Why think about accessibility?
Persons with disabilities may be facing difficulties in reading documents created by you. Many documents contain hidden obstacles that can sometimes deny or restrict access to users with disabilities particularly persons with blindness, low vision, colour blindness, reading disabilities and certain mobility impairments.
People with disabilities use digital documents in different ways. Some of them may want to get it Read Aloud using Text-To-Speech software, or read it on Refreshable Braille Devices while others may want to magnify the text and change the foreground and background colour to suit their visual disability. Some of your readers may be using the keyboard to navigate through your documents while others
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Providing an adaptable format that is marked-up semantically - It should be possible for readers to adapt the visual presentation of the document to suit their reading needs. Meaning of different text elements should be conveyed not only through visual presentation e.g. colour, alignment but also through use of appropriate built-in styles.
Microsoft has provided an ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER within its Office applications. Ensuring that your documents pass the tests of this Accessibility Checker is generally sufficient to ensure that people with different disabilities will not have any major difficulty in using the content. In this training the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker has been used as a benchmark. Note that accessibility for each and every user cannot be guaranteed, however, documents that pass the Accessibility Checker and the manual testing (described later) will certainly be more accessible and easy to use.
The Accessibility Checker verified Word document can just be saved as a PDF document. This PDF file inherits all the accessibility related mark-up done in the Word document and is easy to use even for persons with
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Click on the VIEW TAB and then select NAVIGATION PANE to open the window which displays the list of all headings in the document. Alt text or image descriptions
Blind and low vision users cannot see and understand the non-textual content e.g. pictures, charts, maps in the document. The Screen Readers and the Braille devices can however read out the text description also called alt text provided by you in place of the graphical content. You should add alt text two pictures, clip art, charts, tables, shapes, smart art, graphics and embedded objects to help blind and low vision users to fully understand your content.
This step is explained in the video - Improve accessibility with alt text
To add all text to an object, RIGHT CLICK on the object and choose FORMAT PICTURE. Then click on ALT TEXT and in the DESCRIPTION field type or paste the image description text and click Close.
Note that in different versions of Microsoft Word the Alt Text option may be placed
This will benefit Billy and his peer helper. The device would be considered low tech. Since Billy wears glasses he can use a computer with a screen reading software. Which will allow him to see the text displayed and hear what is being said while looking at the word. Screen reading software would be considered high tech. Both devices can be used to assist Billy in a regular classroom. Billy can use the classroom devices at desk to have a better understanding of what’s being taught. During choice or computer time Billy can use the screen reading to review what he didn’t understand during teaching instructions. I think both devices will interest and encourage Billy to want to
... read aloud, dictation to scribe, assistive devices, marks in book, braille/braille writer, magnification device, computer/word processor, testing in separate room, and large print.
“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it” -Chris Joseph
In 1972, Geraldo Rivera with the help of Dr. Michael Wilkin of Staten Island's Willowbrook State School gained access to the institution and filmed the deplorable conditions the residents were living in. Now 25 years later the documentary reflects on four survivors of Staten Island's Willowbrook State School and their families. The family members give testimonials on how it felt to discover that their child had a disability, leave their loved ones in an institution, and the quality of care and services provided. The film also focuses on the progress made by the members that now live in group homes and the quality of their lives.
Physical barriers can happen in many places from offices to health care organisation, this can affect people who may have a disability and may need to use ramps, may need wide doors or may even need lifts in certain areas for example in schools they would need to have wide doors, ramps and lifts. But this can also be a barrier if the building were built from a long time ago but it can be overcome is in school they rearrange the time table and have the lesson in a different area of the school building where the wheelchair can access.
Text Help (2008) Research Summary Supporting the Use of Read&Write/Read&Write GOLD, Technology for Learning Disabilities Project, available at http://www.texthelp.com/media/39345/US%20RWG%20Research%20Summary.pdf (accessed 30/12/13)
We will ask students to determine if the best way to determine if a text is informational would be by looking at the pictures. From their examination of non-fictional text students should be able to see that these elements are not always an indicator of non-fictional text. Students will be taught that not all Informational text contains every text feature. For example, a newspaper article may not have all these elements, but only some, like the picture and caption. They should also note that there are more text features which we did not
UCI Disabilities Services Center. (2003, February 2). Universal design and web accessibility. Retrieved September 17, 2003, fromhttp://www.disability.uci.edu/other_links/web_accessibility.htm
The Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web , such as impaired vision , hearing , speech and physical , cognitive and neurological disabilities . The document " How to use the Web for people with disabilities " (different disabilities affect Web use) describes how different disabilities affect using Web usage scenarios and perilmvanei Web for people with disabilities (scenarios of people with disabilities using the Web) .
