ECOMP 5007: Web Accessibility

In class we had an opportunity to see some of the accessibility features built into the operating systems of today’s computers. We also saw a variety of assistive technology products that allow students with or without disabilities to perform better in the educational setting. All of these things provide accessibility; but what about the World Wide Web? How accessible is it, and what is being done to improve accessibility?

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Web accessibility is a topic that has been around for a while. I remember the topic coming up back in college when I began designing my first website using Netscape Composer. Even then such webpage editors were including prompts and fields to encourage the writer to make their content more accessible, such as alternate text when adding an image. Today, more and more web editors are working to provide accessibility options for web designers; I noticed several extra fields in my Wordpress blog editor just last week. These extra fields were prompting me to include additional information that would help visually impaired users of the Internet to be able to consume the information on my blog easier.

As I watched the two videos from WebAIM I sympathized with the students and recognized their frustration and disappointment in the Internet. I got to thinking about some of the websites that I’ve visited that I found difficult to navigate in and thought, if I am frustrated with this site how would a person with web accessibility issues feel? It seems like, as more and more websites move to flashier pages with animated graphics they are also leaving behind people who could be potential consumers, customers, and/or contributors. What it really comes back to is a very old yet very relevant concept: know your audience. Once you have that nailed down, you can adapt your content or message for maximum coverage and distribution. 

I think many of us take the Internet for granted with respect to how the information found on it is communicated. I was really impressed with what Curtis Radford, who is hearing impaired, said when he described himself in the first WebAIM video. He can think, he can read, he can write, and he doesn’t see himself as having a disability…he just can’t hear. So why shouldn’t he be able to consume and contribute to the wealth of content that the Internet provides?

Recently our IT director re-designed all of our school websites and made them more “interactive” with animated flash graphics, embedded Google calendars, and Twitter feeds. I decided to take a page out of my cohort colleague Chad’s handbook and tried to navigate the middle school homepage without using my mouse. Okay, I have to admit that it took less than a minute to cheat, but I had use my mouse in order to bypass the animated flash graphic at the top of the homepage. After that I tried again and, while I was moderately successful in navigating to where I wanted to go, it sure did take a long time to get there without a mouse. And I remember when computers didn’t come with a mouse and all of your navigation was done by keyboard commands…how times have changed.

ECOMP 5007: ELL

This week's assignment allowed you to take a closer look at our students who do not speak English as their first language.

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1.  What’s available in your state?

Web Resource: National Clearing House for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)

Before going to the website and investigating what programs and services were available to ELL students in the state of Maine I tried to think back and remember where I had previously seen any related documentation…I couldn’t. In my experiences working with the Maine Learning Results, my teaching internship, and my college courses I don’t remember the topic of ELL coming up. In fact, my first experience dealing with ELL was my first job as an Ed. Tech. at Kennebunk High School. Even then, my exposure was limited to the ELL teacher on staff due to some extreme deficiencies in her technology skills. 

In looking through Maine’s Department Of Education website, I was able to pick up pieces here and there that related to my classroom work such as the NECAPS standardized tests that we are preparing to administer next month. I was impressed with the number of webinars I found on a variety of ELL and ESL topics going back as far as 2009. I also went looking to see who were the ELL staff members in my school district because, I’m sorry to say, I didn’t know who they were. I feel like I should be concerned that we have only one person on our ELL staff for our entire K-12 school district.  Then again, I suppose this depends on the number of students who fall into the ELL category. Perhaps other specials who are cross-trained are also providing additional support? In any case, I need to investigate and find out.

2.  A “hot topic” in the world of ELL is the differentiation of students who are true ELL students from students with disabilities who demonstrate language problems, i.e., differentiating language differences and language disorders/disabilities.

Web Resource: LD online.org

One of the main conclusions I drew from this “hot topic” is, in my opinion, and old one. In order for students to be successful learners, whether they are ELL students or students with language problems or mainstream students, all members of a schools’ staff must work and communicate together to create a positive and supportive environment. Support for ELL students should not just come from when a student is pulled from class to work with a specialist. Rather, it should should come from the classroom teacher, the art teacher, the librarian, the principal, and so forth. In my teaching I am already in the position of trying to teach students a different language: the language of computer technology. While this can be a challenge in itself, if I have a student who also has difficulties with English then I need to know and be collaborating with other teachers and specialists to develop skills and strategies to help them be just as successful in my class as the rest of my students.

3. "What Teachers Should Know About Instruction For English Language Learners"
Web Resource: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NREL) - Article

In reading this document and reviewing the 14 principles of interest, a couple of concepts really jumped out at me:

• P2-Conversational vs. Academic language: I had never really given much thought to the language that I use in the classroom as being academic, although it makes perfect sense. I am constantly working to use terms, concepts, and language that will allow students to make connections between their prior knowledge and that of “techno-speak.” Now that I think about it, I wonder if this could be considered an attempt to bridge the gap between these two types of language?

