Accessibility Reflection

Blog Discussion

Digital accessiblility is when technology is adapted, or when technology is used to adapt activities, for students with exceptionalities. This website describes digital accessiblility better than I can and gives examples of what it is https://www.techsoup.ca/community/blog/designing-for-digital-accessibility-and-inclusion. The only time I have seen a child use technology for accessiblity reasons was a child in summer camp who was non-verbal and used an iPad to communicate. However, I never worked directly with them so I feel like my knowledge and hands on expereince with digital accessibility is lacking.

Digital accessibility is a subject I have thought about before and I believe it is very important so I would like to learn more about it. Whenever I think about it, I go big picture with programs or technology to support learners with accessibility needs. I did not think about subtitles or the colour of text/backgrounds or descriptive text with images as digital accessibility. They very much are digital accessibility and I think it is beneficial to start with the smaller, easier to achieve things before going into more labour extensive, speciality programs or technologies. Accessibility and differentiation are very important and I think all students can benefit from these practices.

I really liked when Tracy mentioned that supports should not be seen as a stepping stone to doing things the way the majority do it. You would never expect someone with glasses to one day no longer need glasses without some kind of replacement like contacts or laser eye surgery. If a student cannot write with pen and paper but can type or use speech to text, why force them to use pen and paper?

Accessible Photo

Accessible Video