Mouse and Keyboard Alternatives for Computer Accessibility

Mouse Alternatives
Students with physical disabilities are provided with certain mouse alternatives through Macintosh OS X and the Windows Operating System. These alternatives allow students to use movements that they are most comfortable with to direct a mouse pointer.

Trackballs act as a mouse that remains in one place. The mouse pointer moves in response to a stationary ball that is rotated on a base. Buttons are also positioned near the ball that have the same function as the buttons on a mouse. There are large trackballs, standard trackballs, and mini-trackballs. Mini-trackballs work well for students with good fine motor control but have a very limited range of motion

Joysticks are similar to trackballs, but instead of a ball, there is a movable handle that is perpendicular to the base.

Eye-gaze systems use a students' eyes to direct a mouse pointer. Infrared-sensitive video cameras determine where a student is looking and then move the mouse pointer to that spot. Clicking can be done by using a switch or blinking an eye. This type of mouse alternative is used by students who have limited muscle movements in their hands and/or head.

Keyboard Alternatives
Although standard keyboards work well for most students, students with disabilities have trouble using them. Expanded keyboards are over-sized keyboards that offer a larger surface. Students with poor fine motor control who need a large area to perform an accurate key stroke benefit greatly from this type of alternative keyboard.

On-screen keyboards display an image of the keyboard on the computer screen, and letters/functions are selected by clicking on them with a mouse/mouse alternative. They provide computer accessibility to students who are unable to use a keyboard because of motor skill deficiencies but can control a mouse/mouse alternative. Students who also have trouble refocusing their attention from the monitor to the keyboard and back to the monitor again benefit from this tool.

Resource: Dell, A., Newton, D., Petroff. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Computer Accessibility Features for Users with Disabilities

Apple and Microsoft are both devoted to providing computer accessibility to individuals with disabilities. Both of these companies offer a wide variety of features for users with physical disabilities, vision impairments/blindness, and hearing impairments/deafness. Computer accessibility features include:

Keyboard Modifications
Filter (Slow) Keys adjust how long a key can be pressed before it is recognized by the computer. By using slow keys, repeated key strokes or unintentional key strokes are minimized. This directly benefits students with hand tremors, muscle weakness, or fine/gross motor control deficiencies. Click here to watch a video on filter (slow) keys!

Mouse Control
MouseKeys allow users to control the movement of the mouse pointer through the numeric keypad. Students who can use a keyboard but have difficulty using a mouse benefit greatly from this device.

On-screen keyboards display a visual keyboard on the computer screen where users with limited motor control can use the mouse to click on desired keys for typing.



Modifications for Students with Sensory Impairments
Both Mac and Windows 7 provide individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing with visual signals that take the place of auditory prompts when their attention is needed. For example, a flashing caption bar might appear when a user needs to make a selection. In addition, enlarging images on a monitor can be applied on both Mac and Windows 7 for users with low vision. For individuals who are blind, a feature known as voiced feedback can be used. This tool reads items on the screen for its user. Items read aloud include menu bars, icons, dialogue boxes, and text.


Resource: Dell, A., Newton, D., Petroff. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Enhancing Communication for Students Who Are Hard of Hearing

Although students who are hard of hearing can understand speech through a combination of hearing aids and lip-reading techniques, they face many obstacles in a typical education classroom. If a teacher is lecturing quickly and using a quiet and unclear voice, students who are hard of hearing often have trouble following what is being discussed. Poor acoustics in the classroom, such as noisy heating/cooling systems decrease hearing aid effectiveness. When a teacher turns his/her back, these students will have a difficult time lip-reading or hearing what is being taught. Social interactions between teachers and peers are also diminished for students who are hard of hearing. Many times, the inability to communicate successfully causes feelings of isolation and frustration for these students.

Hearing assistive technology helps students communicate effectively in the classroom. Assistive listening devices (ALDs) can catch the sounds of a teacher's voice and amplify it. They also diminish background noise and poor room acoustics. Specific examples of ALDs include FM systems and soundfield amplification systems. With a FM system, the teacher wears a microphone and the student either wears headphones or has a connection set up to their hearing aids. When the teacher speaks, his/her voice is broadcasted to the FM receiver worn by the student and amplified through the headphones or hearing aid. The soundfield amplification system broadcasts the teacher's voice through loud speakers in the classroom. These loud speakers can be mounted on the wall or ceiling of the classroom.







Resource: Dell, A., Newton, D., Petroff. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom: Enhancing the school experiences of students with disabilities. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

UDL Helpful Resources

This section of the CAST website is a great resource for teachers to gain more insight about the UDL guidelines. When completing my lesson pre-assessment, I wanted more detail about each of the checkpoints to know whether or not I included them in my lesson. This resource allowed me to click on the specific guideline and checkpoint I wanted to learn more about to acquire a better understanding of each. Once I clicked on the checkpoint, both a brief description of the checkpoint and examples of how teachers can implement it in instruction is included. I would highly recommend this resource to teachers when creating UDL lesson plans.

Checkpoint 2.2 Clarify syntax and structure

Single elements of meaning (like words or numbers) can be combined to make new meanings.  Those new meanings, however, depend upon understanding the rules or structures (like syntax in a sentence or the properties of equations) of how those elements are combined.  When the syntax of a sentence or the structure of a graphical representation is not obvious or familiar to learners, comprehension suffers. To ensure that all learners have equal access to information, provide alternative representations that clarify, or make more explicit, the syntactic or structural relationships between elements of meaning.

Tell Me More!

• Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) through alternatives that:
  • Highlight structural relations or make them more explicit
  • Make connections to previously learned structures
  • Make relationships between elements explicit (e.g., highlighting the transition words in an essay, links between ideas in a concept map, etc.)

 Checkpoint 2.2: View examples and resources

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA:Author

CAST Professional Learning offers ways to increase your professional learning on the topic of UDL. Its services include online learning courses for individuals and small groups, as well as free UDL webinars and newsletters on the most up-to-date information about UDL.

UDL102: Applying Universal Design for Learning to Instructional Practice in Content Areas

UDL102M: Applying Universal Design for Learning to Instructional Practice in Content Areas (Mathematics Emphasis)

UDL Exchange is a place where teachers can browse resources and lessons guided by the UDL principles. They can also share lesson plans and findings with other educators and colleagues. Everything is organized in an area that is easily accessible to users.

Planning for All Learners (PAL) uses the UDL principle to plan and develop curriculum that promotes participation and progress for all learners. The PAL toolkit provides planning steps, guidance, mentoring, lesson examples, templates, resources, and links to other educator's PAL lesson plans (to see how they have applied it in the classroom).

The PDF fact sheet about UDL and elements of good teaching begins by giving a brief description of UDL. It lists the principles of UDL and who benefits from them. The Common Teaching Methods section gives strengths, limitations, and preparation for a variety of teaching methods. This helped me decide on what methods work best for my students. I also thought the section on implementation was extremely helpful to see exactly how to implement methods that promote UDL into instruction.

Heward, William. "Fast Facts for Faculty". Ohio State University. Retrieved on 9/21/2014 from http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Universal-Design-FF.pdf

UDL Strengths and Challenges

My ultimate goal is to be able to create lessons that incorporate all of the UDL guidelines, so I'm able to meet the needs of all of my students. I have taken a previous math lesson (exploring perimeter and area) that I've taught and used the UDL guidelines and checkpoints to pre-assess it. Through this pre-assessment, I have discovered my strongest UDL areas and those that require further development.

Strengths: 

• Offer ways of customizing the display of information
• Clarifying vocabulary and symbols
• Varying methods for response and navigation
• Use multiple tools for construction and composition
• Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity
• Minimize threats and distractions

Weaknesses: 

• Offer alternatives for auditory/visual information
• Activating background knowledge
• Providing options for self-regulating (self-assessment/reflection)
• Providing options for sustaining effort and persistence
• Guiding appropriate goal setting

A specific UDL objective I want to focus closely on is providing options for developing self-assessment and reflection. I want my students to recognize their own progress towards mastery of a concept or skill. This self-regulation promotes higher levels of achievement and motivation. I want to offer my students multiple self-assessment techniques, so they can choose the one that works best for them.

Curriculum Barriers

The Curriculum Barriers template on the CAST website helped me analyze potential barriers a student in my class may face. I was able to see the materials I was offering the student, his qualities/characteristics when presented with the materials, and potential barriers and missed opportunities he may encounter. Completing this template helped me view how I'm teaching students and ways to minimize barriers that may present themselves in any subject.

Below is a Curriculum Barriers template I created for a student in my class. This student is an ESL learner who struggles in math. His language barrier and low achievement level have an affect on his overall math ability.

Materials and Methods	Student Qualities	Potential Barriers/Missed Opportunities
Subject Matter	Poor self-confidence regarding math	Does not apply himself. Often requires reassurance.
Discussion (whole class/small group)	Does not participate in whole class discussions and has difficulty paying attention (even when students are brought to the carpet instead of working at their desks). He participates and stays focused in small group discussions with teacher guidance.	Does not understand the concept of the lesson. Unable to apply what he has learned independently. None
Individual Assignments/Activities (centers)	He enjoys moving and completing a variety of activities in the class.	Easy for him to become distracted with the atmosphere of the room. Requires teacher check-in and guidance.
Manipulatives (choice)	Responds well to having a choice of manipulatives that work best for him. Uses them to complete problems more easily.	None
Textbook	He has trouble following along a in a textbook and transferring answers to questions in his notebook.	Does not transfer problems/answers for textbook correctly. Misses important concepts of the lesson.
Homework	Forgotten or completed with many errors. Parents speak Spanish at home and are unable to provide assistance if needed.	Parents only speak Spanish and are unable to provide much assistance if needed. Without teacher/parent review, work is completed incorrectly. Is not getting the necessary practice at home of the skills/concepts learned that day.
Chapter Test	Struggles with reading questions and directions independently. Testing needs to be chunked so that he is not completing at one time.	He has difficulty reading the questions and understanding what is being asked due to being an ESL student. He will answer problems incorrectly due to not understanding the language not because he didn't know the answer. He becomes overwhelmed with the amount of questions requiring completion.

Teaching Every Student

The CAST website helped to discover more about practicing Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The Basics section has videos that offer information on diverse learners. As a teacher, I need to re-think critical elements in education such as goals, materials, methods, and assessments, and customize them to reach each student. The UDL guidelines are also available for reference on this website.

I completed an interactivity that allowed me to see strengths and challenges in a specific area (cooking an Indian dinner). These strengths and challenges will shape the way I learn most effectively. These strengths and challenges will also affect my willingness to engage in certain tasks. By completing this activity about myself, I have a better understanding of how to apply it to my students.

The case story, Reading Challenges in Social Studies, laid out how a UDL lesson should look. I was able to see the traditional approach and the UDL approach to each section of a lesson plan. This will serve as a great guide and resource when I'm trying to structure a lesson around UDL.