Method for Data Collection:
Current Archmere Academy students were surveyed about their personal access to digital technology, as well as their knowledge and experience with using assistive technology in school.
The button to the right links to the survey questions that were asked.
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Survey Responses:
The responses to the survey can be viewed in the slideshow below.
Analysis:
Access to technology
Approximately 63% of students who answered the survey question pictured above observe their teachers using accessibility tools less than 50% of the time.
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Assistive technologyThe term “assistive technology device” means 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 a child with a disability (20 U.S.C. §1401). MacOS has a suite of assistive technology devices built into the operating system. These assistive devices are known as the accessibility tools.
The MacOS accessibility tools that Archmere students report to be most familiar with are listed below:
Archmere students demonstrated interest in learning more about accessibility tools that assist people with vision, hearing, and learning disabilities.
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Solutions:
Click the link below each list to access the Apple website, where you can learn more about the assistive technologies available on a Mac laptop for people with vision, hearing, and/or learning disabilities.
Vision
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Hearing
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Attention/
Processing
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Resource: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/
Misconceptions:
Many students reported both student and teacher use of zooming as an assistive device that is frequently used in class. However, there are multiple ways to zoom on a Mac laptop. A pinching gesture on the touchpad will zoom out and the reverse gesture will zoom in on any website or document within a text editing program. However, there is also a zoom tool that acts as a magnifying glass to allow the user to enlarge just a selected area of the screen.
THE ZOOM ACCESSIBILITY TOOL
The Thinglink below gives an overview of how to set up and utilize the zoom accessibility tool on a Mac computer. Click on the yellow or green icons to explore. The yellow icon that looks like a video camera links to a video to demonstrate how the tool works.
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Digital Citizenship by Carly Pisani is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.