9 Popular Apps For Adolescents Struggling To Read — from edtechreview.in
We’ve curated a list of 9 popular applications to help adolescents struggling to read.
On 07/27/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, education technology, Google, neurodivergent/special needs,
by Daniel Christian
7 Good Chrome Extensions for Students with Dyslexia — from educatorstechnology.com
Excerpt:
In today’s post I am sharing with you this collection of Chrome extensions to help particularly students with dyslexia enhance their reading skills. The tools bring added functionalities to Chrome browser converting it into a clutter free space where students can focus on their reading. Most of these extensions offer features such as annotations, OCR services, speech to text, special fonts, dictation, and many more.
From DSC:
Here are some other resources that have to do with accessibility and Google as well:
- Present slides with captions
- Chrome now instantly captions audio and video on the web — from theverge.com by Ian Carlos Campbell <– speech-to-text for certain cases
- Open up an MP4 file or an MP3 file using Google Chrome, Chrome will now freely provide automatic captioning for you
- Type with your voice — for Google Docs and Google Slides
- Speech to text within Chrome — an extension
- Google: Accessibility for every student
On 07/27/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, neurodivergent/special needs,
by Daniel Christian
The Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility — from deque.com
Welcome to the Beginner’s Guide to Accessibility! We’re glad you’re here. This guide is designed to teach you enough about the ins-and-outs of accessibility to get your bearings and to serve as a springboard for deeper investigation into the areas of accessibility that are most relevant to you and your needs.
If you’re completely new to accessibility, we recommend starting at the beginning and reading the sections in order. However, if you aren’t a complete beginner, are pressed for time, or simply prefer to jump around in order of personal interest, each section was written to stand alone as it’s own little module of information.
Table of Contents
- Digital Accessibility: What It Is and Why It Matters
- How People with Disabilities Use the Web (and Mobile Apps)
- Accessibility Compliance: Regulations and Requirements
- How Do You Know If You’re Accessible?
On 06/28/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, design, instructional design, interface design, neurodivergent/special needs, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, web design and production,
by Daniel Christian
10 Best Accessibility Tools For Designers — from hongkiat.com by Hongkiat Lim
Excerpt:
Today is the world of inclusive technology – websites, apps, and tech gadgets that are made for people with different kinds of abilities and inabilities. So when you’re designing a website, you include features that make your design accessible to as many people as possible. And this is where accessibility tools come into play.
Instead of creating everything from scratch, here’s a list of cool accessibility tools for designers. From creating color combinations according to WCAG standards to adding different reading modes to your website, these tools are a must-haves for every designer. Take a look at the list to know about each tool in detail.
On 06/05/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, education, education reform, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians,
by Daniel Christian
Technology Made Special Education Parents Better Advocates During the Pandemic — from edsurge.com by Nadia Tamez-Robledo
Excerpt:
Those are lessons that should stay in place long after our current era of remote learning, says research analyst Lane McKittrick, who focuses on special education and families at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. She recently co-authored a report on how charter schools effectively supported students with disabilities during the pandemic and is blogging about the topic.
McKittrick’s disappointment didn’t just come from her role as a researcher. She’s also a mom to four children, three of whom are deafblind.
The schools that most successfully served their special education groups were those that prioritized communication and learning about families’ needs, McKittrick found in her own analysis.
On 06/03/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, neurodivergent/special needs, society,
by Daniel Christian
The Basic Accessibility Fundamentals Bootcamp!
Use this table of contents to jump to specific chapters of the video:
00:00 Introduction
16:24 Inclusion and Accessibility
43:11 What is Digital Accessibility
53:31 Accessibility User Persona
1:04:26 Accessibility Statistics
1:20:53 Accessibility Laws and Legal Landscape
1:44:08 Screen Reader Demo
2:03:32 Accessibility Demographics
2:33:57 Wrap Up Reflection
2:35:19 Q&A
GAAD 2021 Fundamentals Bootcamp Slides.pdf
Recommended Accessibility Books:
- Unleash Different – Rich Donovan
- Mismatch – Kat Holmes
- The End of Average – Todd Rose
- Design for Real Life – Eric Meyer & Sara Wachter-Boettcher
On 05/25/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, Apple, assistive technologies, Microsoft, neurodivergent/special needs, platforms, society,
by Daniel Christian
You’ll Soon be Able to Use Your Apple Watch Without Touching the Screen — from wsj.com by Katie Deighton
Companies like Apple and Spotify are making it easier for people with disabilities to use their products. Accessibility advocates hope more follow suit
AssistiveTouch, a new feature coming to the Apple Watch, will let users operate the device without having to touch the screen or controls. It was designed with people who have upper-body limb differences in mind.
PHOTO: APPLE INC.
Excerpt:
Later this year, Apple Inc. will introduce features that allow users to control an iPad with their eyes, and its smartwatch with gestures like a pinch or a fist clench.
The company announced the moves this week as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 20, an event established in 2011. Other big tech players revealed initiatives and commitments of their own, from automatic podcast transcriptions by Spotify Technology S.A to the updated design of a specific virtual block in Microsoft Corp.’s “Minecraft” to make it more visible to colorblind players.
