Accessibility and Google Docs

Accessibility and Google Docs

Why is Accessibility Important? It Seems So Daunting…

Accessibility is something that all teachers and teacher librarians should consider when setting up their classrooms or libraries. Regardless of whether teachers have students who are differently-abled or who have no learning disabilities at all, everyone can benefit from making a classroom more accessible by considering the physical layout such as furniture placement, table heights, lighting, and displays; adding adaptive technology; and making changes to the the curriculum.

All too often, teachers get IEP’s and become overwhelmed at the thought of having to differentiate their lessons for those students as well as those who are English language learners, those who are advanced, those with behavior issues or 504’s, and those who struggle but not enough to have an IEP. It feels like trying to juggle 20 balls. Jennifer L.W. Fink discusses simplethings that teachers can do though to create a more inclusive classroom in her article for Scholastic. She suggests making differentiation less of a burden by considering all students instead of just those who need the differentiation. For example, she suggests offering students choices on how they prefer to show that they’ve “mastered” a skill instead of testing each student identically. Another suggestion that she makes is to make a list of all of the differentiation requirements specified in the IEP’s and 504’s and provide those services to all students instead of a few.  Many students will benefit from being provided choices and a more inclusive environment, not only a select few.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities offers a variety of videos and information for teachers and parents seeking to learn more about how to meet the needs of those who are differently-abled. In her video, Meg Randall suggests ways to get students to actively read when having whole-class readings and discussions may be difficult. She suggests restructuring the classroom after consulting with parents so that differentiation can be personalized based on those students’ needs. Reaching out and having an open communication with parents and other teachers is one way to make differentiation and accessibility less daunting.

How Can Google Docs Be Used for All Students?

Digital adaptive tools are especially useful in most classrooms today, and these can greatly help with accessibility. Many of them are readily available, but teachers often are unaware that they are there to be used. For example, if one has a Gmail account, logging into Youtube before viewing a video allows the user to turn on closed-captioning. Google offers a wide variety of accessibility features, which is especially useful since most teachers and students have Gmail and Chromebooks. One of the most commonly used application is Google Docs, and it offers some surprisingly helpful features that would benefit all students, differently-abled or otherwise.

First, Google Docs works with a variety of screen readers such as ChromeVox, NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver (Accessibility for Docs Editors, n.d.), making it easily adaptable for those with vision impairments or reading difficulties. Docs offers a braille display as well as a screen magnifier, providing several options for various levels of vision impairments. Also, students who need to, or prefer to, type with their voice can use the voice feature on Google Docs. This is especially helpful for students who not only need the feature due to a disability, but it is helpful for students who may have a temporary injury such as a broken arm. Sometimes, students simply prefer to speak and have the program type for them out of convenience.  

Here is a helpful video explaining how to use the text-to-speech or speech-to-text feature. It’s so easy!:

Next, teachers who want to create accessible documents can do a few simple things to help all users. The teacher can add alt text to images, drawings, and graphics so that screen readers are able to describe images instead of just calling them “images.” Informative link text can also be added to hyperlinks so that descriptions of the links are included instead of screen readers calling them by the URL or by reading it as “click here.”  Teachers can also change the text size and use high contrast settings to make texts and images easier to see. Google suggests several simple things teachers can do to make their documents more accessible to all students (Make Your Document or Presentation More Accessible, n.d.).

The following shows simple ways to make your Docs accessible:

Accessibility does not have to be a daunting task. With Google Docs, students and teachers can tweak a few settings and get the most out of the application.

Resources

Accessibility for docs editors. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6282736

Ayriteach. (2016, Aug 26). Using Speech to Text / Text to Speech In Google Docs and on a Chromebook [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKpPCbS86BQ

Fink, J.L.W. (n.d). Creating an inclusive classroom. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/17-18/creating-an-inclusive-classroom/

Make your document or presentation more accessible. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6199477

NC State IT Accessibility (2018, June 7). Accessible Google docs [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciPeRKG5TJQ

The National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2012, Aug 10). A teaching technique for teachers of students with learning disabilities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk8qesnsdec