• P4-Background Knowledge: This principle also made a lot of sense to me. With language comes culture and differences in what is considered acceptable behavior, classroom expectations, etc. This concept needs to be considered when interacting with ELL students so that the teacher can help them see the differences but also acknowledge that both have value. I mean, is not one of the reasons we want English students to take foreign language is so that they can appreciate the similarities and differences between cultures?

4. Looking at some specifics…

While at the elementary level YouTube is a resource that is blocked by our district filters, at the middle school our students have been able to show the responsibility and maturity to use this resource (most of the time). Hence, the ManyThings.org website could be a handy tool to have and use. This current generation of students tend gravitate to video resources whenever possible, and as a result YouTube has been a hotbed for teachers to find academic-related material. I can also see this resource integrating nicely with our 7/8 graders and their MLTI laptops. I was also impressed with the site having a section for iOS devices (e.g. iPad, iPod-Touch). These types of devices are entering schools and classrooms at a ever-increasing rate and I was pleased to see a site that is making efforts to find resources that will work with different types of technologies such as these.

ECOMP 5007: UDL

Remember our class discussion on Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? This week your assignment provided you with some more detailed information about UDL and the outcomes it may foster. You dug a lot deeper into this topic, and you looked at some tools that provide UDL foundations.


After reviewing the different resources offered this week about universal design, what is being modeled here? How does design afford higher levels of access and learning? Are there ways for you to bring these kinds of strategies and techniques into your own work with students?

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What is being modeled here is a broader perception of the what, how, and why of learning. It attacks the notion that students are like machines and that an “assembly line” education system will allow all of them to emerge as adults ready to enter the real world. Far from it, we are all unique individuals who learn, comprehend, and express our understanding in unique ways. This concept speaks not just to students identified with special needs but also to students who are considered mainstream.

Design affords higher levels of access and learning by helping teachers to stay focused on the “big picture.” At the same time, teachers need to recognize that each student is unique in their learning styles and abilities to express understanding. I see it as an interesting contradiction: Don’t loose sight of the overall goal of educating all of your students by also being aware of the uniqueness of each and every student in the class. When you see classroom teachers, special education instructors, and support staff working toward this goal of Universal Design of Learning I see yet another example of how teachers need to be “quick on their feet,” ready to change, modify, and reconfigure their mode of teaching at a moments notice as they move from one student to another. This is not an easy skill to acquire, and I give great credit to those teachers who are successful at this each and every day.

During my internship to become an educator I latched on to the concept of designing lessons that would address the three main learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile learners. Having read the material on UDL I see that, while this concept is a good start there is more to the spectrum than just three learning styles. This is certainly the case when I factor in students entering my classroom in need of accommodations.

Last year was my first time using an audio enhancement tool with two different students who had hear impairments. While I don’t have a problem making my voice loader for everyone to hear, I also tend to move about the classroom as I teach. I realized that this could be problematic for these two students. Wearing the voice enhancement microphone allowed me to continue teaching in this style while also allowing these students to hear my directions clearly.

In looking at some of the tools provided in this weeks assignment, one that I took notice of is the Web Notes tool. I try to post all of my teaching materials online via my website so that students, parents, and teachers can access the content at any time. When combined with Web Notes, students with memory impairments could attach key words and phrases right onto my digital documents and webpages to help them recall the information later. Another tool that could easily integrate into this framework is Natural Reader. Again, since I put all of my materials online in digital format, students with visual impairments or dyslexia could use this tool to have the computer read such things as the directions off of a worksheet or speak aloud the copy of my notes from the previous lesson. Text-to-Speech tools like this give students power and control over their learning so that they can be and feel successful in their journey as a lifelong learner.

ECOMP 5007: Supporting Students with Disabilities

What has been your experience with families of students with disabilities? What kind of support is available to educators and staff to support the IEP recommendations? How are students and families involved in the IEP process or in provision of assistive technology?

