Accessibility using Web Tools

Pam was asking me this morning about R&W gold and other accessibility tools to use with Chrome, and so I thought I would share a few. We all have those students who struggle with basic literacy skills (reading and writing) that can make independent work a struggle once they reach division II. Since we can't help them every minute of the day, it is useful to leverage technology to teach them strategies for being independent when the situation warrants it. (Especially in science and social where we aren't necessarily assessing these reading and writing skills, but rather working on concept knowledge). 

In Google Docs

• Read and Write Gold (Download extension from the chrome store)
• Reads the text students have typed back to them
• Also works on Blogger as it turns out! Worth trying out to see where else it works on the web. 
• Tools: Voice typing
• Speech to text program
• Add-on: Speech recognition
•  Speech to text program
• Add-on: Kaizena Mini
• Leave voice feedback for students on their work

Chrome extensions 

1. Speak it- reads text 

2. ISpeech- reads texts

2. Announcify ( removes distractions and highlights a paragraph at a time) 

3. Clearly- opens up the site without distractions 

You can also download an extension called ChromeVox, but it can be really irritating because it reads EVERYTHING since it is designed for the visually impaired. 

Other Tools and Tips

• You can click on the little microphone beside the search box to use the voice search in Google Chrome
• Sadly, Google removed the option to filter searches by reading ability :(
• You can create custom search engines (cse.google.com) so that when students are searching you can ensure the resources they are getting as a result of their queries are in kid friendly language and at the appropriate level. 

IPad

• Voice typing in Chrome and in Google Docs using Siri

Food for Thought

- I created a bunch of projects using Slides, and I can't find a tool that will consistently read them to students. However, if I had created it in Docs, I would have easily been able to find a tool to have the text read to students. So... it is a good idea to reflect on the projects and the ability level of the students and how they will be able to access resources independently and structure your projects around that to save yourself headaches! 

How to add extensions from the Chrome store: