TRANSCRIPT - TSBVI Coffee Hour: Learning Management Systems: What TVIs Need to Know Ð 2-28-22  

>>Cecelia: Good afternoon, everybody.  Thank you  for coming to this Coffee Hour session.  I'm Cecilia  Robinson.  I work here in Outreach and I'll let  Carrie introduce herself.  

>>Carrie: I'm Carrie Farraje and I'm an AT consultant or  assistive technology consultant in Outreach at  TSBVI.  So I'm glad to see y'all today.  

>>Cecilia: Okay.  And I'm going to share my  screen.  Let me tell you what's going on.  All  right.  Okay.  Everybody can see my screen, I hope.   So this session is called Learning Management  Systems: What TVIs Need to Know.  And it came about  because I think last year around this time Carrie  and I have been asked to help with one of  the  project meetings, a statewide project committee and  part of that project everybody wanted to look at the  Learning Management Systems, online learning,  e-learning, everything that our students have to do  online and on the Internet.  And it came out of kind  of like a need because everybody was saying that not  everything was accessible  to our students.  I'm  pretty sure it's no news to you.  So we've decided,  after Carrie and I just kind of worked through a lot  of technical assistance requests and so on, we  decided to put this webinar together and hopefully  we can generate some ideas for you and then also see  if you have any questions for us.  So let me go to  the next slide.  Today's objectives, we only have an  hour so we're going to focus mainly on the benefits  and the challenges of the learning management system  for students with visual impairment.  We would look  at some of the options for collaboration with the  general education teachers and the whole idea is how  to facilitate better use of the LMS with our  students  and before we leave I would love to have  your ideas, like at some point during the webinar  you'll be invited to contribute to the whole  discussion so I hope that you will share with us  your ideas and so on.  Kate has already posted the  link to get the handout.  In your handout there are  all together ten pages.  The slides that Carrie and  I are  going to use are from page one to page six and  then on page seven and eight is creating accessible  documents.  Carrie, do you want to tell them  something about that or do you want to wait?  

>>Carrie: Sure.  So that part of the handout is  just a document that was created by one of our staff  members, Jim Allen, that's been used a lot  throughout the years on accessible documents.  And  so just kind of some tips on how to make accessible  documents for your VI students.  And I'm going to  kind of be showing some of those things.  

>>Cecilia: On page 9 and page 10 is my attempt to  give you a framework like a check point, if you want  to convert that into some kind of checklist for  yourself, it's some ideas, summarizing what we are  going to tell you in this webinar, starting with the  basics.  And I'll go through some of that, like what  are the considerations for you?  What  are some of  the things that you can learn together, the learning  together topics.  It's just light and fun -- I think  it's light and fun but you might think differently.   But just to experience some of the accessibility  issues that we'll be addressing.  So it will make  some sense later on as we go through the webinar.   But page 9 and 10 is for  your own use and you're  welcome to make it your own and do whatever you need  to.  So let me go to the next slide and on the next  slide I want you to write in chat -- and there are  three questions, one, two, three.  I'm going to go  through the questions one by one and I would love  for you to write in chat and let us know what's  going on.  On your  caseload, the number one question  asks the grade of your youngest student who is using  a Learning Management Systems.  So what is the  youngest student or the grade level of the youngest  student who is asked to use a Learning Management  Systems.  

>>Carrie: And I see fourth grade, somebody has posted  fourth grade.  Later elementary, later elementary  school.  Kinder.  Oh, there are some kinder but  maybe more like minimal in small ways.  Sixth grade.   So there's some younger elementary but also some  later elementary, middle school.  Oh, preschool.   Somebody posted preschool.  

>>Cecilia: It's crazy, right?  Number two is the  content on the Learning Management Systems  accessible and usable to your students?  You can  just write a yes/no answer.  And I want accessible  and usable.  So both have to work together.  And  just write yes or no for number two.  So far, no.  Oh, there is a yes.  Ha ha, they were  laughing.  So mainly no.  Yeah.  Not any yeses yet.  

>>Cecilia: Thank you.  And keep those coming while  I read the third question, which is does anyone work  for a district that does not use a learning  management system?  A yes/no.  If you don't, just  write no.  We can assume most of you are using a  learning management system, correct?  

>>Carrie: Yeah, I think some sort of...  

>>Cecilia: Thank you for participating and, Carrie,  thank you for reading it.  

>>Carrie: Oh, yeah.  

>>Cecilia: I can't multitask too well.  Slide is  probably very familiar to you.  Every webinar that  I've been involved in, I always ask the question,  like learning management system, why do we bother  with it?  We all know it's not very accessible but  why bother?  And the answer is because it's all  about literacy.  Everything in school is about  literacy.  We have to be responsible for literacy,  whether it's accessible or not, it's our student.   And we need to also work with other team members to  make sure they understand it is everybody's  responsibility to make sure that our student is  getting literacy skills.  Digital information is not  new any more and everybody is using it.  So we  know  that even though most of us know how to use online  materials, even though you know that, sometimes you  still cannot access the information.  And that's  just part of the given.  A lot of times it's not  really us or the user.  A lot of times it's the  design fault.  So I just want to throw that out  because even though we are -- we can click  on the  computer and all that, we may still run into issues  when we cannot use online information for access.   And then also digital information will allow the  students to have another way to read and write.  We  all know that in this electronic age the traditional  reading, writing, and producing materials methods is  no longer just print or Braille.  We have other  methods.  And also there is audio that is becoming  less and less assistive every day so it's just  things are changing in the background.  In Texas,  the literacy medium is still Braille and print.  So  I'm not sure with the other states.  But literacy  skills and literacy medium are our main charges in  the visual impairment world.  On the next slide is  about school tasks.  We have reading, writing and we  have math, we have science.  We have all those other  subject areas.  But one of the main things that  education is focusing on these days is  collaboration.  How do our students get together and  collaborate and work as a team with others, either  in-person or online?  Can they go to a cloud and  contribute to the ideas?  Can they comment online?   And then there are many other tasks that you can  think of.  And if you want to write in chat and tell  us what other tasks that your child or your student  is doing in school that is not already on there,  feel free to share it.  The main thing is the  traditional methods  are still there.  The tasks are  pretty much the same.  They all remain the same.   Every child in school has to do certain tasks.   However, the tools are changing and sometimes they  change so fast that we don't know if we can keep up.   However, the main thing is also that with things  changing there are also opportunities for us to  learn new  things.  And we as teachers always have to  maintain that mindset that we can learn.  And we  need to model it for our students that, yes, there  are things that are thrown at us like in the real  life every day, right, that are thrown at us that we  may or may not know how to respond.  However, we can  always maintain the mindset that we can go forward  and we can learn more and we can change and we can  take the task on.  There are a few things about  Learning Management Systems.  In Texas there is a  big variety being used.  When Carrie and I were  planning this webinar, we came up with quite a  number but we stopped counting because we only  focused on the few that we know are widely used out  there.  But know that there are many, many being  used in K-12 education.  The reason they are so  popular is because they let the teachers be able to  create and deliver content and also track the  student progress easily.  The materials is so  flexible that if they need the change of the  content, they can just go online and change it  before class  begins the next day or two days from  now.  And it supports in-person classroom  instruction as well as hybrid or remote learning as  well.  And in most of the learning media -- I mean,  the Learning Management Systems, it allows updating,  uploading of any digital materials and web links and  videos and things like that.  There are just many,  many  options.  So that's why it is one of the most  popular ways of teaching these days.  And almost  everybody is using some type of Learning Management  System.  The benefits of the Learning Management  System is it allows the general education teachers  to be able to create and adjust the content easily.   They can track student progress.  They can  communicate  through interactive components or  feedback and they can share ideas, collaborate, and  so on.  There's just so many built-in features  within the Learning Management System for that and  it allows for synchronous learning.  So, in other  words, if you need to go back to it later on to look  at a topic or to look at a website, you can always  go back  to get that information.  And then it's an  option that was so popular when COVID started.  The  pandemic just threw us all into left field and we  had to quickly come up with ways to get information  and be able to continue to teach.  And the Learning  Management System seems to do a pretty good job of  serving the purpose of that.  There's some common  features that we think, Carrie and I both were  thinking about that when you're looking at a  management system there are some things that you  might want to know about.  They link to learning  objectives and in some states with standards already  on there, then you can quickly get -- choose your  state and then choose the objectives and it will  take  you down to the objective that you're working  on.  I used one on Schoolology and it took me  through the TEKS down to the objective that I think,  kind of like I created a fake class to see how  things work and it took me to the specific objective  as outlined by the Texas Education Agency.  So there  is that and if you work for another state  you might  want to try to learning management system that your  student is using and see if it will give you that.   It's really a handy dandy way for people to link any  lessons and any lesson plans, a series of lesson  plans to goals and objectives.  It engages students'  learning and participation as well as collaboration.   And there is always a  space for the students to come  and post their assignments and so on.  Flexible  access.  Most of the learning management systems, I  can't say all of them but most of them will allow  for flexible access, meaning that if your student is  using a computer or a tablet or even a phone then  they can access to content.  And most likely most of  the learning  management systems are pretty darn  graphical.  That's why sometimes it's a little bit  challenging for our students with visual impairment  to navigate within the learning management system.   So there are some challenges and mostly they are for  students with visual impairment.  As you know the  content may be inaccessible mainly because the GenEd  teachers may not know the images need to be labeled  and the videos need to be described and so on.  And  the charts and graphs are basically graphical in  nature, like a little picture.  And there are other  components that may not be accessible as well.  When  something is not accessible, then maintaining the  students' attention and engagement can  be a  challenge.  Students tend to say it's not working  for me, therefore, why am I even bothering with  trying to see what's going on?  And they naturally  abandon it.  The lack of support for students who  need Braille and tactile access.  As you know some  of the charts and graphs may not be accessible  online so for our students who cannot read  those  graphs, how are they going to get the information,  the information quickly becomes meaningless and not  usable for them.  And one of the challenges is the  access and the use of AT.  As you know some of the  learning management systems come with its own  voicing.  So the information could be read to the  student.  However, for our students  who really need  the information to be read or even for some of our  students with very low vision, they may not see that  little icon that they can click on to make the  self-voicing come on.  And then with self-voicing  and if your student is using another screen reader,  it can be two voices talking to them.  It's just  awfully confusing.  Sometimes the information will  need to be created for Braille and tactile access  and when the student is using specialized software,  it's really a lot to ask our students to be able to  navigate a management system with something that is  assistive running in the background.  So it's like  they are managing at least two software and then if  they're  using a Braille display, there is an  additional piece of hardware as well.  So it's a lot  to ask of our students.  Most of the learning  management systems -- I'm not sure if they have  keyboard access.  You know, and a lot of it is just  pointing and clicking.  So let me go to the next  slide.  The biggest -- one of the biggest challenge  is our  students' lack of keyboarding skills.  When  the pandemic started I got a lot of questions about  how do you start teaching a student how to get  keyboarding skills.  So the question I want to ask  you is does your student -- does your district offer  your student a keyboarding class?  I know that Texas  used to do that but I'm not sure how many districts  are still doing that.  So if you would write in chat  and let us know does your district offer keyboarding  as a course?  You can tell us yes or no.  

>>Carrie: It says some in secondary, mainly no,  though.  Some older students, secondary students.  

>>Cecilia: Great.  Great.  And I know a lot of the students  in upper middle school and early high school are  required to take these computer classes or they can  take it as an option.  However, without keyboarding  skills it's just kind of hard.  When the class is  talking about doing things in Word or doing things  in Excel.  So, anyway, and then earlier  when I asked  the youngest grade of student who has to use a  learning management system, that means at least they  need to be able to touch a key on the keyboard.  So  that could be a big gap right there.  The lack of  keyboarding skills and then the need to access the  learning management system.  So it is a challenge.   And so quickly -- and I'll  talk for a few more  minutes and then I will let Carrie carry on to let  us know what's going on in the learning management  system.  A few quick words about the expectations of  the GenEd teachers.  These general education  teachers are expected to learn the learning  management system to use it for instruction so they  can track student progress,  use it for assignments,  assessments, and so on.  They create content and  materials within the software and then they are  asked to enhance student learning by using different  types of materials.  And a lot of it is a  combination of online resources, videos, documents,  and so on.  And the expectation of the TVIs or  TSVIs is you have to learn  the learning management  system as well and then you have to teach your  students with a visual impairment to navigate the  learning management system.  Remember that when a  child with a visual impairment and then all of a  sudden they became your responsibility and you own  the student.  However, this is something we are all  having to constantly  change the mindset that  everybody is responsible for the student.  And then  the TVI is also expected to teach the students to  access the learning management system using  specialized screen reading software or magnification  and screen reading software and also whatever  hardware that comes with the students' needs for  access.  And then if  anything is not accessible,  they always look at you, the TVI, and say fix it.   Because you are the expert.  You need to fix it.   And then they also want you to provide support for  the student when they are using the learning  management system.  So, in other words, they want  you to sit in there and help the student while they  are teaching.  So  there is that little piece that I  hear a lot from the TVIs I work with.  In general,  there are some gaps and it's nobody's fault and it's  not the GenEd teacher's fault either.  In general  the lack of understanding is students with visual  impairments, they really need some time to learn  about the learning management system because it's  new.  The  whole software is just completely new to  them and then if there is a way for them to preview  the learning management system, that would be great.   Some students also need plenty of time to practice  becoming comfortable with navigating within the  software.  As you know students cannot just use it  once or twice and be able to be comfortable with  using it.  They need plenty of practice  opportunities.  The gap -- one of the biggest gaps  is the software, the specialized ones, may not work  well within a learning management system.  The most  common is the student as JAWS, why can't the student  use JAWS to read the information?  Or they have Zoom  text or something else running in the background,  why can't they see it?  Well, because it's not   compatible.  So the biggest gap is people don't  understand what is accessible may not be usable,  especially for our students with a visual  impairment.  As you know for two low-vision students  they may not require the same accommodations and  then also for students who are using  Braille and a  screen reader, they may require different things  too.  Whatever is accessible may not be usable for  another student.  Basically, there is no one size  fits all and I want to say that if you want to just  remember that.  In my experience -- I'm old so I can  tell you that nothing in VI works too quickly.   Everything takes time if  you want to do it right for  the students and do it correctly.  So, with that in  mind, what do we know?  What can we do?  Hang on,  one sec.  I think I clicked too quickly.  What do we  do?  So I'm going to stop sharing and Carrie is  going to show you --  

>>Carrie: Actually, can you keep that up for just a  second, the PowerPoint?  Just keep sharing until I'm  finished introducing it.  That would be great.  

>>Cecilia: Let me go back to my PowerPoint.  Hang on one  sec.  While I'm talking and trying to get back to my  PowerPoint, are there any questions or any comments?   Anything that you feel like is an ah-ha or you kind  of know that other things are kind of crazy, right?   Like what do we do?  

>>Carrie: There you go.  Yeah, just go to the next  one.  Yeah.  And the next one.  

>>Cecilia: Okay.  The next one.  All right.  

>>Carrie: So Cecilia started out just explaining a  little bit about learning management systems in  general and some of the challenges and some of the  reasons why they're so commonly used for instruction  these days, which is great.  What I'm going to  demonstrate for you is more about the content that  is put on the learning management system and  how to  help make the content that gets posted more  accessible.  And so I'm going to briefly just  demonstrate a few of these things using Google  classroom.  I'm using Google classroom because  that's what a lot of school districts use and that's  what we have but it really applies to almost any  learning management system that you use, if it's the  type of system where you are posting resources,  website links, documents, and so on.  So some of the  things that I'm going to demo is like styles and  formatting of different documents.  The structure of  your documents.  Using alt text for images,  hyperlinks, and then things like avoiding floating  items such as like word art or even just  creating  adding a text box to a document instead of just  typing the text and PowerPoint or Google Slides.   It's best to use the templates because the screen  readers are going to be able to read those.  And  then at the very end I will just briefly talk about  video and, you know, the accessibility component of  making sure to have closed captions  and audio  descriptions.  So I'm going to go ahead and share my  screen now and demo a few things and I'm going to  turn off my video so I can see my full screen,  actually.  But I'm still here.  

>>Kaycee: While you're doing that -- this is Kaycee -- we do have a question come in.  It asks if  there's a document that talks about the learning  management system and which screen readers,  magnification program work well with those learning  management systems?  

