I have learned that even if we try to provide all these services we may not be able to reach all students with disabilities. There are flaws in the equipment and software. We just have to research to figure out what works best for our students.
I learned that active learning takes a lot of planning. Active Learning provides students with a full and interactive way to learn. Instructors need to start off the semester with a good 15min video explaining how the class will be focused on active learning and the benefits. Sometimes technology can get in the way of learning. There should be a lot of IT support 24/7 provided to the instructor and students. With the necessary guidance and acknowledgement for providing active learning more instructor 's would be willing to make the changes necessary.
The teacher more than likely will have more of a learning curve than the student. A student has been using assistive technology. In some cases using it for 13 years. The teacher may have never been aware of this technology. A teacher who can hear a lecture, read notes and review all types of learning formats has to understand how much harder a disable person needs to work to take on a course. That leads to how to best pace a course. This is why students with disabilities have extra teachers specializing in teaching in several areas.
I was surprised to find that LMSs are not on their face all accessible. It seems blatantly illegal to construct those, but yet, it still is the case. I would think that lawsuits would have been brought if those same platforms lead to an OCR investigation that included fines. Seems like the standard has to be acceptability since that is what is required by the law.
There are several things that the online instructor must keep in mind when putting materials online. They include:
- videos with audio must be captioned;
- audio files need to have text transcriptions;
- images need alternative text or descriptions;
- color should not be used to convey meaning; and
- tables should include row and column headings.
Just because you post doesn't mean it is accessible.
I had no idea there were so many resources available. These will definetly help me when dealing with students with disabilities.
Important to know that the LMS systems are not necessarily accessible. This is problematic since they are in such wide use. A student with a disability must be treated fairly and I must ensure my institution is supporting that student in the best ways possible.
There is a multitude of tools and platforms available so that there is no one group or individual who will go without assistance. Taking responsibility and doing research will assist your institution and keep your content and equipment updated.
Now that we are all doing online teaching, this module has been an eye-opener for me pertaining to students with disabilities. I have learned of all the necessary tools out there that educator can access to help student online
I have not had to use JAWS but now realize the importance of learning this technological tool.
I learned that there are many new tools available to increase accessibility to learning. I had heard of some of these but not all.
learning about the different tools is helpful not only to understand what tools a student may use, but to recommend to students that may need those very tools. I also like the idea of making different accommodations.
Utuilizing LMS does not make it info easily accessible for everyone
Do some research and see what AT are out there. The institution may not have a variety since they buy on-demand versus anticipating various disabilities.
The LMS does not always have material suitable for students with disabilities. It is the institutions responsibility to have proper materials posted with students disabilities in mind.
Some of the new soft ware provides students with the ability to adapt to the diverse limitations that prevent them from efficiently and effectively learning new concepts. Different developmental disorders can require an array of assistive technology to further facilitate desirable learning outcomes.
I will defintely give my LMS posts a second (and third) look to ensure that the content I put up is accessable. I do hope I have not unintentionally built any educational barriers as I learned to use them mid-semester during our current crisis.
Assistive technology tools should continue to be provided in educational institutions due to the contribution that they have on the improvement of the learning process for students with disabilities.
The section was enlightening as I was not aware of many of the tools that are available to learners with special needs. One good point is that putting course documents on the LMS does not mean that these documents are accessible to all learners. This I think what many instructors who are not aware of the accessibility concept missed out.
What I learnd was the the Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reading (text-to-speech) software was developed for computer users with vision loss.
