At MIND Education, we believe every student has the potential to deeply understand and truly love math, including students with disabilities. Focusing on students and valuing people is just one of our core values, and we strive to deliver our K-8 math education games in a manner that ensures equal access and independence to all students and teachers. ST Math’s patented, evidence-based approach makes it the only math program that delivers equitable impact for all student groups. Whether they are above or below grade level, classified as gifted and talented or special education, emerging bilingual or native English speakers – all thrive when they finally experience math the way every brain learns.
MIND Education's mission is to ensure that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
Within that, we aim to ensure that we remove potential barriers to learning for all students, including barriers for students with disabilities, so our products will be easy to use and will have a significant impact on math learning. We are dedicated to making the ST Math product a leader in user experience, and a critical part of that is accessibility. That’s why we’ve adopted the internationally recognized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard as a beacon for our web pages, applications, PDFs, and multimedia assets. Below you’ll find just some of the ways we are incorporating accessibility into our culture at MIND Education:
For years there was a belief that simply improving underserved students’ access to technology would have a tremendous impact on the achievement and equity gap. But it hasn’t.
According to the 2018-2019 Annual Infrastructure Report by CoSN (in which the largest number of respondents were from small districts), 92% of respondents reported all schools in their districts are meeting the FCC's short-term goal of 100 Mbps per 1,000 students.
Access to technology (internet, devices) has improved dramatically, though as we learned with the recent COVID-19 school closures, there are still many students for which access is still a barrier. And even when students have access to resources, there is another digital divide that schools are facing—how technology is being used. Equal access to technology is not providing equitable learning opportunities for students.
The Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology defined the digital use divide as separating “students who use technology in ways that transform their learning from those who use the tools to complete the same activities but now with an electronic device (e.g., digital worksheets, online multiple-choice tests).” Multiple studies and reports have provided evidence of the digital use divide between underprivileged students in poorer districts, and students in more affluent ones.
At MIND, we believe challenges like the digital use divide contribute to what we call the Experience Gap.
We aim to make the customer journey through ST Math accessible so that all students can access content without modification. At the same time, we are planning for an accessibility configuration menu for students and teachers that will encompass self-voicing, contrast, and keyboard navigation.
We will honor and represent people and contributions from a variety of races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, genders, socio-economic statuses, ages, abilities, and backgrounds
Every perspective is important, and everyone should see themselves in math
Math is from everywhere,
in everything, and for everyone
All voices are heard, and are meaningfully and authentically part of the conversation
MIND Education is on a continuous journey to promote digital equality. At the heart of our mission and our educational programs is the goal to make math learning more inclusive, accessible and equitable for all students. We have implemented changes to improve our approach and to better support students of many abilities. One of our current areas of focus is on improving the program experience for low vision and blind students. We are working on incorporating a self-voicing option in the ST Math games to better support students. During this transition to improve the experience for more students and WCAG compliance, MIND Education realizes students still need access to educational products to enhance their ability to understand and love math. While the K-8 ST Math product is being enhanced to provide self-voicing capabilities, MIND Education is committed to disability inclusion.
For MIND, DEI is not a trend. It’s not a buzzword. And it’s not a box-checking exercise.
This is critical to our mission and we have accomplished much.
But the work is not over, and never will be over. We are always looking to grow, to learn, to iterate, and to improve in service of our students and educators.
Providing education, training, and awareness to MINDers
Ensuring equitable and diverse hiring practices
Cultivating company culture and connection in many ways, including employee-led affinity groups
Actively engaging in conversations, practices, and celebrations that uplift the full and diverse spectrum of MIND and the communities we serve
Ensuring students see themselves as mathematicians and are equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems
Empowering educators to see themselves as change agents to bring equity and inclusion into their classrooms
Partnering with donors that share our vision for math education
Viewing our students and communities from an asset-based lens because we see the strength and math capabilities inherent
in everyone
Developing culturally relevant
math curriculum
Creating robust learning experiences that share the global history of math and our students’ rich inheritance
Designing for all instead of the average – measuring student success in math based on the average can miss how we are failing certain groups
Shifting from a deficit to an asset lens and implementing a strength-based approach at scale
Establishing and applying a DEI standards framework to our products and services, to include assessment and evaluation
For MIND, DEI is not a trend. It’s not a buzzword. And it’s not a box-checking exercise.
This is critical to our mission and we have accomplished much.
But the work is not over, and never will be over. We are always looking to grow, to learn, to iterate, and to improve in service of our students and educators.
When it comes to DEI for math education, it’s not just about modifying some of our internal practices, or adding new products and offerings to our line up.
It’s about changing the narrative for students, educators, families, and communities.
“Who can do math?
“Who contributes to math?”
“Who are the math powerhouses?”
The answer in each case for every student should be: “Me!”
School, home, and community are all crucial components of a student’s learning ecosystem, and we work to support that holistic system. Through MIND's programs inside and outside of the classroom, as well as a growing library of learning and teaching resources, MIND works with teachers, administrators, families, and strategic partners to support students inside and outside of the classroom.
Need Assistance?
As a valued member of our ST Math family, your needs are important to us. We put customer service at the heart of what we do. If the format of any material on this website prohibits your ability to access information, please let us know. Customer service representatives trained to work with students and teachers with disabilities are ready to assist you.
● Email us at support@mindeducation.org
● Give us a call at 1-888-491-6603
We promise to provide personal service, respond quickly and thoroughly, and make it easy to get your needs met.
Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) / Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs)
ACR documentation related to our products is available upon request. This information highlights how our digital applications and software currently conform to disability guidelines and is intended to be used by school districts, educational institutions, and government agencies.
The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a standardized form developed in partnership by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to document a product’s conformance with key regulations of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
