Hi Everyone,
Many of our adult learners’ struggle with hearing and vision issues that make learning challenging. Our community, along with the LINCS Integrating Technology and Disabilities and Equitable Outcomes, will hold a live event on July 15th at 3 PM ET to discuss accessibility tools that can assist our students. Ashly Winkle will take us through the accessibility features of Actively Learn, CommonLit, and ReadWorks. Mike Cruse will add some tips about how to make accessible presentations.
Please register HERE.
What are the biggest challenges you face with serving students who have hearing or visual disabilities?
See you on July 15th,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Community
Comments
Hi Everyone,
This is a friendly reminder that our group's monthly event will be held this Thursday, July 15 at 3 PM ET (register HERE). It features Ashly Winkle of the Integrating Technology group conducting live demonstrations of the accessibility features of three free tools that became favorites during pandemic online teaching:
ReadWorks https://www.readworks.org/ A levelled text resource that supplies a variety of reading contexts.
CommonLit https://www.commonlit.org/ A digital reading curriculum that assists students in improving their reading, writing, and thinking skills.
Actively Learn https://www.activelylearn.com/ A digital reading platform that allows students to have deeper text engagement.
Mike Cruse of the Disabilities and Equitable Outcomes group will also present about how to make PowerPoint presentations more accessible to leaners with vision and hearing disabilities.
I'm looking forward to seeing you at the event!
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Hi Everyone,
On July 15, Ashly Winkle of the Integrating Technology group led our monthly event and demonstrated the assistive technology features available in three popular free online tools. These tools allow students with hearing or vision-related disabilities fuller use of these resources.
ReadWorks.org allows users to adjust text size to make print larger. It features text to speech capability adjustable to faster or slower speeds with human voices. Available guided reading strips highlight a single line of text to keep readers focused. Instructors may add paragraph numbering, highlight text and add annotations, and change vocabulary to make passages more accessible. A split screen option allows for students to see questions and text simultaneously.
CommonLit also has adjustable text size, text to speech options with variable speed, and annotations. It also contains an option to translate text into 30 different languages. Its guided reading feature “chunks the text into bite-sized pieces and asks students basic comprehension questions about what they've read before they can move on” (CommonLit FAQ). It allows for easy PDF printing and holds an impressive library of resources.
Actively Learn contains a variety of reading passages at grade levels 3 to 12 including frequently updated articles on current events. It too possesses text to speech, text size change, multiple-language translation, and annotation abilities. Embedded videos bolster background knowledge while a student-friendly dictionary provides easy-to-understand definitions. Additional text settings allow for increased margins and text spacing. An Extra Help feature allows students “to see a summary before reading, additional scaffolding notes in the text, one fewer answer choice in multiple choice questions, and hints and answer stems in short answer questions” (Saaris, 2020).
More information about each of these tools is found in the Wakelet Ashly created.
Mike Cruse of the Disabilities and Equitable Outcomes group shared resources for making accessible PowerPoint presentations that you can find here.
What are your favorite accessibility tools?
Thanks for your participation in this event,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group