Activity
Thoughts on Accessibility of Online Instruction Systems for Braille Readers
Tips to consider for access when using a digital curriculum with students with visual impairments
By Jennifer Bliss, Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired
These guidelines may be helpful to general education teachers who are new to having a student with visual impairments in class. It’s important to be aware of the challenges for many braille readers using online materials that are not fully accessible.
- Students will often use a screen reader to access online curriculum, which will read the
content of the screens aloud to the student. Students may use earbuds and keep one
earbud in to listen to the screen reader, and one out so they can hear the teacher as
well.
- Navigation with a screen reader depends on how well the programming has been done
at the HTML code level. There may be parts of a webpage that are not accessible or
logical using a screen. - There may be times when buttons do not voice as “buttons” so students do not know to
press enter. Similarly, if dropdown menus are not coded properly, a student will not
know that additional options are available. - Visual elements (like pictures, graphs or diagrams) which are not coded with alternative
text, will only voice “image” with no additional information. - Any important diagrams, worksheets, tables, graphs, etc. should be sent to a transcriber
to be created in tactile and braille. Even “alternative descriptions” in an online
curriculum are often not enough to portray meaning.- Braille and tactile copies should be created of online textbook or handouts.
- If there is no textbook option, somewhere within the teacher view there is usually
a “download” option or a repository of student worksheets. It is most useful if
those are transcribed. Your student’s Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) can
help with getting started on braille orders.
- Videos sometimes are not narrated to make sense by just listening. Someone with vision
may need to describe important visuals in videos. The Described and Captioned Media
Project is an online repository of thousands of educational videos that are described and
captioned. Teachers must sign up, but there is no charge. DCMP.org - There may be animations or virtual simulations either within the program or it points
students to similar content outside of the program. Those are generally not accessible,
and someone will need to describe. When it is possible, hands-on experimentation—in
lieu of virtual—usually is better. PhET has been working to make their online simulations
accessible. PhET Accessiblity - Whenever there are group collaborations or brainstorming options, a Google
document can be used and shared. This way, the student can see what others contribute, as
well as adding their own thoughts. When creating drawings for a class, try and
remember to describe very clearly what you are drawing. A sighted helper can use a
tactile drawing board to recreate a tactile version of what is drawn—as best they can.
Shared with permission of the author.
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