Accessibility in Technology

Technology Accessibility in the Classroom

As teachers we need to make sure everything we do in the classroom is equal for all of our students. Having digital access for all students is crucial for the students learning. After researching all about accessibility and what types of technology I can use in my classroom, I decided to tweet for five days about tips and tricks that teachers can use in their classroom and for their professional growth.  

You can check out my Twitter and other Tweets here! 

My first tweet was talking about google slides. I use google slides quite a bit in my teaching and classroom. When I send out my slides and lesson plans for students, I normally just shared it within the program. After researching, I found out that presenting in a link in "HTML View" would make the presentation easier and more accessible for all students.

 

 

     Image Source: Author

 

On Day two, I found this website that helps evaluators and teachers like myself make sure that the website they created are accessible to all individuals. I found this interesting because even right now, I am going through my blog making posts but I haven't been checking and making sure that it is accessible to everyone. A website like this will help in the future when I am putting stuff online for my students and having them connect to the classroom website. 

 

 

Image Source: Author        

 
 For the third tweet, I decided to look into apps that might help students in the classroom. I found this app called "Speechify". I enjoyed this app for my students, especially when we are working in small groups and we have writing and readings all around. The students can use their iPads to capture the text which can translate it to audio formats.

        Image Source: Author

 

Another useful tip that went along with my tip three in my tip four tweet was using screen readers in class. There are plenty of websites and apps that could help the students on their computer screens to have read alouds. Some of those apps are listed below in my tweet.

 

Image Source: Author        

 

In my final day with my last week, I wish I found this tip earlier. In one of the apps similar to Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online has an option for students to listen to their work. This can have their papers and paragraphs read out loud to them in order to make sure that their work makes sense.

        Image Source: Author

Overall, it pushed me out of my comfort zone to tweet about a topic for five straight days. Finding the right tweets and making sure I sent out correct information, helped myself research about my own classroom and what I can do to make sure it is accessible for all of my students.

Do you use any apps or websites that help you with accessibility?