Addressing Technology Accessibility
As technology has become ubiquitous in many classrooms around the country accessibility has become a concern. In this instance, I am not taking about the digital divide and physically being able to get to a device, which is in its own right a major issue that got highlighted during pandemic shut downs and hybrid learning requirements. Instead, the accessibility we are discussing is the ability of all individuals to find success in using the same device. Can the device adjust to the needs of the user?
The first accessibility feature I remember coming across was the ability to change font size on iPhones. We had just gotten my grandmother a new cell phone when she moved away from the flip phone and I was surprised when we could alter the font size to help her function better with the phone. As the phone was largely only for phone calls and texts the increase font size reduced a lot of potential frustration.
This year we have a new edition of the biology textbook which has some great accessibility features. At a base level, the website is compliant with modern accessibility expectations. Additionally, users can select and adjust the font size helping those that are hard of vision, and those for who a larger text size would help visually focus. The second major feature I was very excited about as it represented a great step forward in addressing student needs. Each page has a sound file of the reading so students can listen to the text and/or read along with the audio. I appreciated that the sound files go page by page due to the nature of the biology text having a number of images, pausing and restarting is needed to have time to actually take in the image. The other positive of a page by page recording is if you want to go back to a specific topic in a chapter all you have to do is find the page. You do not need to find some unrecorded time location in an audio files large enough to be the whole book.
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| Image Credit: Screen Shot of Miller and Levine Biology on the Savvas Realize Reader Platform |
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| Image Credit: Blog Author |
All students are required to have an iPad for the school's 1:1 program, so I chose to focus on that device and look at some key accessibility features. Most of the general features I am familiar with and have encouraged students to use at various times. However, I did not know that the display accommodations have such a variety, including increasing the color contrast. I think one of my stronger practices regarding accessibility is pointing out the features in the Savvas Realize text to the whole class. I do this with all the various technologies, pointing out tools that may help the students. One of my goals is to have a conversation about these accessibility features in such a way as to encourage everyone to use the features which hopefully gets rid of any stigma that otherwise may have been present.
I love the idea of encouraging all students to use accessibility features so no one feels singled out- great suggestion!
ReplyDeleteHi Dan,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of trying to rid the stigma associated with accessibility features. I am the type of learner that uses them. I have really dry eyes so they are light sensitive. I use the warmer screen color or the inverted colors as well as a large font when they are tired. I struggle a lot with how long it takes me to put my ideas down by writing, so the voice-to-text helps me so much. And that function has improved so much, that I don't have to say "period" anymore. I consider people who use these features to be smarter than others because they help so much. Thanks for your post!
-Emily
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteI am also learning how to make signage, handouts, and other materials more accessible to a wider audience, including dyslexic students. I like a lot of white space around text blocks and slides that are heavy on the visual elements, light on text, and I'm glad to learn these approaches can work well for students with reading challenges. I was excited to find out there are special fonts that work better, too.
Your post made me think about the book club I help coach and how we need to push to get electronic copies of the books along with the traditional paper texts we have. I like the features you highlight in your biology textbook including font size adjustments and sound files.
Thanks for the clear example of the iPad's accessibility features!
Maria
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteI had never considered font size options as an accessibility feature but of course it is, and such a simple and useful one for all types of people. I read something somewhere about how we are all on a spectrum of ability; we will all develop disabilities at some point as our bodies naturally age. Typically, I only see older people who are otherwise physically fit using large font sizes on their phones and did not connect the dots that that is accessibility. I loved your highlight of other accessibility features on the iPad. Also as someone who has trouble sitting down and reading, I wish they had had that textbook feature when I was in science classes! Great post!