In its trial form I wasn’t too impressed with the edge but now that Windows 10 has been released that are many features that I like that would benefit pupils with special educational needs. The clear size and text is helpful and on a tablet the swipe and navigation becomes very intuitive.
Address Bar
Is wider and clearer text for those with visual needs making it easier to see what the address is. Bing has become more intuitive too and predicts what you most likely would be looking for.
Speed
It’s much faster than previous internet explorers. Less waiting and more instant would help pupils who become impatient or easily frustrated. It is now faster than Chrome which I rated one of the fastest browsers until recently.
Integration with OneNote
Really useful for users with a stylus but is possible with users on a touch screen. The Edge is billed as being the browser for research so being able to annotate pages and save then to one note easily would benefit settings using Classroom OneNote where work can be shared.
Classroom OneNote
Is a free app linked to a live account for Office365. It allows teachers to create resources where students can add and share their ideas to. Joint project research on any given topic would enable work to be collected and set jointly by pupils and staff. The integration with the browser will really make this possible I think. Less things to worry about and instantly available to everyone working on the same network. Ideal for secondary settings. This alone will help to innovate schools who want to make us of cloud based learning with their mobile technology.
Share button
This is intuitive to. As I write this article I am offered apps that would work with the writing of this blog. Meaning my work can be shared with more than one application and therefore more than one use. For instance I could share this article with my online storage so I keep a copy or I could create a unique QRcode that could refer to this article . All by clicking on the share. In fact to prove the point I will share this as a QRcode which I will include as a free link to a useful resource now. 
. I used Elecom QR code for Windows which allows me to save the QR code to a dedicated picture folder and then I upload directly into the article. This could work on any application I choose to use.
Bookmarks
Those websites you want to keep and use can be easily imported into the Edge via the hub favourites . Bookmarking a website is as you would expect using the star.
Settings
Also from the same hub that we found bookmarks you can also change the look and feel of the browser easily . There are light and dark skins and also you can have different size fonts for reading up to extra large. These globally change the browser on restarting the Edge. It doesn’t change the colour of the reading pane which might be a useful addition to aide pupils with dyslexia to make it easier to read .
Home button and Tabs
The home button can be set on the icon bar which I find useful to return to my preferred search engine which has been google but with this browser I will continue to try Bing which appears to improve all the time. You have to click on Advanced Settings to change the search engine. I do love the Bing search window which has some useful tools for me all in one place along the top with the tabs. And I love the animated gifs they use as backgrounds which makes it all look very cool!
All in all I think The Edge is a big improvement on previous Internet Explorer browsers and would recommend it as an access tool for those with special educational needs to use.
AccessAbility Solutions 