Assistive Technology and Students with Visual Impairments - agree
The Introduction of Technology in the sphere of Education has proved to be a turning point in the transfer of knowledge in a traditional classroom setting. Integrating Technology with teaching and learning has developed an interactive environment while also fostering creativity wherein students find themselves engaging more than in the usual lecture method classroom setting. A trend that is on a rise, the usage of technology has become more predominant; switching textbooks with tablets, assignments are turned in via online portals, and classwork and course materials can be accessed using wireless mobile devices. The incorporation of technology in education has also resulted in students being equipped with skills that helps them enter the workforce once they graduate. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Find out more With all these developments, Technology has played a major role in creating an environment of equal opportunity by paving the way for differently-abled learners to engage and be a part of a traditional classroom setting. In the past, differently-abled students struggled to be a part of classroom program is due to accessibility and instructional issues. Through computer-based learning programs, these students are given the opportunity to manage their disability and overcome issues be able to engage, participate and have the same educational experiences as a regular student. They can perform tasks and participate in activities that would previously not be possible for them due to the limitation of their disability, be it physical or any other form. Assistive Technology and Students with Visual ImpairmentsAssistive Technology and Students with Visual Impairments Video
Assistive Technology in Action - Meet ElleEnvironment
A screen reader is a form of assistive technology AT [1] that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind[2] and are useful to people who are visually impaired[2] illiterateor have a learning disability. Microsoft Windows operating systems have included the Microsoft Narrator screen reader since Windowsthough separate products such as the free and open source screen reader NVDA by NV Access and Freedom Scientific 's commercially available JAWS screen reader and ZoomText screen magnifier are more popular for that operating system.
There are also free and open source screen readers for Linux and Unix-like systems, such as Speakup and Orca. In early operating systemssuch as MS-DOSwhich employed command-line interfaces Nad sthe screen display consisted of characters mapping directly to a screen buffer in memory and a cursor position. Input was by keyboard. All this information could therefore be obtained from the system either by hooking the flow of information around the system and reading the screen buffer or by using a standard hardware output socket [9] and communicating the results to the user. With the arrival of graphical user interfaces GUI sthe situation became more complicated. A GUI has characters and graphics drawn on the screen at particular positions, and therefore there is no Assistive Technology and Students with Visual Impairments textual representation of the graphical contents of the display.
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Screen readers were therefore forced to employ new low-level techniques, gathering messages from the operating system and using these to build up an "off-screen model", a representation of the display in which the required text content is stored.
For example, the operating system might send messages to draw a command button and Assistive Technology and Students with Visual Impairments caption. These messages are intercepted and used to construct the off-screen model. Screen readers can also communicate information on menus, controls, and other visual constructs to permit blind users to interact with these constructs.
However, maintaining an off-screen model is a significant technical challenge; hooking the low-level messages and maintaining an accurate model are both difficult tasks. Operating system and application designers have attempted to address these problems by providing ways for screen readers to access the display contents without having to maintain an off-screen model.
These involve the provision of alternative and accessible representations of what is being displayed on the screen accessed through an API. Existing API s include:.
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Screen readers can query the operating system or application for what is currently being displayed and receive updates when the display changes. For example, a screen reader can be told that the current focus Diversity Workplace on a button and the button caption to be communicated to the user. This approach is considerably easier for the developers of screen readers, but fails when applications do not comply with the accessibility API : for example, Microsoft Word does not comply with the MSAA APIso screen readers must still maintain an off-screen model for Word or find another way to access its contents.
Screen readers can be assumed to be able to access all display content that is not intrinsically inaccessible. Web browsers, word processors, icons and windows and email programs are just some of the applications used successfully by screen reader users. However, according to some users, [ who? Microsoft Word and Active Accessibility. Techbology programs and applications have voicing technology built in alongside their primary functionality. These programs are termed self-voicing and can be a form of assistive technology if they are designed to remove the need to use a screen reader.]
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