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What has been your experience with families of students with disabilities? Much of my experience has been with students and their disabilities. I am rarely invited or brought in to the IEP process. Rather I get the call after an IEP has been established and the assistive technology needs to be setup/installed. In some of the schools I’ve worked in I’ve been fortunate to work with special needs staff who have thought to seek my insight and consult with me prior to an IEP meeting. While I cannot comment on how a piece of assistive technology may or may not aid a student, this has given me the opportunity to provide information on the schools’ ability to implement the technology and provide constant support for its use. I have been teaching a 6th grade computer literacy class for the past three years now, and it has taken that long for the special needs staff to begin seeing the need to include me in IEP meetings that affect 6th grade students. In the meetings that I am now beginning to attend, I have become keenly aware of my inexperience with the IEP process. If I have a strength, it has been in helping other teachers to integrate technology to aid them in collecting assessment data. While my point of view has been toward all students, having read some of the literature for this class I see that this data could also be important to the IEP construction process. What kind of support is available to educators and staff to support the IEP recommendations? Our IT department and staff make every effort to support the recommendations for assistive technology that grow out of an IEP plan. To this end, we constantly advocate to be consulted during the planning process so that we can provide the team with accurate information with respect to our ability to provide the technology, a realistic timeline of when we can implement the technology, and our ability to provide maintenance and upgrade of the hardware/software. Even with our 1-to-1 environment in grades 7 and 8, our ability to respond effectively and timely continues to be a challenge. In these instances, I wonder if our IEP’s need to focus on using “trials” with non-specific technology types/brands as described in the ASNAT document we read. This might give us more flexibility to find the right technology that can be supported by the IT department, integrated into the schools’ technology infrastructure, and serve the needs of the student. How are students and families involved in the IEP process or in provision of assistive technology? From my observations, both students and parents are vital players in the IEP process in my school district. IEP meetings usually do not take place unless at least one parent representative is in attendance. The student may not be present for some meetings due to the nature of the agenda, but I believe student involvement is strongly encouraged during the assessment and evaluation parts of the IEP process. Student input into whether or not the assistive technology is meeting the goals of the IEP plan is just as important as that of the teacher. Since the start of Maine’s 1-to-1 laptop initiative (MLTI) in grades 7 and 8, I think parent involvement has become even more critical in the IEP process. Part of the mandate of the MLTI program is that the student be able to bring his/her laptop home during the school week. As a result, any assistive technology connected to this device is now present both at school and in the home environment. Therefore, parents need to be included in the IEP process so that they can effectively support their child in the use of the assistive technology when they are at home.

ECOMP 5007: Access to Print - eBooks and eText

If we look at the tools and resources that support accessibility, what are some of the strategies that are going to make these kinds of accommodations for students a viable reality? How much do educators need to know? Can students migrate to digital content without their teachers making any changes in their instructional practices?

Take some time to offer your reflections on this challenging issue in the discussion forum. Please post your thoughts by Friday at 9pm and respond to two of your peers by Sunday evening at 9pm. As you think about your response and those of your peers, offer information that will help extend your (and their!) thinking, and perhaps move the conversation to the next level.

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The realm of assistive technology has come a long way since the last time I took a class on the topic. In fact, when I was going for my teacher certification there was no “class” on technology, assistive or otherwise. At the time, my certification program saw technology as just something cool that we might or might not want to bring into our classrooms. Now, we not only have computers in labs and classrooms, but we have students entering 1-to-1 laptop environments (Maine’s MLTI program) and even the introduction of portable devices such as the iPad and iPod Touch as vehicles through which assistive technology tools are being delivered.

In order to make assistive technology tools a viable reality, all of the players need to have a stake in its application in order to ensure their proper and consistent use. It’s not enough to just buy and install the equipment; a plan needs to be developed and ready to implement that will show both student and teacher how the assistive technology should be used and why. I think the why is also important to the student “buy in,” because if the student doesn’t see why they should use it then they may resist using it. When I was an Ed. Tech. at the elementary level, I had a student who was very, very small for her age. Her fingers were so small that using a standard keyboard was difficult for her and she did not look forward to computer class. Then the occupational therapist and I got together to purchase a “little fingers” keyboard for her. Each class I would have to disconnect a computer in order to setup the special keyboard, but when the student saw how she could be just as productive as her peers with this keyboard her attitude did a complete 180°. 

When it comes to assistive technology educators need to know just as much, if not more, than the student when it comes to the how and why. Now matter how precise a tool is as a match for the student, they still need to be taught when and how to use it. Educators also need to be aware of how the content they are teaching may change when it is filtered through a piece of assistive technology. For example, if a teacher assigns a piece of text to read that a students’ Text-to-Speech program is unable to analyze properly, this could be a problem. Hence, teachers need to be ready to make changes in their instructional practices regardless of how good the digital content is or how efficient the assistive technology may be. The more that the content is in digital form the easier it is for educators to modify that content into a format that will sync with a students special needs. A common thread found in the articles we had to read strongly reinforce the message that digital content, such as ebooks, can be modified faster and easier than more traditional books that are paper form for students with special needs.

In the end, we have to remember to see students as individuals, each with his and hers own unique way of learning, comprehending, and applying knowledge and skills. Technology, whether it be for general education or special needs use, cannot be seen as a stand-in or babysitter for a teacher will the ability to assess a students’ progress and make adjusts accordingly. It is only when all the players work together: student, teacher, special needs advisor, and assistive technology that we can help each student become successful in their educational career.

ECOMP 6102: Reasoning Paper - Final

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ECOMP 6102: Final Design: a Performance Assessment Task

Part 1 - Performance Task Description
Part 2 - Description of Assessment Design
Part 3 - Create and Evaluate a Rubric
Part 4 - Self Assessment


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