>>Carrie: So we're not going to specifically talk  about learning management systems because some are  really accessible and some are not so much, but we  can probably create some tips and answer that.  It's  really -- the learning management -- let me just  talk about Google Classroom a little bit.  Google  Classroom really works hard to try to make  their  system, or Google, in general, to make their content  accessible and so they're going to code it a certain  way.  So it doesn't matter what screen reader you  use with Google Classroom because as long as Google  Classroom has coded their content a certain way with  headings and links and things like that, then the  screen reader will work, regardless.  So but I am --  you'll kind of maybe get some ideas as I demonstrate  some of this for y'all.  That might help answer that  question a little bit.  Okay?  All right.  So the  first thing that I'm going to show you -- I'm using  Google Classroom and I'm going to use VoiceOver.   I'm not using JAWS.  You could use JAWS, VoiceOver,  chromebox on Chromebook,  there are so many screen  readers that work with different learning management  systems but it's not the screen reader that matters,  it's the learning management system and how things  are coded.  So first first I'm going to show you  hyperlinks and it's going to show you what happens  when a teacher posts a link as it is with the  www.http  blah, blah, blah and what a student is  going to hear with that screen reader when they try  to go to that link.  And I will show you what it's  like if you were to post it with words instead.  So  we'll go ahead and start this little part of the  video.  Give it a second.  So hyperlinks using  words.  

>>Space debris.  

>>Carrie: This is Google classroom and you're going  to hear VoiceOver and it's going to talk fast but  it's just for demonstration purposes and I'm going  to explain everything that goes through with the  VoiceOver and it's a link and you're going to hear a  lot of text.  So just bear with me.  I do want to  point out in Google Classroom, the student  can  navigate all the different assignments, material,  any of those things by headings.  So, again, that's  how Google Classroom codes their assignments,  resources, and everything.  They are all headings.   So a student can go to that rotor and quickly go  through what those assignments are instead of  actually having to go to the page or the stream  and  then find those assignments.  They're all as  headings, which is nice.  So let's continue.  

>>Level two, material [Indiscernible]  

>>Carrie: Okay.  So that's a lot of letters and  words.  And that is what a student is going to hear  when they have a screen reader when a link is  posted.  And it's just posted as is, whatever that  website address is.  A student that has vision is  going to see that that's a link.  They're going to  see that it's usually underlined or blue.  And the  student with the screen reader, it will say that  it's a link so it will give them that indication  that it's a link but it's also hard for that student  with screen reader to now identify and go back to  that link and that assignment that they need to go  to.  Because there may be a lot of links posted.  So  I'm going to show you.  There it  goes again.  So it did get the student to the website,  which is this resource.  It got them there, they can  click on it.  It was accessible but like Cecilia was  talking about, is it usable?  Is it the best usable  way to post a link.  For a student, if they needed  to go back and find that particular article, it  would be very difficult for them.  So  instead if I  post the material, I want to title it.  Title it:   Time for kids website, whatever the name of the  article is, and then actually use the learning  management system to post that link.  Because a lot  of learning management systems will have a link  option.  Just like your e-mail has like an  attachment option.  That's very similar to  how a  link would work in a learning management system.  So  it's best to use that because that is more likely to  be coded in a way that will work nice with the  screen reader.  So let's show how this one works.  

>>Material, time for kids website space junk  article.  Go to this website and read the article  Space Junk.  

>>Carrie: It also has in Google Classroom  instructions.  Use those instructions for all  students but use them particularly for your VI  students.  Any extra information is helpful for them  so that they know what they are doing, instead of,  oh, I can see that it's a website.  I need to go  here.  It's just a little tip to make things a  little bit  better and easier for your students with  VI.  

>>Visit link.  

>>Carrie: Okay.  So then it brought me to that same  website.  Either way they could get to the website  but the second way is going to allow them to know  what that website is.  It gave them a title.   They're going to be able to go back in their  headings or use links to be able to find it again if  they need to.  All right.  So the next part --  let  me go on -- that I'm going to show you is things to  avoid.  Things to avoid like screenshots of text,  floating items like word art, and text boxes.  

>>Headings.  

>>Carrie: This first one, sometimes teachers will  post screenshots, which may be some text but is  definitely not going to be accessible with a screen  reader.  They can't be read by them, screenshots.   Now, there are some optical character recognitions  but when you're talking about using a computer  online, unless you hold up your phone that reads  the  characters, those kinds of apps, it's going to be  really hard to read those screenshots with a screen  reader.  So it's going to show what happens when a  student tries to access this in Google Classroom, a  screenshot of some questions that the teacher wants  the students to answer.  

