Accessibility A Guide for Educators

1. AccessibilityA Guide for Educators Terry Landers Regional Standards Officer – Western Europe Microsoft Odessa, Ukraine 26 October 2010

2. Agenda • Personalized Learning & Accessibility • Impairment Types & Technology Solutions • Selecting Accessible Technology • Questions & Answers

3. 1. Personalized Learning & Accessibility • Key elements of Accessibility Technology • The Need for Accessible Technology in Schools • The Challenge: Inclusive Classrooms with Equal Access for All Students

4. Key elements of Accessible technology • Accessibility features or settings that are built into software programs and allow adjustment and customization of product settings to meet vision, hearing, mobility, language, and learning needs.. • Assistive technology products (specialty hardware and software products) that are carefully chosen specifically to accommodate an individual’s disability or multiple disabilities. Examples include a screen magnification programme • Compatibility between assistive technology products, the operating system, and software applications. This is critical for assistive technology products to function properly.

5. The need for Accessible Technology in Education • Society Trends: • Many countries-require schools by law to provide equal access to technologies for students with disabilities. • Many require equal access is the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream/ regular classrooms. • Drives demands for schools and educators to understand how accessible technology can benefit the diverse needs of students.

6. The Challenge: Inclusive Classrooms with Equal Access for All Students • Increased use of computers in schools, and the increased number of students with disabilities placed in inclusive general education classrooms • As technology becomes more prevalent in classrooms, students with disabilities face even more challenges in keeping pace with their classmates if they can’t use that technology. • Personal productivity software publishers and educational software developers are beginning to include children with disabilities in their target audiences. • Educators can help ensure that students with disabilities have the same access to technology as general education students by seeking out solutions that are accessible for students you know to have disabilities.

7. 2. Impairment Types & Technical Solutions • Vision Impairments • Learning Impairments • Mobility and Dexterity Impairments • Hearing Impairments and Deafness • Language Impairments

8. Impairment Types & Technical Solutions • 2.1 Vision Impairments • Examples: Low vision, colour-blindness, blindness • Solutions: Screen Magnifiers, Screen readers An example of a screen reader is Window-Eyes.; Brailleprinters (or embossers) ; Braille displays, The Seika Braille Display is an example

9. Impairment Types & Technical Solutions • 2.2 Learning Impairments • Word Prediction • Speech recognition • Speech synthesisers • 2.3 Mobility And dexterity impairments • Ergonomic keyboards • Joysticks and trackballs • Touchscreens • Alternate keyboards: Big keys , electronic pointing, Sip&Puff devices

10. Impairment Types & Technical Solutions • 2.4 Hearing Impairments • Hearing loss and hard-of-hearing. • Deafness. Students who are deaf may not be able to hear any sounds or words spoken. • Solutions include changing notifications from sound to visual notifications, volume control, and captioning • 2.5 Language impairments • Aphasia (loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words, often as a result of brain damage), delayed speech and other conditions resulting in difficulties remembering, solving problems, or perceiving sensory information • Solutions include: Speech synthesisers • Augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) devices

11. 3. Selecting Accessible Technology • Identifying the Right Mix of Accessibility Solutions • Accessibility in Microsoft Products • Assistive Technology Product Starter Guide • Assistive Technology Decision Tree

12. People with Learning Impairments • Assistive technology Products • Word Prediction, • Speech Synthesisers ( text-to-speech) • Speech Recognition: navigating a computer by voice • Features in Windows and Office for students with learning impairments include: • Making it easier to focus on reading and typing tasks • Checking spelling and grammar in Office programs • Using AutoComplete in Office

13. Mobility & Dexterity Impairments • Arising from accidents or conditions, students might be unable to use (or be without) arms or fingers to interact with their computers using a standard keyboard or mouse. • Common illnesses and accidents such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, loss of limbs or digits, spinal cord injuries, and repetitive stress injury, among others.

14. Selecting Accessible Technology • Clients Needs assessment • Accessibility consultants • ONCE( Spain), AbilityNet(UK),Enable Ireland( Ireland) , The eCentrum Project(Poland)

17. Determining the correct solution • UNUM Decision tree

18. 4. Questions & Answers

19. Resources • Microsoft Accessibility Web Site www.microsoft.com/enable/ • Accessibility Update newsletter www.microsoft.com/enable/news/subscribe/ • Accessibility in Microsoft Products www.microsoft.com/enable/products/ • Accessibility Tutorials www.microsoft.com/enable/training/ • Accessibility Demos www.microsoft.com/enable/demos/ • Assistive Technology Products www.microsoft.com/enable/at/ • Microsoft Accessibility Resource Centers www.microsoft.com/enable/centers/