Homework Assignment: Reviewing Accessibility Options of Common Devices

Knowing the accessibility features of these products has great potential. There is really no excuse for not providing accessible options to our students especially when these features are already programmed into the devices they are already using. I am a hands on learner and the videos were really helpful to actually see and be able to know how to access each function. However I thought a written list of features may be helpful in the future as a quick reference. It is important to know what each device has for features because different students may need access to different devices at home, school and later in the workforce. I have added a few note about those features that stood out to me however the iPad iOS9 wins my vote for overall “Most Accessible.”

Accessibility Options for ANDROID

Features:

• Bluetooth ( to connect with other devices)
• Display Options: You can change the brightness and increase font size
• Language and input:
• You can change languages, use spell checker (which can recognize names from your contact list), change the keyboard and input methods, as well as allow Google voice typing
• Google voice typing option  - Has its own setting which allow you to change languages, to a hands-free option (for Blue tooth devices or wired headsets), speech output (also for hands free), offline speech recognition (can change the language), will block offensive words and you can also record through Bluetooth headset
• You can enable Voice Input
• You can select enhanced Google services for this option
• You can enable Text to Speech Output (and can change the rate at which text is spoken and the language)
• You can change the mouse/track pad by changing the pointer speed

• System Accessibility
• Talkback (Spoken Feedback is provided to assist blind and low vision users, describing what you have touched, selected and activated)
• Switch Access (This allows you to control your device using key combinations. You can move or focus on clickable items and select them.)
• You can enable Captions (You can also change the caption settings by setting the language, text and caption style (high contrast options).
• Magnification Gestures
• Large text options
• High contrast options
• Speak passwords
• Accessibility shortcuts
• Text to speech output (speech rate and language setting)
• Touch and Hold Delay
• Colour Inversion
• Colour correction (red-green)

• Cloud printing
• Mirror Icon
• Screencast (So the image from your scan with show on another person’s screen and vice versa)

I thought the Android had pretty good accessibility options. It had text to speech and other options for blind and visually impaired users. Captions would be important for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Switch access, touch delay and hands-free options would be great for those with physical impairments or mobility issues. Screencast is also a great way that a teacher or a students who has a difficult time moving around the classroom could check in with each other.

Accessibility Options for ChromeBook

Features:

• You can change backgrounds
• You can change the device features

• You can change the touch pad (speed, ability to click, scrolling)
• You can also change the keyboard settings (auto repeat, language and input)

• You can change where you downloads go to

• You can even download directly to My Drive

• There are many accessibility features in the system menu
• You can enable a larger mouse cursor
• You can enable a high contrast mode
• There are Sticky keys options (typing shortcuts)
• You can enable ChromeVox (Spoken feedback)
• Settings options are available for Chrome Vox
• There is a Screen Magnifier
• You can enable an automatic click when your mouse stops (hover-option, you are able to change the delay before click)
• There is also an option for an Onscreen Keyboard

• There are more tools available as extensions
• Such as dyslexia, co-writer, features for colour blind etc.  
• Chrome Store
• You can search Chrome Accessibility Options to find more apps

• Chrome App Store and Extensions

• Once downloaded you can access your extensions in the top righthand corner of the Chrome Window

Chromebook has some unique accessibility options. It features ChromeVox, screen magnifier and many other options for blind and visually impaired users. Onscreen keyboard with direct, hover and select options are great tools for those with physical impairments. There were no direct settings (that I saw) for those who are deaf or hard of hearing but with access to more Accessibility Options through the Chrome Store and the Chrome App Store I’m sure you might be able to find what you are looking for. The downfall would be that you may have to pay for it.

Accessibility Options for iPad IOS9

Features:

• Hearing Impairment Options
• There are numerous keyboard options. You can pair the iPad directly to Hearing Aids through Bluetooth. Monotone options can increase sound to one side or the other. Subtitles & Captions are Available (with font, size contrast options) as well as Audio Descriptions.

