Assistive Technology
In this section, I will concentrate on assistive technology that might be used or is available at Chisholm. We have a number of students with a range of differing abilities including deaf or hard of hearing, paraplegic or quadriplegic, vision impaired, and ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). In the lower level courses, such as Certificate II and III, there are students with lower academic and literacy levels that ne3ed to be catered for. The biggest issue for educators is that unless a student identifies with a disability and seeks support services through our Disability Liaison Officer, we don't know that there might be potential learning difficulties that need to be taken into account. Our e-learning team are actively encouraging educators to apply the principles of Universal Design for Learning via the E-learning Champions program.
As well as using a range of assistive technology, we provide flexible study arrangements such as online or blended delivery classes, reduced study loads, and notetakers in the classroom.
Hardware
As a mostly adult education institution our students with a disability would usually provide their own tried and tested adaptive technologies.
Ipads
iPads and other tablet devices are commonly used as communication devices for those that are unable to use their own voice. This technology allows the student to ask questions and verbalise their ideas by typing in what they want to say and using the device to "speak" those words. This is built into the operating system so it doesn't require any special software. Ok (2017) mentions a number of articles that support the use of the iPad as an alternative communication tool in education as well as general living skills. Other uses of the iPad are also mentioned such as tools for vision impaired, hearing, and writing.
The iPad support website lists all of the accessibility options for the last few Operating System versions. Below is a list for Accessibility tools in iPad OS 15
Vision
- VoiceOver
- Zoom
- Display and text size
- Motion
- Spoken content
- Audio descriptions
- AssistiveTouch
- Touch accommodations
- Call audio routing
- Face ID and attention
- Switch Control
- Voice Control
- Home or top button
- Apple TV remote
- Pointer control
- Keyboards
- Apple Pencil
- AirPods
Hearing
- Hearing devices
- Live Listen
- Sound recognition
- RTT
- Mono audio and balance
- LED flash for alerts
- Headphone accommodations
- Background sounds
- Subtitles and captions
- Transcriptions for Intercom messages from HomePod
General
- Guided Access
- Siri
- Accessibility Shortcut
- Per-app settings
Input and Pointing Devices
The standard mouse can be quite difficult to use if you don't have the fine motor skills. Mobile Phones and Tablets can also be used via special apps and a WiFi or Bluetooth connection to your laptop or computer. There are other alternatives to using a mouse such as a joystick, trackpad, or trackball device that do not require the same level of dexterity as a standard mouse. These devices do not need to be physically moved around but can move the pointer by using the stick or rolling your hand or palm on a large ball centrally located on the device.
Images from Enabling Devices website as an example of adaptive input devices
Noise cancelling headphones
Some students that identify as having a level of autism often have auditory sensitivity. This means that certain noises, sounds, or even music may cause discomfort and can even set off a meltdown. Use of headphones or earplug that reduce the background noise can help autistic people cope in crowds or noisy places like shopping centres.
Auditory sensitivity is more common among autistics than it is within the general population, which makes a great pair of noise-cancelling headphones pretty necessary. Much as we might sometimes wish to push a total-mute button on the outside world, that's not possible
Software
Most operating systems now have accessibility features built in. Microsoft Windows has a range of accessibility features that can be set up using the Ease Of Access utilities available in Windows settings.
Immersive Reader
Microsoft has a tool called Immersive Reader. It is available in Word in the View ribbon and is also in a few other Microsoft applications. You can control how the words are spread on the page as well as change the colours. There is also a line focus tool that will highlight one line and you can move the line up or down using the mouse or keyboard. If you use the Read Aloud button, the Immersive Reader will use text to speech to read the document out loud. The Immersive Reader tools are useful for those with low literacy levels, difficulty in focussing on a lot of words on the page, have vision issues with the white background, or just prefer to have it in audio rather than reading.
H5P
H5P can be used to create interactive content to engage all learners. Chisholm has a licence for H5P which means that it can be used within our Moodle as an activity, but can also be embedded into Moodle Books, labels or pages.
Some of the H5P tools that are considered Accessible include:
- Accordion
- Audio
- Audio Recorder
- Branching Scenarios
- Chart
- Collage
- Column
- Course Presentation
- Dialog Cards
- Documentation Tool
- Drag and Drop
- Drag the Words
- Emoji Cloud
- Fill the Blanks
- Flashcards
- Guess the Answer
- Image Choice
- Image Hotspots
- Image Slider
- Interactive Book
- Interactive Video
- Multi Poll
- Memory Game
- Multiple Choice
- Quiz
- Single Choice set
- Summary
- The Chase
- True/False
- Virtual Tour (360)
- Word Cloud
I will be incorporating Quiz questions at the end of each Moodle Book as well as using Interactive Video to include formative assessment questions within some of the videos that will be uploaded.
Conclusion
Assistive technology for students is great so long as the student and the relevant educators have adequate knowledge and training in its use and benefits. (McNicholl et al., 2021)
Web accessibility
"The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is an internationally recognised standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)" Centre for Accessibility Australia
The current version is WCAG 2.1 but the Australian Government standard is WCAG 2.0. The guidelines provide information that website builders can use to ensure that their website is accessible to people with various disabilities including those that might be age related.
Chisholm templates are set up with a good colour contrast of dark text on a light background. The colour palette is Black on a white background with light blue and navy blue as contrasting colours.
The update will be using the Universal Design for Learning principles. These provide a range of guidelines to ensure that the learning environment meets the accessibility principles.