>>Question, questions, heading level one.   Attachment image.  

>>Carrie: Okay.  So it told them that it's an image  and that it's a screenshot, because that's what it's  titled.  If the student clicks on it, it says I can  read it because I have vision.  It says website  questions.  What are some of the items floating  around in space?  But a student with a screen  reader, it's not going to tell it anything  else.   It's not going to read those questions.  

>>No items in headings menu.  

>>Carrie: And if they use their tools with the  VoiceOver and the rotor, see if there's anything in  headings, links, it says it's nothing there so that  is not an accessible item that was posted as content  in the Google management system -- or the Google  Classroom for that student.  All right.  Next, structure.  Include headings and  list.  So I'm going to show you a Google Doc, which  Google Docs are great, that has an assignment that's  in Google Classroom.  And it's okay for teachers to  post Google Docs but they're going to be more  accessible if they have headings added to their  Google Doc.  And a lot of teachers are just  not  aware that that little step to go and create a  heading when they have the topic of that section of  whatever they're reading, the student is reading.   But that makes it easier for that student that is  using the screen reader.  So let me show you what  this looks like, trying to read a Google Doc with a  screen reader that is not done with headings.  

>>Heading level two, assignment space debris  questions.  Visited link, space debris.  Link  attachment Google Docs.  

>>Carrie: The screen reader is telling me it's an  attachment, it's a Google Doc.  It's going to link  me to that Google Doc.  So I'm opening that up and  I'm --  

>>Not found.  

>>Carrie: I'm on a Google Doc that has lots of  different colors.  Lots of different fonts.  It  looks like it has some word art.  And so let's see  what it says with this title.  It says "website" in  all caps, which is not the best way to type things  on a document.  Caps are really hard to read, but  let's see if it recognizes it as a heading.  

>>Drawing, drawing.  

>>Carrie: Let me go back a little.  

>>Drawing, drawing.  Attachment Google Doc. heading  not found.  

>>Carrie: So it said heading not found and then  there's a question mark really big in blue in a box  and let's listen to see what the screen reader says  when I'm trying to read back.  

>>Drawing, drawing.  

>>Carrie: Okay.  So that said drawing, drawing.  So  it indicates to the student that it's a drawing but  the student doesn't know what that drawing is.   Could it be a shape?  Could it be a question mark?   Could it be a star?  There's no indication to that  student what that actual drawing means.  So it would  have been best if they had just typed  website  questions out and had made that either a title, if  that's the title of the page, or a heading for that  student so that they can easier navigate what it's  saying with the screen reader.  The next part is  going to talk about styles and format that kind of  goes around this very artsy document that you're  going to see or that you did see.  It's recommended  to -- let me go back a little -- to use font 12  point or larger.  I like to use 14 or larger,  especially when it's something -- even if it's  something I print.  But posting things for some  reason I just like to use 14 point but you should at  least use 12 point and it's good to tell your  teachers that.  They may try to use 11 or  10 point  because they're trying to fit everything in one  page, but it really should be 12 point or larger.   And then sans serif or serif and aerial is a good  font because it doesn't have a lot of the extra  lines that make it difficult for a student with low  vision to read.  We are not just talking about  students that use screen readers, we're  also talking  about low-vision students who may use a screen  reader too or they may use their vision with the  Zoom text or something else.  

>>New line.  New line.  New line.  

>>Carrie: So I'm back on that very artsy Google Doc  that has lots of different colors for each question  and it has said new line, new line, new line.  That  means that whoever made this document, which was me,  pressed "enter" in between each of those.  Again,  it's not inaccessible doing that because they can  still get to those things.  But an extra  step would  be using the spacing tool bar on the tool bar of the  Google Doc for putting spacing between the different  questions instead of screen reader going new line,  new line, or enter, enter, enter.  Trying to read  that and the student saying how many times is it  going to go on with this?  Just, again, another  thing about usability and accessibility.  Can the  student still read these questions?  Can they still  get to the bottom?  Yes.  But is it the most usable  way for them to do it?  If there's a better way,  then it is recommended to help teachers.  

>>Describe what this illustrates in.  

