Activity
Accessible digital advent calendar
Created by students, this digital advent calendar can teach tech skills!
Updated for December 2024.
Why was the snowman embarrassed when he was caught hunting through a bag of carrots?”
“He was picking his nose.”
Advent calendars are a fun way to count down the days to Christmas. Tactile Times has created an accessible digital advent calendar with a fun twist. Each day unlocks a student-friendly, holiday-related joke, song or ??? originally created by 3 braille students in the UK.
This motivating advent calendar can also be used to teach/practice tech skills to students!
Tech skills
This digital advent calendar is on a webpage with informational text and a countdown timer before the actual advent calendar. How can you quickly navigate to the advent calendar? There are several options! What are the pros and cons of each method?
When you select a day, you will hear the sound of a door opening. Then navigate to the text and/or play button. (Some days have both jokes in text format and recorded holiday music.)
Navigating to the advent calendar
- Skip to advent calendar button (only available when using a screen reader)
- Navigate by Headings (4th heading on the page, then multiple right swipes before accessing days on the calendar)
- Form Controls: (Navigates directly to Dec. 1st in the advent calendar)
- Note: With iOS devices, Form Controls must be included in the rotor options
Navigating the actual advent calendar
The actual advent calendar is in a table format with the day of the week as the column header. What is the best way to navigate the calendar?
- Additionally, with iOS devices, practice rotor skills by setting the VoiceOver rotor to “headings” to find the table, “Form controls” to find the doors and more.
- To navigate as a table with iOS devices, set the rotor to Rows, then navigate with a swipe up, down, left or right. Students should first have a mental map of the calendar layout. If necessary, the student can drag a finger to build the mental map.
- With JAWS, use Insert+F5 to get a list of all 24 doors on the page, press enter to select one and then simply press the number 4 to jump straight to the door’s contents.
- To navigate as a table with JAWS, using any browser supporting quick navigation keys, just press the letter “t” to jump to the advent calendar (which behind the scenes is actually a table). After that, navigate around the table either using JAWS table layer mode (Insert+Space followed by the letter “t”) or the AltControl Key to the right of your space bar in conjunction with the arrow keys.
- Some students may benefit from a simple tactile graphic. The tech goal is to develop a mental map of the calendar (and of the webpage!) and then to navigate quickly and efficiently to the desired day.
Note: The calendar starts with Monday.
To practice more general keyboard shortcuts in conjunction with the calendar: In Chrome for Windows Control+D will bookmark the page so you can come back later, and Control+M will play the audio file in doors that contain one.
Hints from Tactile Times:
- If you are planning to come back every day, we recommend you bookmark this page.
- Although you can use the advent calendar on smaller devices (e.g. phones), we recommend that if you are sighted you open it on a computer or tablet for the full size version. If you are using a screenreader this will have no effect on your experience.
- The advent calendar is also a great tool for internet navigation practice, as there are several shortcuts that work with it.
Contact Tactile Times with any feedback.
Resource
By Diane Brauner
Original post published December 2021; updated annually.
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