Making Online Learning Accessible Why, What, How

Ira David SocolJames Socol

Michigan State University College of Education

What is Accessibility?What does it look like?

BasicsFirefox plus Add-OnsClick-SpeakFireVoxDSpeech Ghotit Natural ReaderWordTalkPowerTalk

Simple Mac OS TTS

Open System Preferences - it’s the fourth item in the Apple menu. In the “System” section, usually about the fourth line of icons, there is an icon labeled “Speech” which looks like an old fashioned microphone. Click on the Speech icon.

Simple Mac OS TTS

Select any key combination that isn’t already used for something else. Now all you need to do is select some text in an application - I suggest you try it first with Safari or Text Edit - and hit your keys and you should hear Mac OS X read out whatever you have selected!

On Line Text-To-Speech

http://vozme.com/

http://spokentext.net/

http://www.yakitome.com/

Phone Text-To-Speech

http://www.dial2do.com/

VLingo

Phone Speech-to-Text

http://www.abbyme.com/

Phone Text Conversion

http://www.scanr.com/

PDF

Creating Accessible PDFs from Microsoft Word

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/pdf/word/index.html

Creating Accessible PDFs from Scanned Documents

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/pdf/scan/index.html

Creating Accessible PDFs from Online Sources

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/pdf/web/index.html

Accessible PDFs Guidelines/Standards

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/pdf/guidelines.htm

Word

Creating Accessible Microsoft Word Documents

http://www.webaim.org/techniques/word/

PowerPoint

Creating Accessible Microsoft PowerPoints

http://www.webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint/

Video

Creating Accessible OnLine Video

http://www.accesselearning.net/mod4/4_01.php

Web, Blogs, Wikis, Forums

Odiogo

http://www.odiogo.com/

Link Testing

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/tutorials/links-testing.htm

Creating Accessible OnLine Environments

http://www.accesselearning.net/

Accessible Design is Good Design

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/tutorials/access-distance-learning.htm

Dive into Accessibility(downloadable book)

http://diveintoaccessibility.org/

Traditional Books

OnLine Sources

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg Australia

University of VirginiaLiterature Network

ABC BooksBookshare

Publisher Look Up

http://www.publisherlookup.org/

In ClassFace-to-Face

“Ice Breakers” and Innocent Mistakes

humiliation at the start

Be sure that class activities – especially first class session activities, before you know your students

well – are not “accidentally” humiliating. Physical movement activities, reading aloud, being forced to

write by hand, even speaking in front of a group, can force students into unplanned disclosure.

Handling Computers and Mobiles in the ClassroomAlternative Formats

Alternative Response Forms

What Universal Design looks like

allow students to choose their technology,whether their technology is paper and pen,

a computer, or a mobile phone.

But engage those technologies. Ask those online to look things up, to share…

or bring the online backchannelto the front of the classroom

Today’s Meet

Response to Student Work

Voice Comments in Word

in Word2007 http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=439 in Word2003 http://www.ewu.edu/x63277.xml

Ask.How do students want feedback?

http://www.calstate.edu/accessibility/resources/

Checks and Evaluation

http://webaim.org/http://www.w3.org/WAI/

speedchange.blogspot.com

Making Online Learning Accessible Why, What, How

Ira David SocolJames Socol

Michigan State University College of Education