• Physical Access Options
• You can make text larger and bolder, You can increase the contrast. There are Switch Control options for head, screen and camera. The switch controls have many settings including changing the dwell time and the time between scanning and input, etc. You can change the tap behaviours, and enable Tap and Hold as well as double tap ignoring through both your switch as well as on the device itself. You can change the voices and speaking rate used with switch and tap controls. You can change you home menu items and how they are organized. You can change the cursor color. You can adjust your iPad to assistive touch if you have trouble with touching the screen and it will customize your gestures as purposeful movements. There are a number of options for the keyboard (including sticky keys, repeat and slow keys, all with options).

• Siri Accessibility Option
• You can change the language, voice, gender. You can also change the voice feedback setting. You can communicate with Siri by holding down the home button. Siri allows you to speak to your iPad and offers speech-to-text. The voice feedback setting will allow you to highlight text and have Siri read it aloud (in any typing programs). You can also quickly change the Siri speech-to-text options to record in multiple languages. Also well you can change the Siri text-to-speech options to speak in multiple languages.  

• VoiceOver Accessibility Options for Users who are Blind
• You can use Voiceover to speak the items on the screen (tap once to hear, twice to select, three finger swipe to scroll) You can adjust the language, speed, tone, rate, sound of the voice. You can access braille display (through Bluetooth?). You can change the typing settings to provide feedback by either characters or phonetics.
• Zoom Accessibility Options: You can magnify the whole screen by double tapping fingers. You can also move the screen and change the zoom. You can change the zoom settings between full screen or window modes. You can access the zoom filter to enable inverted colors, grayscale, and low light.

The iPad has way more features than any of the other devices. It seems to have more options as well for people who may have more than one area of disability. There were a number of unique features which stood out. I liked that you could adjust the sound more to one side or the other for people who have two different hearing abilities in each ear. I really like the switch and tap options which ignores repeated taps. I think that this would be really helpful for those that experience tremors or just have poor motor control in general. I also liked that you can customize gestures to use the gestures you are able to do. It seems like iPad would be very functional for both deaf and blind students.I did not know about the typing feedback option for phonetic sounds. I think I would like to try out this typing option for helping my young students learn their letter sounds. When you combine all of these built in features with all of the accessibility apps available through the app store it is hard to compete with the iPad iOS9.

Accessibility Options for MacBook

Features:

• Display
• You can invert colours, increase contrast, use grayscale, reduce transparency and differentiate without colour. You can also increase the cursor size and the display contrast. You can also adjust the brightness and color.
• Zoom
• You can zoom through keyboard shortcuts, access scroll features and keyboard focus. You can zoom in on the full page or through a window in window option.
• Voiceover Option:
• Provides spoken, text or braille options of items on the computer screen. You can access a spoken quickstart tutorial to teach you how to use VoiceOver. These options have multiple additional settings for accessing different areas on the computer.
• Descriptions:
• This item provides spoken description of visual content in media when available(ex. photos)
• Captions
• You can change the style, size, colour, contrast, etc. of captions.

• Audio
• Flash screen alerts are available.

• Keyboard
• You can enable slow keys and sticky keys with setting options.

• Mouse and TrackPad

• You can change the sensitivity, speed and delay. You access the mouse options through the keyboard and change these options.

• Switches
• You can enable switch control for outside devices and adjust their timing

• Dictation
• Dictation is an option.

The Voiceover Option seems very extensive and may take a while to set up. However it does provide lots of options for those with visual and hearing impairments. This device seemed to have all the standard accessibility options.

Accessibility Options for PC

Features:

• You can change the display settings
• You can enable high contrast (shortcut option, sound and message alert setting)
• There are text and auto-description options
• You can use a Magnifier
• You can adjust the focus, boarders, background images to make things on screen easier to see

• You can replace sounds with visual cues

• You can get visual notifications (flash caption bar, active window, desktop)
• You can enable options for spoken dialogue

• You can change how your mouse works
• In appearance (colour, size, inverting)
• You can also control the mouse with the keyboard

• You can change how your keyboard works

• These are mostly short cut options though.

• Speech Recognition

• If you go to “Get recommendations to make your computer easier to use” you will be prompted through a series of 5 multiple choice question related to vision, physical disability, hearing, speech and reasoning. The computer will then auto elect the settings it thinks you may need.

I liked the idea of that the computer would make recommendations for accessibility options however there is no one-size fits all option for all students and you would likely still have to adjust some settings. This device did not have as many accessibility options as some of the other devices (no speech to text or text to speech options that I could see).