What It Looks Like When the System Actually Works: REV's Transforming Access Initiative
- Lisa Mihalich Quinn
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Erin's piece last week named something most special educators already know: the system wasn't built to do what it promises. Materials don't exist. Time doesn't exist. And the students who need the most thoughtful, rigorous instruction are the ones most likely to have their needs negotiated down to what's convenient.
We're not okay with that. And we're doing something about it.
Ethan Tucker said it better than I can. Ethan is a nonspeaking autistic college student who presented alongside us when we pitched for the grant that funds this work. This is what he told the room:
"When I was in first grade, I had no way to show the world how smart I was. I went to school in special classes taught by kind-hearted teachers but segregated from my peers and any real academics. When I got to access communication, adapted learning in inclusive classrooms, and the passion of teachers like Lisa, the world opened up. Now the kid in this picture who no one believed knew his colors is a college student and is presenting at a national conference in Denver next month."
That's what's at stake. Not compliance. Not seat time. Not a student's needs negotiated down to what's convenient because the system made anything more feel impossible.
Transforming Access is our answer to the system Erin described. It's a grant-funded initiative through the Arc of Maryland's SpARC Tank program and the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, and we're building a complete, ready-to-use adapted first-grade science curriculum for nonspeaking and partially speaking learners -- standards-aligned, scaffolded for critical thinking, and designed so that an educator or parent can open a lesson and teach without spending hours preparing materials first.
Every unit includes a lesson script, a slideshow, and two response worksheet options matched to different communication profiles. The content was developed using a language ladder scaffolding framework and generated with the support of Adaptiverse, an AI-powered platform trained on decades of REV's educator-written materials. What used to take hours now takes minutes -- not because we lowered the bar, but because we finally have tools that let experienced educators spend their time where it actually matters.
Sample Materials from Transforming Access
We are currently in the pilot phase, and we're looking for Maryland-based teachers and homeschool educators to use a focused set of lessons with their students between mid-April and June 2026. Participation involves using at least two lessons, completing a brief feedback form, and a short check-in with our team. Your feedback directly shapes the final curriculum before it launches to a broader audience this fall.
If you're outside Maryland, we'd still love to hear from you. The full first grade science curriculum launches this fall, and we're building a list of educators and families who want to know the moment it's available.
The kid who no one believed knew his colors is presenting at a national conference. There are more kids like Ethan in classrooms right now, waiting for someone to believe the same thing about them. We're building the materials to make that possible.
Maryland educators and homeschool families:
Everyone else - Get Notified when Materials Launch this Fall
Lisa Mihalich Quinn, M.A / M.Ed. / MBA is a licensed special educator with more than 15 years of experience making academic content accessible for neurodiverse students and learners who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). She is a former Maryland Public Schools teacher and the founder of Reach Every Voice, an organization dedicated to empowering individuals with communication access needs, and cofounder of Communication for Education, an online training program for people who support students using text-based multimodal communication in educational settings. Most recently, she has been working to lift the burden of content adaptation on parents and educators with the new transformative lesson adaptation tool, Adaptiverse App.
Lisa's passion for inclusion and equity runs deep, driving her work to help educators, learners, and families think creatively about how to reimagine systems that are historically resistant to change. She pushes folks to shift mindsets from "this is just how we do things..." and "we can't because..." to embody a spirit of "what if we tried..."
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