On 05/20/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, Apple, assistive technologies, neurodivergent/special needs, society,
by Daniel Christian
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is today!
Help us celebrate the tenth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.
Also see:
Also see:
Professional Development for Digital Accessibility: A Needs Assessment — from qualitymatters.org
As the EdTech article, “Improving Accessibility for Students and Faculty with Disabilities,” points out, the approach to accommodations for many institutions is still reactive instead of proactive.
So what can institutions do to become more proactive in their approach to digital accessibility? A 2019 survey of Higher Education Quality Matters Coordinators conducted by Barbara Frey, D.Ed., Point Park University, and Rae Mancilla, Ed.D., the University of Pittsburgh, identified the need for more professional development on the topic. Now, in the final white paper from their three-part series on digital accessibility, Drs. Frey and Mancilla provide a summary and analysis of the survey data on digital accessibility professional development needs.
Highlights include:
-
- The key training areas that course developers can focus on to help faculty
- How administrators can address common barriers to participation in digital accessibility training
- How faculty can contribute to a meaningful accessibility training curriculum
Also see:
- Apple previews powerful software updates designed for people with disabilities
New SignTime service launches Thursday, May 20, to connect Apple Store and Apple Support customers with on-demand sign language interpreters.
On 05/18/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, remote teaching and learning, society, storytelling, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web design and production, web-based collaboration, writing, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is this Thursday, May 20, 2021
Help us celebrate the tenth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.
Also see:
On 05/15/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, internet, machine-to-machine communications, neurodivergent/special needs, society,
by Daniel Christian
Designing Accessible IoT Experiences — from inclusionhub.com by Be My Eyes
While not every IoT product is designed with accessibility in mind, it has the potential to enable people with disabilities to communicate with and through technologies in ways that were previously unavailable
Excerpt:
As we have seen, the proliferation of both devices and tools to make devices smarter can have major benefits for people with disabilities. However, when these users are not considered during the creation of products and apps, these technologies can end up widening the accessibility gap, rather than closing it.
The key to providing accessible experiences for as wide a range of users as possible is to include a variety of stakeholders in the design and testing phases of any device. By inviting people with disabilities–including visual, hearing, cognitive and other–into the process, designers can ensure that their needs are met up front, rather than having to backfill or find work-around solutions post-launch.
On 05/11/2021,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, education, higher education, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, neurodivergent/special needs, student-related, teachers, UK, universities, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Part I: How do I measure accessibility maturity and compliance? — from abilitynet.org.uk by Alistair McNaught
When you ask adults to recall their most memorable and enjoyable learning experiences it nearly always comes back to relationships – a fun teacher, an inspiring lecturer, a lively community. Such human interactions neatly illustrate the difference between maturity and compliance.
A “mature relationship” sounds a lot more attractive than a “compliant” one. Yet many institutions are offering compliance to disabled learners rather than mature relationships.
The lenses we use are:
- Main driver – Where is energy being expended and what is measured as success?
- Responsibility – Who are the actors. Do they have sufficient authority?
- Model of disability – Is the perception “users with issues” or “systems and content with barriers”?
- Focus of effort – Is accessibility a “task and finish” project or a long-term quality improvement?
- Skills and expertise – What is the focus of training? Who gets it? Is it considered important?
- Digital accessibility in policies – Digital accessibility is a vital equality issue. Is it visible in policies?
- Culture – Is the focus on minimising risk? Or maximising user experience? Does accessibility straitjacket online learning? Or encourage innovation and experimentation?
- User’s digital experience – How consistent is the user experience? How well designed?
Part II: Accessibility maturity in education — from abilitynet.org.uk by Alistair McNaught
Excerpt:
In this article we explore the “Drivers” lens. What is driving your change? The need to be compliant and tick off the boxes? Or a desire to be digitally inclusive, ensuring every student can be as confident, independent and productive as possible?
Part III: Broaden accessibility responsibility beyond learning teams — from abilitynet.org.uk by Alistair McNaught
Excerpt:
At the upper levels of maturity, the confidence and competence of a wide body of staff will mean the organisation moves beyond micromanagement of accessibility. Accessibility may be mandatory but a wide range of templates will be available. Even better, many staff will have enough understanding to create their own accessible content and courses without needing a template. At this level, the following lines of evidence will be available:
- A senior sponsor will be responsible for digital accessibility across the organisation.
- Any cross-organisation steering group will be hosted by senior staff, meeting regularly and evidencing positive outcomes.
- Digital accessibility will be a standing item in self-assessment reviews or quality assurance processes, and appropriate training will be in place to make this meaningful (see the later lens in the final blog coming soon in the series, on skills and expertise!).
- Students will be actively involved in accessibility developments.
Part IV: Coming soon.
Learn about the Accessibility Maturity Model for Higher and Further Education that AbilityNet and McNaught Consultancy have developed based on Alistair McNaught’s existing model. See here and here.
Some example snapshots:
