Post 5: Chromebooks

 


     Ensuring accessibility for everyone is necessary as a school media specialist and classroom teacher. This week's readings reinforced my passion for supporting all students as much as possible. In my last post, I discussed the use of Chromebooks as a technology tool in the classroom to support instruction. I was not aware at the time just how adaptable a Chromebook is as an accessibility tool for students that need additional adaptations. Research for tools I have access to in my current classroom showed me just how much I can use the Chromebooks we already have to support differently-abled students. 

     Chromebooks come "preloaded" with many accessibility tools. To turn on the built-in features, go to "settings," choose "Advanced" from the bottom of the menu, and choose "accessibility." You can then select "manage accessibility features" to turn on/turn off the features that you want. This even works for devices where districts have chosen to block settings options for students. Google lists multiple options sorted by need, summarized in the chart below. 

Visual

Audio

Motor

·         Browser zoom

·         Full screen magnifier

·         Display size

·         Docked magnifier

·         Font size

·         Large mouse cursor

·         Customizable caption styles

·         MonoAudio

·         ChromeVox

·         Select-to-speak

·         Text-to-speech

·         On-screen keyboard

·        Adjustable touchpad settings

·         Adjustable keyboard settings

·         Sticky keys

·         dictation

 A few that really stook out to me are ChromeVox, Text-to-speech, Select-to-speak, and dictation. ChromeVox is a screen reader that speaks aloud any change in focus on the device or page and helps the user navigate. It does work best with short cuts and takes practice to get used to. This tool has a lot of potential but learning to use it efficiently requires a lot of time and patience. Text-to-speech enables students who have reading difficulties to adapt the pace, pitch, and volume so that the device can read the text on the screen aloud in the way the works best for that student. Select-to-speak allows the student to highlight a specific line or section of text to be read aloud. These two are useful in the classroom for IEP accommodations and ELL students. The dictation feature enables the student to speak words instead of typing them. This is a great accommodation for students with dyslexia and motor impairments that make writing/typing challenging. 


One-pager: Google for Education


Comments

  1. Cheryl Milburn-JenkinsOctober 9, 2022 at 12:42 PM

    Thank you so much for highlighting all of these important features that Google Chromebooks have to offer! My school is also 1:1 and each student has a Chromebook. I always find it amazing that they locate some of these features before we can even tell them how to. It just goes to show that they will find the things they need to help them be successful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carson McCallumOctober 16, 2022 at 5:03 AM

    This post is really useful! My school district uses Chromebooks for student 1:1 devices. I may print your Ultimate Cheat Sheet to keep in the classroom. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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