tool for students with significant disabilities, or as a creative and independent tool for students who are tech-savvy and eager to use supports. "Those kids figure it out really quickly, too," Anne noted.

For teachers, Clicker provided instructional value that exceeded their expectations. OT Shayna Schmeling explained: "I know it's not designed to be a curriculum, but it really does act as a curriculum tool - and in some cases, it could even be used as a standalone teaching tool. It helps give students more independence, and it also creatively gives teachers some powerful teaching tools."

What student progress proved about writing support

The 90-day pilot gave staff more time to explore Clicker than in previous short-term trials with other products, where they’d struggled to see if they worked or not. For Clicker," Thirty days would be too short because it's such a robust program and there is a learning curve," Shayna reflected. "This time, I felt much more confident going into it because I already had familiarity and could explore all the different ways it can be used."

Across the district, staff observed:

• Engagement across ability levels
  
  Students with lower cognitive skills thrived in animal-matching activities, while general education students who usually resisted writing eagerly engaged with Clicker. "It really captured their attention," said Elementary Special Education Teacher Shelley Lorek.

• Increased independence
  
  A third grader in a general education setting avoided handwriting tasks and relied on her teacher to write down her ideas. With Clicker, her dictated work was turned into Sentence Sets she could manipulate herself. At first, she listened to almost every word before selecting, but by the end of the pilot, she had reduced her reliance on audio cues by more than half.
  
  "The Analytics feature in Clicker shows us if a student had to hear a word first before selecting it. At the beginning, she was listening to almost everything. But as we talked, 'If you know the word starts with P, find that word' - she stopped relying on the audio so much and became more independent."
  
  She was selecting words independently, building sentences with greater confidence, and producing more written work than ever before.

• Visible growth at the foundational level
  
  A sixth grader began at a tracing level; he was unable to write or type independently. After using Clicker consistently, he sustained 5–15 minutes of active participation, wrote his name without prompts, and used sentence scaffolding sets with 70% accuracy.
  
  Analytics showed that his output grew, averaging 45 words per session—a leap that would have been impossible on paper. "It was really encouraging to see his progression," Shayna reflected.

• Identification of hidden needs
  
  Teachers discovered that even students they thought were more advanced struggled with basic sentence construction. Suzy Morrison, Special Education Teacher, reinforced this: "I have students who are emerging in some skills and more advanced in others. I thought some of them were more independent than they actually were - but Clicker showed me they weren't. Sometimes we don't realize how much help we're giving, especially with writing. That was eye-opening for me."
  
  One student particularly stood out. Suzy taught him some skills, then stepped back to see if he could handle it independently, and he did. Clicker instantly showed Suzy where the gaps were, so she could explicitly teach through those gaps and then reassess later with more independence.

• Joy and confidence
  
  Not everything they saw could be measured in charts or percentages. What stood out just as much was how eager students were to use Clicker. Elementary Special Education Teacher Mary Ormsby shared, "My kids found it so engaging. I have a couple of students in particular who normally don't like to engage with what we do in class, but they will engage with Clicker. They'll participate with it on the board during group lessons, and they'll use it one-on-one on their computers.”
  
  As Shayna put it, "You can't really take formal data on joy, but when kids are genuinely excited about coming to centers because of Clicker - that's huge."

Scaling writing support past a pilot program. What does it look like?

The pilot sparked discussions about expanding Clicker access. "It's great for all these kids—and probably would be great for every student in special education classrooms, even the ones we didn't get the chance to trial it with," said Carmen Mercer, Special Education Data Systems Manager.

Currently, funding for Clicker comes from assistive technology budgets tied to individual IEP accommodations. Expanding access to whole classrooms would require tapping into different funding streams. "That's where we need to have classroom-based conversations moving forward," Carmen explained.

Despite budget logistics, enthusiasm for scaling is strong. As Carmen summed it up: "Whether it's for 10 or 20 kids across the district, or something more global, Clicker is a tool worth investing in."

Start where Shayna started: download her data collection sheet or if you’re new to Clicker and would like to find out more, book a free discovery call.

We’d love to share a recent success story from one of the largest school districts in Washington.

The district serves a wide range of students in its elementary, middle, and high schools, and really values inclusive practices to support students with diverse needs in general and special education classrooms.

As part of the Clicker Pilot Program, Sarah Wagner, the district's Assistive Technology Coordinator and Occupational Therapist by training, led the work on reading and writing supports. She worked closely with a handful of teachers from resource and general education classrooms. They looked at how Clicker could help students who need a lot of adult support or have trouble keeping up with the district's curriculum.

The barriers to student writing that sideline growth

System-level barriers

The district had tried out different assistive technology tools for years, but the trials were informal and unstructured. As a result, it was hard to collect valuable feedback, measure results, or make the case for district-wide investment. Sarah and her team wanted a more intentional process, so they'd have clear data to assess themselves and share with leadership.

