From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 2 11:02:03 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Robert Beach via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 2 11:02:35 2025 Subject: [Athen] JAWS Accessible Crossword Creator In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks for letting us know the outcome. I'll check out this site myself. Robert Lee Beach, Assistive Technology Specialist Kansas City Kansas Community College rbeach@kckcc.edu 913-288-7671 From: Willard, Amy Sent: Friday, August 29, 2025 10:03 AM To: Robert Beach ; Access Technology Higher Education Network ; Joshua Hori ; Karthikeyan, Ramya Subject: RE: JAWS Accessible Crossword Creator Thank you Ramya, Joshua, and Robert for your suggestions. I ended up trying a few things and discovering https://amuselabs.com/ and got this feedback from the student after sending them the crossword I made: Good morning, this website is amazingly accessible. I have been using a Mac, and I was able to turn on screen reader mode with Control Shift V, to interact with the website. It seemed to work better with their built-in screen reader. Now I just have to learn how to do crossword puzzles because I have never seen one in my life. I am so excited they get to enjoy the same fun (and frustration) of crosswords as their peers! Have a great weekend, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all From: Robert Beach > Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2025 7:56 AM To: Willard, Amy >; Access Technology Higher Education Network > Subject: RE: JAWS Accessible Crossword Creator Spoonville used to have a crossword puzzle app. You could select from premade puzzles or create your own. This may work if it is still out there. Robert Lee Beach, Assistive Technology Specialist Kansas City Kansas Community College rbeach@kckcc.edu 913-288-7671 From: athen-list > On Behalf Of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2025 2:39 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network > Subject: [Athen] JAWS Accessible Crossword Creator Greetings, I have a blind student in a class where the instructor does a lot of crossword puzzles. The student uses JAWS screenreader. Does anyone know of a site where I can create crossword puzzles with clues that work with JAWS? I read that the American Print House has an app that works for this, but when I go to that site there is only an option to solve pre-made puzzles but not create them https://crossword.aphtech.org/ Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 4 07:49:25 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Ione Priest via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 4 07:49:32 2025 Subject: [Athen] Tools for alternative display of spelling errors? Message-ID: Hello everyone, I am working with a student who is currently using Grammarly for all spelling and grammar check needs due to its ability to highlight the errors rather than underline them. The student has conditions that don't play well with the traditional underline indicator most checks use, and the squiggle of the spelling error indicator in Word specifically exacerbates the conditions. The issue is that the student majors in English and our English department has applied a sort of unofficial ban on any use of Grammarly as they deem it to be an AI tool. I already intend to connect with the English chair to discuss their policy related to Grammarly but am wondering if folks are aware of any other tools that would allow a user to change how errors are indicated. Thanks, Ione Priest (they/she) | Assistant Director of Accessibility Technology and Testing CPACC, DHS Certified Trusted Tester Access Center Metropolitan State University of Denver 303-615-0200 (office) www.msudenver.edu/access This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 4 08:23:12 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 4 08:23:27 2025 Subject: [Athen] Tools for alternative display of spelling errors? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: If you install the sounds for word, I installed it so long ago I don't know its official name these days, it beeps if you make a spelling error or typo. If you use the spell checker it automatically takes you to the next word. Maybe the student should not be looking for the error at all. And though not directly related if you type a word and hear a beep you can press Alt-F7 to get a list of possible choices, which is how I mostly spell check rather than waiting until I've typed the entire thing. --Debee From: athen-list On Behalf Of Ione Priest via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2025 7:49 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Tools for alternative display of spelling errors? Hello everyone, I am working with a student who is currently using Grammarly for all spelling and grammar check needs due to its ability to highlight the errors rather than underline them. The student has conditions that don't play well with the traditional underline indicator most checks use, and the squiggle of the spelling error indicator in Word specifically exacerbates the conditions. The issue is that the student majors in English and our English department has applied a sort of unofficial ban on any use of Grammarly as they deem it to be an AI tool. I already intend to connect with the English chair to discuss their policy related to Grammarly but am wondering if folks are aware of any other tools that would allow a user to change how errors are indicated. Thanks, Ione Priest (they/she) | Assistant Director of Accessibility Technology and Testing CPACC, DHS Certified Trusted Tester Access Center Metropolitan State University of Denver 303-615-0200 (office) www.msudenver.edu/access This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 5 13:48:50 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Wise, Erika via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 5 13:48:56 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader Message-ID: I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very little about these and if they will meet the student's needs. From what I read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? Thanks in advance! ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC Assistant Director Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology erika.wise@uta.edu Office: (817) 272-3420 @utasarcenter 601 S. Nedderman Dr. University Hall 104 Arlington, Texas 76019 [The University of Texas at Arlington] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 13239 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 5 13:54:05 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Kamran Rasul via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 5 13:54:12 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Erika, For RStudio look at these resources (which has helped my student as well): https://support.posit.co/hc/en-us/articles/360044226673-RStudio-Accessibility-Features https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/reference/shortcuts.html [Johns Hopkins University logo] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Wise, Erika via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 4:49 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader External Email - Use Caution I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very little about these and if they will meet the student's needs. From what I read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? Thanks in advance! ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC Assistant Director Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology erika.wise@uta.edu Office: (817) 272-3420 @utasarcenter 601 S. Nedderman Dr. University Hall 104 Arlington, Texas 76019 [The University of Texas at Arlington] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 8704 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 13239 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 5 15:41:53 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 5 15:41:58 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: One of my screen reader students have used RStudio, but needed any charts or graphs to be made tactile as there were no alt text generated. This was 2 years ago and sometimes the student needed immediate access for in-class discussions... Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Kamran Rasul via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 1:54:05 PM To: 'Wise, Erika' ; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: Re: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader Hi Erika, For RStudio look at these resources (which has helped my student as well): https://support.posit.co/hc/en-us/articles/360044226673-RStudio-Accessibility-Features https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/reference/shortcuts.html [Johns Hopkins University logo] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Wise, Erika via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 4:49 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader External Email - Use Caution I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very little about these and if they will meet the student?s needs. From what I read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? Thanks in advance! ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC Assistant Director Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology erika.wise@uta.edu Office: (817) 272-3420 @utasarcenter 601 S. Nedderman Dr. University Hall 104 Arlington, Texas 76019 [The University of Texas at Arlington] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 8704 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 13239 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 5 17:03:43 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (John Gardner via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 5 17:03:59 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Erika, RStudio is a graphical interface to the open source statistics application R. I know that R can be quite accessible but that RStudio is less so. R is a huge application, and one of its developers and proponents is the blind New Zealand statistics professor Jonathan Godfrey. Among many other things, Jonathan has developed methods for creating tactile copies of R graphs directly from R. He maintains a great web site with resources for blind R users. https://r-resources.massey.ac.nz/ Enjoy. John From: athen-list On Behalf Of Wise, Erika via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 1:49 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very little about these and if they will meet the student's needs. From what I read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? Thanks in advance! ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC Assistant Director Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology erika.wise@uta.edu Office: (817) 272-3420 @utasarcenter 601 S. Nedderman Dr. University Hall 104 Arlington, Texas 76019 [The University of Texas at Arlington] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 13239 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 5 18:18:56 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (foreigntype@gmail.com via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 5 18:19:12 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: John, This is really helpful information. Especially the insights on the original software designer & resources there. Thanks so much! Wink Harner Adaptive Technology Consulting and Training Portland OR. foreigntype@gmail.com On Fri, Sep 5, 2025 at 5:04?PM John Gardner via athen-list < athen-list@u.washington.edu> wrote: > Erika, RStudio is a graphical interface to the open source statistics > application R. I know that R can be quite accessible but that RStudio is > less so. R is a huge application, and one of its developers and proponents > is the blind New Zealand statistics professor Jonathan Godfrey. > Among