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Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Penny Pearson: Hi, everyone. My name is Penny Pearson. And I am a retired coordinator from OTAN. And I'm currently working as a subject matter expert with them. So I'll be your host for today's Tech Talk. The title for this Tech Talk this month is, using accessibility to help all students improve their learning. Our presenter today is a dear friend of mine and a fellow subject matter expert, Debbie Jensen. And I'll allow her now to take over and get started. Debbie.

Debbie Jensen: Greetings to you all. This Tech Talk is titled, "Using accessibility to help all students improve their learning". My name is Debbie Jensen. I work in adult education in Southern California. Sometimes, you'll see or hear accessibility referred to as A11Y. This is a numeronym, a number-based word based on the 11 letters between the beginning letter A and the ending letter Y. Numeronyms are often used in social media where every letter counts.

Slide three is my introduction. Over the past years, I've focused on what we as educators must do to make our documents, and presentations, et cetera accessible to our learners with disabilities. Along the way, I've discovered that as I made needed changes to my materials, I also increased the usability for my able-bodied learners. On this journey, I discovered that some of those accessibility features helped me as well.

This presentation is to inform and motivate us all to know about accessibility features that will help our learners. We will look at why we should do this, 10 example features, and features on smartphones. Then I'll make suggestions for how to share these with your learners. Slide four states our best practices connection found in the California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance.

Chapter two, it says, accessibility measures the degree to which content programs or tools support and accommodate the needs and preferences of diverse learners. While accessibility might initially be a consideration for learners with disabilities, many accessibility features such as closed captions or text to speech are beneficial to all learners. Slide five is a photograph of a woman in an electric wheelchair trying to hike a trail that was not designed for her.

I always include this slide in my presentations on accessibility. It reminds me of my learners with disabilities. They work hard. They worked harder than my other students because many times, resources haven't been created with them in mind. But that never stopped them. They were happy to be there, joyful even.

I remember one student with cerebral palsy who used a wheelchair and a voice synthesizer to speak for him. After a few weeks, one of my other students came to me after class and said, he's smarter than the rest of us. And I agreed. After my basic skills class, he went to college and has received multiple University degrees. Given the opportunity and the tools he needed, he soared. These accommodations are required by law. And that extends to digital accommodations.

Slide six is a photograph at the beach. There's a rubber mat and a person being wheeled in a wheelchair to cross the sand and get to the ocean using the mat. Recently, I walked with my grandsons to the Great Salt Lake. Even with the rains this year, it was a long, long way on the way back to the car. And I thought, I was going to die. I could have used a rubber mat that didn't sink 8 inches with each step.

Which path would you choose to walk, if you need to get to the beach? And that is what I want to share with you today. Accessibility features that you may not know about, that you could really benefit from. Slide seven is our first feature text to speech. Two examples are Microsoft Read Aloud and Google TalkBack. This is when the program, browser, or phone reads to you what is written on the page.

It is a requirement for the blind, but it is great for ESL students or those who struggle with the print on the page because of color contrast. It is widely available. Please note, I will mention some places or ways you can find these features. But there are more. If I had an Apple phone or used Google Chrome, I would type in the question to get instructions or go to the settings on your device.

Slide eight, we see a scene in the James Bond movie, Goldfinger. 007 is asking, do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger? And the villain responds, no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to make this online course ADA compliant. Feature number two is live captions, also known as real life, real time captioning. At the gym, each morning, I watch the news with live captioning. That way, the other patrons are not disturbed. In fact, there are three monitors to choose from.

Are they 100% accurate? No, but I can still enjoy the news. Closed captioning is usually more accurate. For me, it helps with movies, where the accent is difficult to understand or I'm on the bus, or at the library. Who else might benefit? Those with ADHD can focus easier with captioning. And ESL students can watch and rewatch.

Years ago, I had a Hispanic student who had never had the opportunity to go to school, but her English was perfect. I ask her how she learned having not gone to school. And she said, captioned TV. Slide nine is feature number three, speech to text. TalkBack on Google, voice typing on Google, and speech recognition on Microsoft. I use this one too.

I'm trying to digitize my grandmother's written history. So I use voice typing on Google Doc. I read the text out loud and the program transcribes it. You could use this feature for brainstorming or speaking your notes, if your hands are busy. For someone who struggles with typing or with dyslexia, this would really help, as well as those typing or trying to improve their productivity.

Slide 10 is feature number four, remove distractions. On the right is a screenshot of Reader's Digest website article. Reader's Digest popularity has made it a valuable place to advertise. So it's filled with distraction and with many advertisements. This is an article. But notice the video at the right side, I think it's advertising shoes.

In the middle of the screen are link boxes to unrelated advertisements for Amazon, retirement, camping cots, or grilled burgers. Though, you cannot see it, the top was a moving advertisement. All are very hard to ignore and be able to ignore them and then focus on the article. Advertisers want your attention. And they fill our digital world.

Even watching a video on YouTube can be daunting for our students, who might find the other videos displayed at the side more interesting than the one assigned by the teacher. This feature allows you to customize the display and show less-- pause, start again. Slide 10 is feature number four, remove distractions.

On the right is a screenshot of Reader's Digest website article. Reader's Digest popularity has made it a valuable place to advertise. So it is filled with distracting advertisements. This is an article. But notice the video on the right side, I think it's advertising shoes. In the middle of the screen are link boxes to unrelated advertisements for Amazon, retirement, camping cots, or grilled burgers. Though, you cannot see it, the top was a moving advertisement. All are very hard to ignore and focus on the article.