At the same time, the district faced a tightly scripted curriculum. Sarah said, "You could walk into any third-grade classroom on any given day, and they are all going to be doing the same lesson today. At the same time. It's that structured." That structure brought a sense of consistency and fairness across classrooms. However, the digital materials were often just static PDFs. The core supports students needed weren’t accessible.

Classroom-level barriers

Those system barriers showed up clearly in classrooms. As Sarah described,

"One of the biggest challenges we had was with students and their writing. They had some great ideas for writing, but they were unable to use the technology that we had. We had a standard word processor, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech. But students with articulation, cognitive, or executive functioning issues found it hard to use the different buttons and programs. They struggled to write down their ideas without a lot of adult help. They needed an adult to sit with them and guide them through each step."

Writing support quickly became the biggest need.

Student-level barriers

And inside the systems and classrooms were real students. One fifth grader with cerebral palsy had strong ideas but was too fatigued to write with a pencil and paper. Typing was also exhausting, and speech-to-text wasn't an option due to articulation limitations. As Sarah explained: "He fatigues easily. So much of it is energy conservation. For him, he just doesn't have the stamina to type out whole words." The team struggled to find a tool that gave him the independence he needed to participate alongside his peers.

Choosing Clicker

The district collaborated with the Special Education Technology Center (SETC), a state-run network that loans assistive technology and provides training. They found that the limited window of short-term trials  made it challenging for teachers to fully explore a resource and capture its longer-term impact.

So when the district got a chance for a formal, 90-day pilot of Clicker, Sarah and a few others in the special education department eagerly accepted.

"We've done trials for years and years, but this was the first year that we did a structured pilot."

At the same time, the district also got approval to trial another assistive technology tool. Having both pilots side by side allowed teachers to easily compare how each program helped students with complex needs.

Why the 90-day pilot made a difference

The longer pilot gave teachers the space to explore and create. During small trial windows, teachers spend more time on learning logistics, such as logins or setup. With the longer trial, teachers could actually use Clicker with students. They could save work samples and see how they fit with their curriculum.

"It took a couple of weeks to bring in the resource teacher and the general education teacher, but once they were involved the process became more collaborative. [It gave us] a chance to see how students might progress through it." Sarah shared.

The longer window allowed teachers to address those logistics. They also had time to check on progress. For many, that revealed how Clicker could support inclusion in ways that other tools didn't.

Student IEP progress accelerated and opened doors beyond the classroom

The pilot confirmed what Sarah and her team had hoped. Clicker could remove writing barriers and open access for a wide range of students.

In post-surveys, 91% of staff said Clicker increased student participation, and many noted that it helped students make progress on IEP goals. The most-used features were the Sentence Sets  (chosen by 9 of 11 staff), word prediction, and Clicker Books.

What stood out most was how teachers could recalibrate student support in real time. "Students used the sentence builders with the Sentence Sets, but some teachers said, 'This might be too supportive, let's rearrange'. So they [compared] what students could write without Clicker supports and what they could write with Clicker supports."

When IEP goals become life skills

Clicker’s flexibility lets teachers meet students where they are, but also challenges them to grow. Which is exactly what happened for the fifth grader with cerebral palsy. He struggled with fatigue, typing, and speech-to-text. Now, he uses Clicker with a joystick mouse, which helps him build sentences, write math equations, and keep up with his peers.

He used Clicker's Word Bank differently than most students—not for word prediction, but to conserve energy. Instead of typing every letter, he could start words and draw from a robust, customizable bank. Paired with an adaptive joystick mouse, he has much more stamina to write independently for the first time. Soon, he was writing sentences, keeping up with peers, tackling reading tasks, and even solving math problems in Clicker. For a student who had always relied on a one-to-one paraeducator, Sarah shares, '...it was a whole new level of independence and participation."

Writing support works best when it's shared

Teachers also noticed broader benefits. Work samples and classroom observations revealed that students were more engaged and included in group writing activities.

For Sarah, the pilot also reinforced a valuable lesson: Student resources, tools, and technology only work when they're shared. "When districts are looking for assistive technology tools for their students with complex communication needs, it's important that the OT isn't the singular owner of Clicker. There has to be buy-in from the special education teacher and also the gen ed teachers."

From "Does it work?" to "Can we keep it?"

That kind of cross-team ownership showed up in teacher feedback, too. After seeing her students' growth, one resource teacher asked:

"Is this going to be available next year? I want to talk about that."

The clearest proof of the pilot's success came when teachers stopped asking if Clicker worked for students and started asking if they could keep it.

Let’s give your students the same opportunities... what will happen when students have the tools to step in and the space to step up?