>>Carrie: A couple more demonstrations before we go  back to Cecilia.  So the next one is -- we're using  the spacing tool, I told you that one.  If your  school uses Google Suite, using Google forms for an  assignment is great.  Google forms is very  accessible.  Each question that you put on a Google  form, whether it's short answer or an essay-type  short answer question, essay question, multichoice,  true/false, those are all headings and so a student  is going to be able to open up a Google form and  navigate it by headings with whatever screen reader  they use and be able to get to those questions and  be able to get to the text box after the question  and it says type your answer here.  So  it's just  very clean.  If you are having students answer any  kind of questions that they're going to submit.   Plus, multiple choice, true/false, those can be  graded automatically as well, which is awesome.   Even if it's just essay questions, if you want them  to write a short answer or essay, it's still a  really good tool to use for creating assignments.  You could still use Google Doc but I want to show  you what it would look like for a teacher that  posted a Google form, to ask those same questions  that were in the Google Doc.  

>>Assignment Google form space debris questions.  

>>Carrie: I'm still on headings navigating with  VoiceOver and this is another heading assignment.  

>>Headings menu.  

>>Carrie: Okay.  And I'm on a Google form now.   It's called space debris questions and I'm using the  rotor in VoiceOver to go to headings.  And it has  all of the questions that are on this page.  So the  very heading level one is the title of the Google  form, which is space debris questions.  And then the  ones below it are heading three.  You'll  see how  that works.  Let's see it.  

>>Heading level one, space debris questions.   Heading level three, what are some items floating  around in space?  

>>Carrie: So heading level three, that was the very  first question.  

>>You are currently on a text field.  

>>Carrie: And then I pressed enter, went down and  it said you are currently on a text field and I  think it says your answer here.  So the student can  hear the question in the heading, press "enter."  It  tells them they are on a text field.  They can type  their answer and go on to the next question.  

>>Headings menu.  How is space debris being cleaned  up?  

>>Carrie: That's the next question and it goes on  to the other questions.  This is just show you the  other questions.  

>>How much has space debris increased over time?   Title three, describe what the image is  illustrating.  

>>Carrie: The question was actually about  describing what the image is illustrating.  So that  brings me to my -- I think this is my final -- yes,  this is my final demonstration and it's on alt text.   And so alt text basically describes the images in  context.  If I put an image in a Google Doc, you can  right click on it and add in a title  and add the alt  text that describes that image.  In a Google form,  you can also add an image.  There's a tool when you  create that question that you can just attach an  image and then you're going to caption that image  and that caption becomes the alt text for that  image.  So when the question says describe what the  image is illustrating,  then it's going to have a  caption so they know what the picture looks like and  then they can answer the question of what that's  illustrating.  So if we go back to our artsy Google  Doc, there was no alt text for an image that I  posted there.  So it's going to -- I'm going to show  you this quick video, this demo of that, and you  will see the  difference.  So alt text, describe  images and context.  

>>New line.  

>>Carrie: So I was on the Google Doc first and it  says "new line" and it says "image" but there's no  alt text so the student has no indication of what  that image is.  And then I'm going to go to the  Google form.  

>>New line.  Describe what the image is  illustrating.  Edit text four or five.  You are  currently on a text field.  To enter text in this  field, type.  The image shows earth and space and  thousands of white dots orbiting around earth.  

>>Carrie: Okay.  So it says the caption that I put  in for this, it says the image shows earth in space  and thousands of white dots orbiting around Earth.   Now the student is going to be able to take the  knowledge that they learn about space debris and,  you know, okay, this has got lots of dots around  Earth.  What is that showing?  And they  can answer  that question into the thing, the text -- not the  thing.  The text area.  And then they can easily  submit, again, with the screen reader, their Google  Doc or their Google form when they are done with  their assignment.  One more thing I want to  demonstrate with the alt text is it's going to be  very similar to the Google Doc that doesn't  have alt  text.  If they just post a picture in Google  Classroom for a student and have the same thing  where it says describe what the image is  illustrating, again, it's going to tell that student  that it's a picture but the student isn't going to  know what it's a picture of.  So you can use the  Google Classroom instructional area where it says  "instructions" to type in what that image is.  

>>Orbiting around Earth.  Heading level one,  describe image.  

>>Carrie: So describe image is the assignment.  

