Unlocking Potential: How AI is Personalizing Education for Students with Disabilities

By Melinda Medina

When I think about the future of education, I don’t picture flying buses or robot teachers. I imagine a classroom where students with disabilities are no longer expected to fit into rigid systems, but instead thrive because those systems were designed to flex with them. That’s what AI has the potential to do: not replace teachers, but to equip us with tools that finally recognize and respond to the full spectrum of human learning.

As a special education teacher for over a decade in New York City public schools, I’ve seen how traditional one-size-fits-all methods leave so many of our kids behind. Students with disabilities, especially those who are neurodivergent or from historically underserved communities, often face the burden of inaccessible instruction. The boom of AI for educators is often met with fear—stemming from the overwhelm of figuring out how to integrate it into instruction, or from concerns about losing the human element behind teaching.

But when we shift the focus from replacement to empowerment, AI can transform into a tool for equity.

The key lies in reframing AI as a partner that can help us remove barriers and expand opportunities for every student. AI in the classroom, when used thoughtfully, can be a powerful equalizer.

Meeting Students Where They Are—In Real Time

One of AI's most impactful strengths is its ability to personalize instruction in real time. Traditional progress monitoring can take weeks of data collection, analysis, and team meetings. AI-powered platforms can do this instantly. Tools like MagicSchool AI, Microsoft's Reading Progress, and AI-driven math tutors like Khanmigo provide immediate insights into student performance and learning gaps, helping teachers adapt lessons on the fly.

For example, I used to spend hours trying to create three or four differentiated versions of a text for my mixed-ability classroom. Now, AI tools can generate accessible versions of the same content—including simplified summaries, translated versions, or scaffolded text with visuals and vocabulary support. This task used to take hours of preparation. It doesn't replace my professional judgment, but it saves me valuable time and gives my students a better shot at engaging with grade-level material in a way that is accessible for them and their needs.

AI Supports Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

AI also aligns seamlessly with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. It helps me offer multiple means of representation (audio, visual, text), expression (typing, voice recording, drawing), and engagement (interactive simulations, gamified practice). For a student with dyslexia, that might mean using a read-aloud tool or dictation software that responds to their voice. For a student with ADHD, it could mean adaptive platforms that break learning into chunks and respond to their pace and embedded breaks.

These tools allow for access that is readily available and helps students represent their thinking and what they have learned in a variety of ways. Rather than removing students from grade-level content, we are scaffolding them up to it. We no longer have to count students out because we didn’t have the time to create a different approach or provide them ways to show us what they have learned. It allows us to reach the 6 students in our class or the 30 students in our class.

Rethinking IEP Development with AI

Creating high-quality, standards-aligned IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) can be overwhelming, especially when caseloads are high. Trust me, I’ve been the lead teacher who has had to complete over 30 IEPs in a year. AI can help draft present levels of performance, generate goal suggestions based on progress data, and even recommend accommodations aligned with specific student needs. Platforms like MagicSchool AI offer the privacy our student data deserves and templates and prompts that help educators write better, more inclusive IEPs faster.

Suggested Read: Sitting on Both Sides of the IEP Table: What I Wish Every Team Understood

What would have taken me hours to write, while I often simply stared at a blank screen because IEPs are often overwhelming to start, I can now accomplish in 1 hour. It allows more time to refine and reflect. That’s a game-changer, especially with a job with a significant amount of paperwork and administrative tasks, on top of teaching.

Maintaining the Human Element

Let’s be clear: AI cannot replace the human connections that make special education work, or any education setting. It cannot pick up on the subtle shifts in a student’s mood, the meaning behind a behavior, the root cause of it all, or the power of a trusting adult-student relationship. But it can free us from the endless administrative burden that steals our time and energy away from what matters most, our students.

In my classroom, AI doesn’t lead; it supports. I use it to create sentence starters for reluctant writers, generate practice problems tailored to specific goals, or track IEP goal progress with less paperwork. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s progress, personalization, and possibility. AI is like having a readily available, super-organized assistant by my side, who never gets sick and helps me tackle the heavy paperwork so I can focus on the parts of the job I love most–the students.

Equity Risks and Ethical Considerations

Of course, we must be cautious. AI is only as fair as the data it learns from. Bias baked into algorithms can reinforce the very inequities we’re trying to undo. Students with disabilities, especially Black and Brown students, have historically been over-identified, under-supported, and misrepresented in data sets. If we’re not vigilant, AI can become another tool of gatekeeping instead of inclusion.

That’s why educators must be part of the conversation around AI ethics, transparency, and accountability. We need AI tools that are accessible, multilingual, culturally responsive, and co-designed with special education in mind. We need AI to move us forward in history, not drag us back to the very ideologies that cases like PARC v. Pennsylvania, Luna Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, and Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District fought so hard to dismantle—ideologies rooted in exclusion, lowered expectations, and the denial of fundamental rights for students with disabilities.

The Future is Flexible

What makes AI different from traditional tech tools is its adaptability. It learns from student responses and refines the support in real time. That’s not just differentiation, it’s personalization. And it affirms the core belief that students with disabilities don’t need less; they need access.

AI won't fix education overnight and it is important to remember that it is not a silver bullet.

It can’t replace the human connection that transforms classrooms into communities. But when used thoughtfully, it can be a lever for justice. It can help us move away from rigid pacing guides, one-dimensional assessments, and deficit-based thinking. For students with disabilities, that flexibility is everything. It’s the difference between being labeled and being seen.

As a teacher, a mom, and a woman with ADHD, I know how powerful it is when someone gives you the right support at the right time. Personalized learning through AI isn’t about flashy tech or shortcuts. It’s about restoring time, trust, and dignity to a process that too often leaves students with disabilities behind. When teachers are equipped with the right tools, and when those tools are grounded in equity and humanity, we create classrooms where all students are not just included, they are empowered.

As educators, the call is clear. Let’s use every tool at our disposal to unlock the brilliance in every learner. We can be grounded in collaboration with AI in our classrooms, when it is centered on access, not automation. This is what equity looks like: not sympathy, but belief and not a lower bar, but better ladders.

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