many other things, Jonathan has developed methods for creating > tactile copies of R graphs directly from R. He maintains a great web site > with resources for blind R users. > > https://r-resources.massey.ac.nz/ > > > > Enjoy. > > John > > > > > > *From:* athen-list *On > Behalf Of *Wise, Erika via athen-list > *Sent:* Friday, September 5, 2025 1:49 PM > *To:* athen-list@u.washington.edu > *Subject:* [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader > > > > I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen > reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very > little about these and if they will meet the student?s needs. From what I > read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs > something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only > experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took > over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? > Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? > > > > Thanks in advance! > > > > *ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC* > > *Assistant Director* > *Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology* > erika.wise@uta.edu > *Office*: (817) 272-3420 > @utasarcenter > *601 S. Nedderman Dr > .* > University Hall 104 > Arlington, Texas 76019 > > [image: The University of Texas at Arlington] > > > _______________________________________________ > athen-list mailing list > athen-list@mailman22.u.washington.edu > http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 13239 bytes Desc: not available URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Sun Sep 7 02:18:32 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (=?UTF-8?Q?Bj=C3=B6rn_Fisseler?= via athen-list) Date: Sun Sep 7 02:18:39 2025 Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Good morning, while much has already been written about R, RStudio and accessibility, I still would like to add one or two reference: 1. While RStudio is the go-to IDE until today for most R users, posit, the company behind RStudio, recently released Positron as their new data science code editor. Depending on what the student is taught Positron (https://posit.co/products/ide/positron/) might be another alternative, as it is based on Microsoft's Code-OSS architecture and more text-based than RStudio. 2. Depending on what the student is expecting to do, the R console might be another option. RStudio is a relatively complex software with four different window areas and many (many!) functions. I regularly use RStudio in my academic job and I am really used to it, but many of our students (psychology) have difficulties understanding RStudio and doing the most basic tasks such as loading and working with data. So the R console might offer a more simplified and easier to understand interface. And you don't loose any of the R-related functionality that RStudio offers in a GUI. I don't think that the students are expected to use git? 3. Jonathan Godfrey and his work on R and accessibility was already mentioned. He offers valuable ressources for using R as a blind user. But the more advanced functions are based on the BrailleR package. This package comes with helper and convenience functions addressing the needs of blind users. And this is where you for example can get a written description of basic R plots (see chapter 4 https://r-resources.massey.ac.nz/BrailleRInAction/VI.html) or even more advanced plots using ggplot2 (see chapter 10 https://r-resources.massey.ac.nz/BrailleRInAction/GGPlot.html). While there are some ressources for blind R users I think it would be best to also take a look at the course syllabus to better decide which tools can help the student succeed. Getting the lecturer involved can make her/him aware of the student's needs and how to consider these needs in the classroom. What I mean by this is that, as the package BrailleR could be important for the student, she/he should learn how to install and use R packages early. Also verbalizing complex diagrams and data plots could be of help in the classroom. There are also approaches for sonification/audification of data (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/sonify/index.html) but I consider these more research-oriented than of real use in day-to-day work. And there are even more ressources on creating colorblind-friendly plots using R and ggplot2. Before I forget, as the question was for data analysis software: There is also jamovi, a GUI-based data analysis software built on top of R. This means you can use R but also have all the GUI convenience that SPSS offers. Jamovi also provides extensive info on accessibility: https://www.jamovi.org/a11y.html Hope that helps! Best ? ? Bj?rn Fisseler Am 06.09.25 um 21:00 schrieb via athen-list: > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2025 20:48:50 +0000 > From: "Wise, Erika via athen-list" > To:"athen-list@u.washington.edu" > Subject: [Athen] Data analysis software that works with screen reader > Message-ID: > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > I have a student who needs data analysis software that works with a screen reader. A brief Google search mentions Umwelt and RStudio, but I know very little about these and if they will meet the student's needs. From what I read it seems these may focus more on coding while the student needs something that focuses more on statistics (shoulder shrug). My only experience with stats/data analysis was from a psych stats course I took over 10 years ago when SPSS was the preferred program. Any suggestions? Is anyone familiar with Umwelt or RStudio? > > Thanks in advance! > > ERIKA WISE, MS, CRC > Assistant Director > Alternative Testing Center & Adaptive Technology > erika.wise@uta.edu > Office: (817) 272-3420 > @utasarcenter > 601 S. Nedderman Dr. > University Hall 104 > Arlington, Texas 76019 > [The University of Texas at Arlington] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 4408 bytes Desc: Kryptografische S/MIME-Signatur URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 8 14:12:38 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Ione Priest via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 8 14:12:43 2025 Subject: [Athen] Current state of lockdown browsers? Message-ID: Hi all, I'm in the process of looking into lockdown browser options for our testing office's laptops. It looks like the vast majority of folks are using Respondus, but I wanted to see if there were other accessible lockdown browsers anyone is currently using. Thanks, Ione Priest (they/she) | Assistant Director of Accessibility Technology and Testing CPACC, DHS Certified Trusted Tester Access Center Metropolitan State University of Denver 303-615-0200 (office) www.msudenver.edu/access This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 9 07:05:45 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Willard, Amy via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 9 07:05:54 2025 Subject: [Athen] Chemical bonds in Braille Message-ID: I am trying to figure out the best way to create chemical bond structures for a blind student. In the past I have been enlarging a photo like the one below, putting it through my toaster/tactile machine, and cutting and gluing Braille labels in place of the text. I feel like there is a better way to do this. I have Duxbury so I have heard there is a way to do it on there (currently looking up manuals) but I wanted to see how other schools convert something like this: [http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/Biochemistry/linear%20and%20ring%20forms%20of%20glucose.gif] Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4014 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 9 08:02:00 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 9 08:02:14 2025 Subject: [Athen] Chemical bonds in Braille In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: If providing as graphics, word and design softwares like Illustrator or Coral Draw can be used. If using transcription software like Duxbury, Guidelines for Technical Material (16.7 Structural Formulae) for UEB Math/Science or Chemical Notation Using the Nemeth Braille Code 2023 can be used. Depends on what the student is familiar with. If using Duxbury, will need to include a list of special braille symbols used like the various bonds and superscript symbols for reference. Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 7:05:45 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Chemical bonds in Braille I am trying to figure out the best way to create chemical bond structures for a blind student. In the past I have been enlarging a photo like the one below, putting it through my toaster/tactile machine, and cutting and gluing Braille labels in place of the text. I feel like there is a better way to do this. I have Duxbury so I have heard there is a way to do it on there (currently looking up manuals) but I wanted to see how other schools convert something like this: [http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/Biochemistry/linear%20and%20ring%20forms%20of%20glucose.gif] Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4014 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 9 10:10:43 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Joshua Hori via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 9 10:10:49 2025 Subject: [Athen] Chemical bonds in Braille In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Check out the SMILES format, which can be done using Mathpix. They use parentheses, equal sign, and brackets to indicate connections. The first one is: [H]C(=O)[2C]([H])(O)[3C]([H])(O)[4C]([H])(O)[5C]([H])(O)[6C]([H])([H])O SMILES code can be made accessible in Canvas if using the Canvas Equation Editor, although you may need to inform users that a verbosity change will be needed to announce the different characters and capital letters. You can visually verify and edit the SMILES code using this generator: https://www.cheminfo.org/flavor/malaria/Utilities/SMILES_generator___checker/index.html You can also use the Braille font (SimBraille) to replace the text, so the text is embossed with the image without the need to cut and paste. It only produces Grade1 Braille though. Best, Joshua Hori Accessible Technology Coordinator Information Educational Technology Academic Technology Services 50 Hutchison Dr. Davis, CA 95616 530-752-2439 Schedule a meeting via Calendly From: athen-list on behalf of Willard, Amy via athen-list Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 7:08?AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Chemical bonds in Braille I am trying to figure out the best way to create chemical bond structures for a blind student. In the past I have been enlarging a photo like the one below, putting it through my toaster/tactile machine, and cutting and gluing Braille labels in place of the text. I feel like there is a better way to do this. I have Duxbury so I have heard there is a way to do it on there (currently looking up manuals) but I wanted to see how other schools convert something like this: [http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/michael.gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/Biochemistry/linear%20and%20ring%20forms%20of%20glucose.gif] Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4014 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 9 13:00:58 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Flake, Derek via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 9 13:01:06 2025 Subject: [Athen] AI Audio Descriptions question Message-ID: Greetings, Do any of you all have experience with using AI Audio Descriptions for course material videos through the YuJa platform for Title II disability accommodation purposes? I am asking this question on behalf of our Instructional Media department as they are considering purchasing this feature. Kindly, Derek Flake M.S. Director of Disability Support Services Howard Community College Location: RCF 302 Tel: 443-518-1300 Email: dflake@howardcc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Wed Sep 10 11:41:02 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Lindsay Viars via athen-list) Date: Wed Sep 10 11:41:07 2025 Subject: [Athen] Used textbook receipt - publisher not providing files. Message-ID: I am trying to obtain publisher files of Effective Legal Negotiation and Settlement 9th Edition (ISBN: 9781531017798), a law textbook from Carolina Academic Press. Because my student purchased a used version, the publisher is not willing to provide the publisher files. I have checked AccessText Network, PubFile Nexus, Emma, Bookshare, and my institution's library but it was not available in any of these locations. I have informed the student that they will need to provide me the text so I can cut and scan it for them, but wondered if anyone has the PDF files (they can be fully unedited) that I could edit and distribute to my student. Thank you to anyone who can assist! / Lindsay Viars, M.A. Alternative Format Specialist Office of Student Accommodations 505M Hodges Hall West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26506 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 12 10:36:30 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Susan Kelmer via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 12 10:36:35 2025 Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 In-Reply-To: References: <1142273677196.1101761319449.1448.0.391116JL.2002@synd.ccsend.com> Message-ID: Registration is open for this year?s Accessing Higher Ground conference in Denver, Colorado. Shameless but informational plug from me: This is my last year at the conference where I will be offering the two-day Preconference training on Alternate Format Production. I am retiring next year. I have been blessed and grateful to have been able to teach so many people over the years, and to be a resource to so many others, but my journey is coming to an end as I move to the next (hopefully exciting) phase of my life. For those that have been thinking about attending for the preconference sessions but weren?t sure, this is the year to do it! I hope to see you there! Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC23D9.688B3060] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you?ve received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: Accessing Higher Ground (Nov. 17 -21) > Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:24 AM To: Susan Kelmer > Subject: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External email - use caution] 5-day schedule now posted [Accessing Higher Ground Logo] Accessing Higher Ground November 17 - 21, 2025 The early registration discount ends September 27 AHG 2025 will be onsite at the Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado. ? The full 5-day schedule is now posted Review complete agenda and pricing. ? Registration Attendee Registration for the onsite conference [https://cvent.me/Ava9MW] *(Virtual conference registration will open in late September) ? 1-Week Program & Over 100 Hours of Content The full 5-day schedule and agenda is now posted on the conference site. (Schedule Overview) Pre-conference Thirteen sessions, half, full-day and 2-day in length, including hands-on workshops, will be offered during the pre-conference. More Pre-conference Information Complete Session List - Pre and Main Conference Fees Main Conference: $645* Pre- and Main Conference Package: $995** (*$580.50 **$895.50 for AHEAD & ATHEN members) More pricing information More Information If you have any questions contact Howard Kramer at 720-351-8668 or at the email below e-mail: hkramer@ahead.org Conference URL: http://accessinghigherground.org Presented by [AHEAD Logo] ? Accessing Higher Ground | 16810 Kenton Drive, Suite 220 c/o AHEAD | Huntersville, NC 28078 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice [Constant Contact] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 12 10:38:22 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 12 10:38:29 2025 Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 In-Reply-To: References: <1142273677196.1101761319449.1448.0.391116JL.2002@synd.ccsend.com> Message-ID: [heart] Karthikeyan, Ramya reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Susan Kelmer via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 12, 2025 5:36:30 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 Registration is open for this year?s Accessing Higher Ground conference in Denver, Colorado. Shameless but informational plug from me: This is my last year at the conference where I will be offering the two-day Preconference training on Alternate Format Production. I am retiring next year. I have been blessed and grateful to have been able to teach so many people over the years, and to be a resource to so many others, but my journey is coming to an end as I move to the next (hopefully exciting) phase of my life. For those that have been thinking about attending for the preconference sessions but weren?t sure, this is the year to do it! I hope to see you there! Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC23D9.688B3060] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you?ve received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: Accessing Higher Ground (Nov. 17 -21) > Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:24 AM To: Susan Kelmer > Subject: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External email - use caution] 5-day schedule now posted [Accessing Higher Ground Logo] Accessing Higher Ground November 17 - 21, 2025 The early registration discount ends September 27 AHG 2025 will be onsite at the Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado. ? The full 5-day schedule is now posted Review complete agenda and pricing. ? Registration Attendee Registration for the onsite conference [https://cvent.me/Ava9MW] *(Virtual conference registration will open in late September) ? 