Additional tools for students with sensory disabilities

As mentioned in the prior blog, Mac and Windows offer a variety of options for students with disabilities to use daily to make their life easier. In this blog, I will talk about the tools for students who are hard of hearing/deaf, and vidicl impairment or blindness can use.

Students who are hard of hearing or deaf often cannot hear the beep or auditory alert a computer gives, but many computers now give visual cues, icons, or captions. Example: A flashing tool bar.

Students are are visually impaired often need a higher visual contrast and large font. Universal Access (Mac) or Ease of Access (Windows) makes this really easy to use a high contrast color scheme. The best options are a black background with white font or a white background with black font. Images and mouse pointers can also be enlarged. Blind students often rely on voiced feedback, narrator, or VoiceOver to read to them. 

This is a video about how VoiceOver works for the iPhone.

In the next blog, I will cover the major types of keyboards and the students that benefit for them.  

Assistive Technology in the Classroom Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities