Reading the Microsoft Accesibility article titled Guide for Individuals with Vision Impairments was personally the most useful to me. When thinking of strategies to implement into the classroom, this article gave many examples of resources available that I was unaware of.
For example, when accommodating a student who has low-vision, there are many tools that can be altered to benefit this particular students. First off, if you go into 'Settings' on Microsoft you can change the size of the text to help the student read it more easily. You can also change the contrast of the colors on the page, which is beneficial to all visual impairment students whether high and low because each color combination can be unique to the learner. Not all visual impairment learners are the same, like many disabilities there are different levels of impairment and therefore there is no universal tool, but rather different settings and options to mess around with until it suits the need of each individual. Being able to magnify text is also beneficial if you do not want to change the size of the text on the page in its entirety. You can also zoom in and out on particular webpages to view text easier. Changing the contrast of the page can also help functionality for learners who are colorblind. Lastly, for learners with low visual impairments using "Read Mode" can take away all of the distracting text around an article you are reading. This tool I believe is helpful for everyone, much like other Universal Design, because it takes away distractions and allows your eyes to focus only on what you are trying to read.
For students who are completely blind, there are also many tools that allow technology to be accessible. Options such as sound and touch allow a blind student to hear and interact with what is on the screen. Tools like speech recognition are also extremely important for a blind student because it allows the student to be able to type with their voices rather than having to see the keyboard. This allows a whole different sense of freedom and interaction with technology that before was not possible.
Overall, technology has continued to benefit all types of learners whether fully visually impaired or with a low visual impairment. Universal Design has continued to benefit learners of all needs and even learners without impairments. Assistive technology may not be able to remove the impairment but it helps allow full functionality of technology use to these learners.
Excellent example! Until I read the articles this week, I didn't know that Microsoft possessed the ability to make so many changes to make it more user friendly for a low-vision individual. Not all students can be helped by corrective lenses or glasses, by using technology it helps students become a part of the classroom where they wouldn't be otherwise. By bringing technology into the classroom it helps open up doors that were once closed to these individuals. As educators we need to find ways to help students become more active in the classroom despite the impairments they posses.
ReplyDeleteJanelle,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you learned a lot from the Microsoft article. It really is eye opening to see how many changes you can make. I really liked your observation that just like the disabilities are so different there are many options to adjust in order to make the best experience for the student. It is much better that just being given an on/off setting.