Advertisers want your attention. And they fill our digital world. Even watching a video on YouTube can be daunting for our students, who might find the other videos displayed at the site more interesting than the one assigned by the teacher. This feature allows you to customize the display and show less clutter on the page.

Different browsers offer the feature. Apple Safari reader will eliminate ads, et cetera and change the appearance of the background, text, color, and resize the text. Microsoft Edge's Immersive reader adds ways to customize the text's appearance and offer literacy support. Google Chrome offers extensions, such as adblock that help reduce distractions. This feature helps improve focus, not just for someone with a learning disability, but for everyone. It certainly reduces my level of annoyance.

Slide 11 shows our fifth feature. We see a screenshot of Microsoft's Immersive Reader. Readability enhancements are available in the accessibility settings on other web browsers. They'll assist with font size, type, spacing, background color to reduce eye strain. Microsoft Immersive Reader goes beyond that.

On the screen, the text has been color coded to identify parts of speech. Words are broken into syllables. The words are spaced. And reading lines limited to help those with ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning challenges. It will also translate text into languages. And includes a picture dictionary. These features are invaluable to teachers, who want to differentiate the reading experience, especially for their struggling readers.

A note; to get the full features available with Immersive Reader, use the Edge browser. On slide 12, we see a man at a food counter at night on his smartphone. This is feature number six, dark reader. It is an open source extension used by many browsers. It inverts colors to make high contrast for less eye strain and easier reading at night. It adjusts brightness, contrast, and font settings.

Last week, I was buying food for my roses. I couldn't read the print, directions on the back of the bottle. Color contrast and font size are truly becoming more of an issue for me every day. Slide 13, features number seven, and it's keyboard navigation. It uses the tab, arrow, enter, and spacebar keys. Webpage designers include this feature, but it can vary by browser.

It allows you to move between links, buttons, forms, and other controls. This is valuable for those who may suffer from tremors or who are unable to control a mouse. It's also helpful in moving around in a document. In Microsoft, it also includes magnification, reading commands, contrast, and sticky keys. I don't know about you, but sometimes, moving around on my laptop requires two hands and focus. And quick movement frustrates my efforts.

Using keyboard navigation is very helpful. On slide 14, we see a girl using earbuds while studying with her laptop. The noise of her family is around her, but they're not distracted by what she's hearing. This is feature number eight, mono audio. It sends the same sound to both speakers and earbuds. It makes it easier to follow the audio, share earbuds, or have only one earbud in as you walk or drive improving safety.

Again, I use this one while I exercise or drive, so I can still hear what's happening around me. Slide 15 is feature number nine, large links and buttons. As shown in the image of this smartphone, this feature makes it easier to navigate the website and is especially important on mobile or tablet devices with smaller screens. This is good for the elderly people using small screens or people who have misplaced their glasses.

Slide 16 is our 10th feature, headings, tables of content. In the image, you can see a business plan with a table of contents of links at the beginning of the document placed right under the title. These features are required for use of a screen reader. But here's my tip. They're good for everyone trying to find information quickly.

A table of contents links to headings at the beginning of a document or website assists everyone to move around quickly to the place you want to start. This is good for people with learning disabilities, those using mobile devices, and everyone who wants to zero in on information quickly. This slide 17 is one last share. The image on the right shows the article in Reader's Digest.

In my exploration for this presentation, I found this amazing article about smartphone accessibility features. It has large graphics and great how to information. It is titled 25 smartphone accessibility settings you need to know about. Now, I want you to listen to the features they offer. I'm sure there's something for you.

The features they listed include, for the Apple iPhone, voiceover, mobile screen reader, zoom, magnifier, text size, text color and readability subtitles and captions, headphone accommodations, switch control, people detection, live listen, dictation, and sound detection. Slide 18 includes features available for the Android smartphone. These features include TalkBack, action blocks, display and font size magnification, lookout, voice access, time to take action, voice input, sound amplifier, Live Transcribe, sound notification, switch access, and Morse code keyboard. Take a look. I promise you, there's something for everyone.

Slide 19 is my conclusion. We have an image of a laptop with this quote on the screen. I design and develop experiences that make people's lives simple. My recommendation for you, get to know these features. I promise, they'll be something you will appreciate. Then share these accessibility features with your students the first week of class.

You could incorporate them into a lesson or have pairs of students explore the list and report back on the ones they want to use. You could use Immersive Reader to explore ways to help readers and then let students use the features that help them most. For some students, the features will be interesting and helpful. But for others, they may be necessary.

When the law required accessibility features to be included in digital resources, something unexpected happened. As creators applied these standards, it improved access for those with disabilities, but also improved access for everyone. This is exciting. The irony is that most of these features are unknown to many of us.

By sharing these features with your learners, not only may their academic success improve, but their everyday lives will improve as well. They will share what they learn with their families. the? Word will spread. Think of yourself as a modern herald, one who proclaims the arrival of something remarkable in shaping lives today and in the future. Thank you for joining us.

Penny Pearson: Thank you, Debbie, for that presentation. I'd really like to encourage the viewers at this time to subscribe to OTAN's YouTube channel, where there are Instructional technology videos related to adult education-- and they can be found-- including finding the additional tech talks. All of this information and more is available on the OTAN website at www.OTAN.US. Thank you again for watching this OTAN Tech Talk.