>>Work link attachment image, space debris  image/JPEG.  

>>Carrie: It says space debris image/JPEG and it's  going to open it up.  

>>Displaying image space debris/JPEG.  

>>Carrie: That's all they're going to know.  That  it's showing an image but they don't know what the  image is of.  And then this way I actually put it in  the title instead what the image is.  You could do  that or you could put it in the instructional area  on the Google Classroom.  I decided, I guess, to put  it as a title, which is fine.  Giving  that  information to all your students doesn't hurt and  then it has the assignment is describe -- in the  instructions describe what the image is  illustrating.  

>>What the image is illustrating.  

>>Carrie: We're running short on time and I want  Cecilia to wrap things up before we have to go, to  quickly talk about video and having audio  descriptions.  But make sure when you are posting  instructional videos for your students and help your  teachers learn this as well, that it's important  they have those audio-described videos.  And I also  want to conclude that I know teachers aren't  intentionally trying to make things difficult for  their students who are visually impaired, they're  just not aware of these little things that they can  do to make things a lot more accessible and usable  for their students.  And it's up to the TVIs and the  special education teams to help educate regular  educators out there on knowing these things.  That  handout that's part of the big handout on creating  accessible documents is really going to help for you  to pass on to your colleagues to help them answer  the why.  Why is it important that we post things on  learning management systems that are accessible for  our students.  Okay.  Cecilia, I'm  going to stop  sharing.  Did I go too far?  Too long?  

>>Cecilia: No, thank you, Carrie.  That was really, really  helpful for everybody to get a feel for how to  create accessible documents and so on.  The comment  about the best screen reader to use is really what  Carrie said earlier.  If you plan it correctly it  will read correctly.  And it doesn't matter what the  software is doing.  But if you do it correctly,  it  should read it correctly.  But if it is not already  done that way and you go back to retrofit it, then  probably it won't be too cool.  So, anyway, I'm  going to go through a few slides and -- very quickly -- and you can read through that.  So some  considerations is really ideas for you to work  together with your team and how do you work as a  team?  We put a few ideas together.  Work together.   Learn a few things together.  To me, it's always  less painful when there is somebody doing it with  you.  Just, you know, pick a few things like colors  and contrasts.  Remember that color blindness is not  a visual impairment but it's also one of the very  common visual challenges out there.  And some of our  students are colorblind so when the GenEd teacher is  creating content, that might be something that y'all  want to play around with and just experience it.  I  put two links on there for some online simulators  and what low vision is and how may a child see.  And  listen to audio text and all those things, learning  it together because,  again, doing it together is  less painful.  Some suggestions, some short-term  suggestions for you and then some long-term.  The  long-term ones, the one that I put in here, the last  bulleted item is awfully important.  You must know  if your district has accessibility standards  included in the purchasing criteria and policies.   Remember that you  are trying to influence some  systemic change and it's not going to work until you  talk to the right people.  But also do your  background information too.  Does the district have  something like that already built in?  And then more  long-term suggestion is have the students maybe talk  to the administrators.  Sometimes hearing from the  student is  much more powerful than us talking about  it and then think about how you can help your team.   For the resources, I want to point out, check out  the national center on AEM, especially the vetting  for accessibility.  They talked about accessibility  and the technical accessibility.  Again, it goes  back to accessible.  Is it usable.  The voluntary  product accessibility template is something for you  to take a look at.  A lot of districts are using the  VPAT and I don't know if yours is aware of that, so  something for you to think about.  I want to point  out that there are 20 tips that is pretty darn cool.   And then the writer, the author of the 20 tips also  did a video and I included that  for you.  And TSBVI  short-term programs had posted a lot of their videos  online so you might want to take a look at it.  In  closing, I just want to let you know even when  you're not good at something, you just go into it  and maintain a growth mindset and do it.  And take a  look at the handouts page, the last two pages, 9 and  10 is a framework  for you to take some information,  study it on your own and then a plan for working as  a team with your GenEd teachers.  So if you have any  more questions and if there are things that we did  not really share, I would love to hear from you,  like your ideas on looking at some of the ones that  we posted.  Are there other ideas that we have not  considered?  Please send us an e-mail.  Our e-mail  address is on the first slide.  So thank you so much  and I'll give the floor back to Kaycee.