TITLE OF DEVELOPING PRACTICE EXAMPLE
Accessibility Features on our Connected Falkirk iPads
Accessibility Features on our Connected Falkirk iPads
We were looking to better support pupils, families, and parents make the most effective use of our Connected Falkirk iPads to support learner's individual needs using accessibility features. We were hoping to increase pupil and family engagement and support all learners access the curriculum and their learning in a non-stigmatised manner. We planned to produce a set of booklets to support pupils, their families, and teachers to understand and use the accessibility features available to us whilst increasing awareness across our school community.
I have created two booklets to support accessibility using our Connected Falkirk iPads. The first booklet is for pupils and their parents / carers which shows them how to customise the iPad settings to suit their specific needs and looks at the accessibility features built into the apps such as immersive reader, dictate, etc. The second booklet for staff within our school has been split into three levels bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze level mirrors the pupil and parents' booklet in terms of the accessibility features built into iPads. The silver level covers the accessibility features built into apps that we use most commonly within our teaching practice and showing them where to find these features, for example in OneNote and PowerPoint. The gold booklet covers creating teaching and learning materials with a accessibility built in. Hopefully, staff would be creating teaching and learning materials which have accessibility features already built into them for example, effective use of headings, alternative text for images for screen readers. We have launched these with staff and pupils by running a whole school training session involving all pupils and all staff looking at the most common accessibility features on our iPad and introducing the booklets to support them further. The pupil and family booklet is available for download on our Digital Learning section of our school website. Staff have also had an additional training session looking specifically at the staff booklet and the levels within it. This booklet also signposts further training via Apple Teacher and Microsoft Education Centre / Learn websites.
All staff pupils and parents have been given support and training when using accessibility features on our connected iPads to suit individual learners needs. Learners across our school have customised their iPads suit their specific needs in terms of vision, hearing, and physical and motor settings. We have reduced the stigma of altering your iPad to suit your needs because all learners understand why we would do this, understand the advantages that this brings you and how do you could use it to disadvantage even if you don’t have an additional support need. For example, pupils using immersive reader to read back their English essay so that they can hear their mistakes and spot them quicker than proofreading.
School website Digital Learning section -https://www.falkirk.falkirk.sch.uk/digital_learning/digital_learning.html Sway - Accessibility on our iPads https://sway.office.com/dER7fhatXuGEnZT9?ref=Link
Falkirk
Falkirk High School, Westburn Avenue, Falkirk, UK
Miss Tracy Mutter
gw09muttertracy@glow.sch.uk