Guide
Desmos Geometry Tool: Angle BCD with a screen reader
How can a student using a screen reader access and manipulate a geometry image? Watch this video tutorial!
This is the post you have been waiting for! How can a student who uses a screen reader access a geometry image using the Desmos Geometry Tool? This post provides written information and a video tutorial on how students can navigate and manipulate an angle using the Desmos Geometry Tool with a screen reader.
Previous Desmos Geometry Tool posts
Since most TSVIs have vision, the first three posts introduced how to use the Desmos Geometry Tool without a screen reader. The first Desmos Geometry Tool post, Desmos Geometry Tools: Points and lines, introduced the Desmos Geometry Tool and how teachers/students with vision can create digital points and different types of lines without a screen reader. The second post, Desmos Geometry Tool: Circles and polygons focused on how sighted teachers and students create shapes and measure angles. The third posts, Creating an accessible geometry worksheet: Desmos Geometry Tool, showed the workflow of how to create an accessible geometry worksheet with images using Microsoft Word and Desmos Geometry Tool.
Accessing the shared image in Desmos Geometry Tool
See the Creating an accessible geometry worksheet: Desmos Geometry Tool for the workflow on how share the link and how to open it in Desmos Geometry Tool.
In this example, we are using the Angle BCD on a Mac with VoiceOver using the Safari browser. The screen reader commands are the same if using JAWS on a PC.
Link to the accessible version of Desmos Geometry Angle BCD example (Use this Angle BCD image to practice accessing and manipulating an angle with a screen reader!)
The screen reader focus may be on different areas when the image is opened. Listen carefully to where the focus is: if the focus is on the web browser (Safari), you must tab until the focus is on the Desmos Geometry Tool tabs. Once in the Geometry Tool, you can continue to tab through all the buttons, etc. or jump directly to the image using Control + Cmd + P (P = graph paper, also called the canvas). If on a PC, use Control + Alt + P to jump directly to the canvas/graph.
To begin interacting with the contents of this image, press Control + Option + Shift + Down Arrow. Then Tab to move around the image.
When tabbing through this example, the order of the announcements will be:
- Segment BC
- Segment DC
- Angle BCD
- Point B
- Point C
- Point D
The screen reader will announce what piece of the image has the focus (segment, point, etc.). When it is a segment, the announcement will include the length of the segment and the name of the segment (point B to C). When the focus is on the angle, it will announce the degrees of the angle and the name of the angle (63.4 degrees, angle BCD). When it is a point, the announcement will include the name of the point (point B), and the location on X, then the location at Y. (Point B at X, 2.5 and Y,5) Since these numbers are both positive, we know that the angle is in the upper right quadrant of the graph.
Shift + Tab will move to the previous location.
To manipulative a point and change an angle measurement
When the focus is on a point, press an arrow key to move that point one spot in that direction. Example: When on Point D, press the up arrow to move Point D up will move Point D from 0 to 0.32.
Shift + Tab to move back to the angle measurement.
Moving Point D will also change the angle. The angle measurement has changed from 63.4 to 56.1.
Current bug
After tabbing through the items on the graph/canvas, one more tab should take the focus to the first item on the screen. This works correctly and will take the focus to “Sidebar” in Safari. If you are on the Sidebar and immediately Shift + Tab to take you back to Point D (while VoiceOver is still talking), VoiceOver will continue to announce about the Sidebar but visually, the focus is on the image again. If Shift +Tab is used again, the focus changes within the image, but VoiceOver has stopped talking (and does not resume talking when navigating within the graph/canvas. This is a bug! VoiceOver should follow the focus and announce what is happening within the graph/canvas. The current work around is to Tab back to Sidebar in Safari. Wait for VoiceOver to announce everything, then Control + Cmd + P back to the graph and VoiceOver will announce items in the graph correctly once again.
Additional comments
- When the segment is announced there is a random number/name given to the segment; in this example, “Segment 26” and Segment “30”. I am not sure how the numbers are determined and what the purpose is. The line segment is already named by the labeled points.
- When creating an image, do not use the letter “a” as a label/name. Currently the screen reader announces “a” as short “a” and not a hard “a”. It is challenging to catch when the short “a” is announced.
Resources
- Math shapes: Marshmallows and toothpicks activity!
- Math shapes: Classification and drawing of shapes
- Math shapes: Introducing APH Memory Puzzles
- Desmos Geometry Tool: Points and lines (without a screen reader)
- Desmos Geometry Tool: Circles and polygons (without a screen reader)
- Creating an accessible geometry worksheet: Desmos Geometry Tool (workflow without a screen reader)
- Desmos Geometry Tool: Angle BCD with a screen reader
By Diane Brauner
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