Accessibility for Every Student

Accessibility
in Education
www.microsoft.com/
education/enable

§ Accessibility: A Guide
for Educators

§ Curriculum resources

§ Success stories and videos

§ Teacher training workshop

§ How to articles

Accessibility in Microsoft Products
www.microsoft.com/enable/

Educators today are integrating technology into the classroom in new ways and are looking for more ways to use technology as a tool to help students of all learning styles and abilities.

At Microsoft, we embrace our role and responsibility in helping to ensure students of all abilities have opportunities to learn 21st century skills.

Accessibility and personalization features in Microsoft products ensure that all students have the opportunity to enhance learning with technology.

Accessibility in Microsoft Products for Students and Teachers

Nearly every classroom has students who have difficulty seeing the board, concentrating on their homework, or expressing their ideas.

Consider a student who has a great story idea but struggles to type. Using Windows Speech Recognition, that student can speak a short story and have
it captured in text. Or, a student who struggles to see the PC can magnify the screen with Windows Magnifier or zoom in on a webpage in Internet Explorer. Students with learning challenges and dyslexia find Microsoft OneNote helps them stay organized, take audio and text notes, and check their spelling and grammar.

Teachers are using Office 2010 to prepare effective teaching tools to support students with disabilities. With Office 2010, you can create animated instructional presentations, convert documents to audio textbooks, and add subtitles to videos. You can also check the accessibility of a Word document, Excel worksheet, or PowerPoint presentation with Accessibility Checker.

Accessibility Resources for Teachers

To help educators teach students with disabilities, Microsoft provides information about integrating accessibility into the classroom.

· Accessibility: A Guide for Educators
Download the Microsoft guide, Accessibility: A Guide for Educators which explains how students with disabilities can personalize their PCs.
The guide provides:

· An understanding of accessibility and how it impacts the classroom.

· Definitions of impairment types and technology solutions for each type of impairment.

· Guidance on choosing specialized assistive technology products.

· Curriculum Resources
Download Curriculum Resources for Special Education for Windows 7 and Office 2010 which demonstrates how to help students with disabilities personalize a PC to support their learning needs. Also, learn how to create accessible documents and teaching materials with Microsoft Office.

· Teacher training workshop about accessibility that educators can use for professional development.

· Success stories and videos from around the world showing how students with disabilities are using PCs to enhance learning.

• School uses accessible software to help blind student reach the top of her class (Chile)

• Students with disabilities use innovative gaming system to interact with curriculum (Portugal)

• School uses gaming system to enrich learning for students with Down Syndrome (Colombia)

• Schools Use Familiar Technology to Make Learning More Accessible for All Students (USA)

• Students at Abu Dhabi Center for Autism Use Assistive Technology to Communicate and Develop Language Skills (Abu Dhabi)

· How-to articles including ways to make the
PC easier to see, hear, and use.

· Kinect classroom activities for special education students. Educators are enhancing classroom activities with attention-grabbing, body-moving experiences that help students stay engaged. Find Kinect classroom activities for special education students at www.microsoft.com/kinectineducation/.

”I have long believed in the power of technology to make a profound impact in education and I’ve been fortunate enough to see some amazing examples around the world where teachers are truly making magic happen for their students. The examples that often most stand out and illustrate the transformative potential of technology are those that use accessible technology integration to empower and enrich the world of students that otherwise might have had an extremely difficult time communicating, collaborating, or socializing with their peers.”

― Anthony Salcito, Worldwide Vice President of Education, Microsoft Corporation