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Accessibility and Technology

 One thing I’ve realized in education, especially throughout this program, is that accessibility impacts everyone and using different tools benefits everyone in some way. According to the Center for Universal Design, there are seven principals to help achieve accessibility; these include equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. (Spina, 2017) When these principals are kept in mind, accessibility can be achieved with the physical space as well as the digital space.

Copeland states, “Perhaps the single most important factor in implementing any form of assistive technology, however, is the idea that technologies should be evaluated and selected so that they can best meet the individual needs of our students” (Copeland, 2011, p. 68). My school has many students with many different abilities and many different languages. When looking at assistive technology, it’s important to remember that students who speak languages other than English need to have their needs met as well to help them achieve their greatest potential.


The district I work in uses Microsoft software, so I wanted to choose a tool that would be easily accessible for the teachers to use. One of these features is translating the spoken words in a PowerPoint presentation and creating captions in a language selected. Teachers can use this for lessons and parent information presentations. Students could also use this feature when creating class presentations. The presenter can select what language they are speaking and what language they want the captions in. One of the greatest things about this feature is that it’s already built in to the software, so you don’t have to download any additional add-ons. After opening the presentation you want to use, go to the Slide Show tab at the top and click Start Subtitles. Then you will see this box.

For additional help using this feature: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-microsoft-translator-in-a-presentation-2582d976-97ea-4bf3-af1b-3647d925240a

Here are more resources to explore: 

FluentU-Ways to use technology for ELL students

Common Sense-How to use technology to support ELLs


Resources

Copeland, C.A. (2011). School librarians of the 21st century. Knowledge Quest, 39(3), 64-69.

Microsoft. (n.d.). Using Microsoft Translator in a presentation. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/using-microsoft-translator-in-a-presentation-2582d976-97ea-4bf3-af1b-3647d925240a

Spina, C. (2017, May 5). How Universal Design will make your library more inclusive. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/how-universal-design-will-make-your-library-more-inclusive


Comments

  1. Megan CumminsJuly 10, 2022 at 5:05 PM

    Hi Courtney! I had no idea that translated captions were available within PowerPoint. Thank you for sharing this tool. I also appreciated the video you shared from Microsoft. I sometimes can not believe how much technology accessibility has improved over the last several years. My aunt had a degenerative neuromuscular disease and used a wheelchair her entire life, as her disease progressed she became even less mobile and eventually lost her ability to complete tasks such as writing and typing. My aunt passed away in 2009, but I often think about how much easier completing her daily communication and work tasks would have been with the technology available today.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Megan Cummins

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CourtneyJuly 10, 2022 at 6:48 PM

      I'm so sorry to hear that. You're right though, things have improved so much and continue to do so. There are so many tools available to help everyone.

      Delete

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