Accessibility

     Hi Everyone! As a teacher, I want to talk about something I find very important in education and that would be accessibility. It is the right for all students to be given the opportunity to reach their full potential in the classroom. With that said, accessibility in education is allowing all students to have a fair chance to succeed no matter what their capabilities might be. For me, I am proud of the fact that I am able to explain complex math problems in way where all the students can understand it. I am able to make the subject of math relatable and connect real life scenarios to the topic to get the students engaged and conceptually understanding. I do this by providing accessible learning materials. These include having worksheets and textbooks for the students. Of course, there is always room for improvement and what I want to make better is creating more resources and support for those students struggling. This ties into accessibility in the classroom for those who have disabilities or simply need extra support. I want to include more visual and auditory aids. I can include more graphs or diagrams for my visual learners and then have audio recordings for my auditory learners. I do have two students this year that have accommodations for hard of hearing so this new implementation will benefit those students and more. My students have access to Chromebooks and therefore, the artifact I am choosing to create is a poster that shows accessibility features for students in my class. 

Image Source: Author 

    The artifact above is a poster I created to show students features built in on their Chromebooks that they might find useful. The Chromebooks have so many tools, that we do not even know about. This poster will demonstrate some of these tools that they all have access to and can use everyday. These are not only for my subject, but for all of their classes. I chose a poster because it is a visual way to portray the information and it conveys the features in a clear organized formation. I can hang the poster in the classroom and then it will be a quick reference. If the students forget how to access one of these tools, they can easily check the poster and access the different features. Finally, the poster is engaging by containing colors and pictures so the information is more appealing to the students. Overall, a poster as an artifact listing accessibility tools for the Chromebook is a great way to convey the information and grab students' attention. 

    If you are interested in more resources to help with accessibility in your classroom click HERE. On this website you will find TedTalks (which I love) and other videos on some disabilities you will face in the classroom and then some accessibilities that you can provide as the teacher to help those students. 




Comments

  1. Katie BrennanOctober 2, 2023 at 9:59 AM

    Hi! I loved that you added in a graphic for your students. My students use an iPad and while there is a lot of features it is tough to make sure that students who need it have access to it. Our IT department is amazing but I think it would be helpful for the teachers to understand the features and how to use them effectively in the classroom setting. Have you used your sign in the classroom?

    ReplyDelete
  2. NMZumpanoOctober 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM

    Thanks for including the instructions on where to access these features on a Chromebook!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bridget SoukupOctober 5, 2023 at 1:02 PM

    Thank you for sharing your blog post. I love the idea of putting the poster somewhere in your room for students to be able to see it. You could also post the poster digitally online on your learning management system. If you do that, your students would be able to access the information in any of their classes and don't have to be physically in your room. Thanks for sharing your brilliant idea! I am going to have to do the same.

    ReplyDelete
  4. sarabelvinOctober 6, 2023 at 4:53 PM

    Maggie, I love the idea of having this resource in the room for students to reference. In the Special Education room I work in, we always have lots of resources hung up on the iPad cabinet for students to reference. I may have to borrow your idea for my students and find something easy for them to reference. Reading is something we are working with them on, so maybe a poster with more images for them to understand?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Judi TOctober 8, 2023 at 6:47 AM

    Maggie,
    I love your graphic for students! This is such an easy way for students to remember shortcuts... and I might just borrow it from you lol. I try to put out useful information for students, but sometimes it falls flat. This is something easy I can do for iPad functionality, and post it in the Library where it's visible. Thank you for the inspiration!!!

    ReplyDelete

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