In society, people have their disabilities accommodated to them. For example, people who suffer from a certain health condition can have the chance to be assigned a special parking that is closer to the entrance. They are given the famous blue sign with the character on the wheel chair. The sign I chose was located in the Walmart parking lot, it’s a very well-known sign because it’s located in many different places. I found this sign intriguing because I wanted to see a different perspective on how this could be looked at.
Assistive technology plays an important role in the learning process for individuals with disabilities. Assistive technology is defined as "any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities." (Maushak, Kelley & Blodgett, 2001, p. 419) Assistive technology is very beneficial to individuals that have disabilities. For example, students with mental retardation benefit from extremely organized learning situations because of their limited cognitive abilities. Students who are hearing impaired, blind, or visually impaired may need differentiated pedagogical materials. More emphasis should be placed on visual materials for students with hearing impairments than for other students. Modifying instruction for all students, especially exceptional students, requires strong dependence on media, materials and technology and the right choice of these components to fit particular ends. Moreover, research has indicated that technology not only can be adapted for use with students with disabilities, but when used can enhance students' educational achievement and self-image. (Duhaney & Duhaney, 2000, p. 393) With this knowledge, there have been many new products that have been developed to help individualize programs to fit the criteria for specific disabilities. Through out this paper we will be disusing three different pieces of assistive technologies. We will be looking at Dynawrite, AlphaSmart, and Texthelp and the benefits of each program.
Bowser and Reed [1995] as cited by Bryant et al [1998] argue that as a child progresses through the Education System, their requirements change and this may necessitate a need for different devices. This is not limited to those children with a physical disability but is relevant to all children with SEN as they progress and the Education System places additional burdens upon them. For children with a visual impairment ICT can provide support in various ways; tools to support communication, to improve access to information and as a means of producing learning materials in alternative. There is a wide range of devices and software, which can
People with disabilities are still people, they are people with hearts and they are actual physical beings; people with disabilities do their best to live every day to their fullest, yet that is still not enough for others. I feel like as a whole, humans are generally uncomfortable with people who have disabilities. Let’s think of it this way, people live their life every day in their normal lives and then they come across a person with a disability and suddenly their life is interrupted, like it is such a barrier in their flow of life to come across someone different from themselves.
According to Heng (2010) explain that accessibility of a web is to provide and ensure the same user experience for people who are disability such as color blindness. How to make website accessibility? Heng (2010) continue to suggest few methods that used to improve the accessibility of a website, the first one is, do not make the text too small on the website, because elderly people may have poor eyesight and it is hard for them to see small text. Heng followed with the second method which is use high contrasting color for the website background and text, do not use the combination color of background and text which hard to look at it, not even poor eyesight people will be hard to see but it is a problem for normal people as well. Therefore, with these expert advices, the web system in assignment part b has improve in accessibility by using viewable method such as avoid small font text in website and color used in background and text (black and white). There are still a lot of methods to improve the accessibility of websites. According to an organization WebAIM (2013), indicates few ways to improve the accessibility of a website such as plan a good heading structure to ensure the content are in logical heading structure, provide a good contrast, design a link for user which can help them go back to the top of the page and ensure the link text is meaningful. In the assignment part b, it also improved the accessibility inspired by WebA...
Computers are now being used to help the blind with a voice synthesizer that tells them what they are typing or what they are trying to see on the screen. According to Palmer (1999),"CCS builds and sells complete handicapped accessible packages, as well as individual products like speech synthesizes voice cards and screen enlargement software. The screen enlargement programs increase type size to aid people who are partially impaired. Those with total blindness use synthesizers both hardware and software versions that read what's on the screen. They work by translating ASCI symbols, the series of code each letter and graphic is assigned into voice transmissions.