1-Week Program & Over 100 Hours of Content The full 5-day schedule and agenda is now posted on the conference site. (Schedule Overview) Pre-conference Thirteen sessions, half, full-day and 2-day in length, including hands-on workshops, will be offered during the pre-conference. More Pre-conference Information Complete Session List - Pre and Main Conference Fees Main Conference: $645* Pre- and Main Conference Package: $995** (*$580.50 **$895.50 for AHEAD & ATHEN members) More pricing information More Information If you have any questions contact Howard Kramer at 720-351-8668 or at the email below e-mail: hkramer@ahead.org Conference URL: http://accessinghigherground.org Presented by [AHEAD Logo] ? Accessing Higher Ground | 16810 Kenton Drive, Suite 220 c/o AHEAD | Huntersville, NC 28078 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice [Constant Contact] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 12 17:03:44 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (John Gardner via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 12 17:03:50 2025 Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 In-Reply-To: References: <1142273677196.1101761319449.1448.0.391116JL.2002@synd.ccsend.com> Message-ID: You are too young to retire Susan! We old codgers will miss you. John From: athen-list On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 12, 2025 10:37 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 Registration is open for this year?s Accessing Higher Ground conference in Denver, Colorado. Shameless but informational plug from me: This is my last year at the conference where I will be offering the two-day Preconference training on Alternate Format Production. I am retiring next year. I have been blessed and grateful to have been able to teach so many people over the years, and to be a resource to so many others, but my journey is coming to an end as I move to the next (hopefully exciting) phase of my life. For those that have been thinking about attending for the preconference sessions but weren?t sure, this is the year to do it! I hope to see you there! Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC2407.2F506080] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you?ve received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: Accessing Higher Ground (Nov. 17 -21) > Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:24 AM To: Susan Kelmer > Subject: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External email - use caution] 5-day schedule now posted [Image removed by sender. Accessing Higher Ground Logo] Accessing Higher Ground November 17 - 21, 2025 The early registration discount ends September 27 AHG 2025 will be onsite at the Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado. ? The full 5-day schedule is now posted Review complete agenda and pricing. ? Registration Attendee Registration for the onsite conference [https://cvent.me/Ava9MW] *(Virtual conference registration will open in late September) ? 1-Week Program & Over 100 Hours of Content The full 5-day schedule and agenda is now posted on the conference site. (Schedule Overview) Pre-conference Thirteen sessions, half, full-day and 2-day in length, including hands-on workshops, will be offered during the pre-conference. More Pre-conference Information Complete Session List - Pre and Main Conference Fees Main Conference: $645* Pre- and Main Conference Package: $995** (*$580.50 **$895.50 for AHEAD & ATHEN members) More pricing information More Information If you have any questions contact Howard Kramer at 720-351-8668 or at the email below e-mail: hkramer@ahead.org Conference URL: http://accessinghigherground.org Presented by [Image removed by sender. AHEAD Logo] ? Accessing Higher Ground | 16810 Kenton Drive, Suite 220 c/o AHEAD | Huntersville, NC 28078 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice [Image removed by sender. Constant Contact] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ~WRD0000.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 823 bytes Desc: ~WRD0000.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Fri Sep 12 19:03:51 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (foreigntype@gmail.com via athen-list) Date: Fri Sep 12 19:04:53 2025 Subject: [Athen] =?utf-8?q?Forgive_cross_postings_=E2=80=93_another_shamel?= =?utf-8?q?ess_plug_for_Accessing_Higher_Ground_=3B-=29?= Message-ID: Hi all, This is another shameless plug for Accessing Higher Ground international technology conference in Denver November 17 ? 21. I will be presenting a 2 day pre conference workshop on Adaptive Technology in Higher Education, based on a professional growth course that I teach through AHEAD. Attendees who complete the 2-day workshop will get a certificate of completion. This course is not for sissies! It was originally a 16 week graduate course which was condensed into an 8 week professional growth course, and now condensed to a 2 day workshop! You will get more than your fair share of tips, tricks, tools, links, dialogue, interaction, and a shared document, replete with an enormous file of links to resources that you can go home with and use for development on your own campuses. *Key Takeaways:* - Explore a wide variety of adaptive technologies across disability areas, including strategies for neurodiverse learners. - Link AT tools to specific disability-related needs and adapt them for diverse student populations. - Build practical evaluation criteria for student and campus use. - Develop advising strategies for faculty, administrators, and campus staff to strengthen accessibility. - Deepen your understanding of relevant disability laws, policies, and performance indicators. By the end of the workshop, you?ll walk away with a *clear, actionable framework* for integrating adaptive technology into higher education settings, plus an *extensive reading list* to support your ongoing professional growth. I love teaching this course. I would love to see as many of you there who can come and who are interested in developing a campuswide adaptive technology set up. I hope to see you soon ? well, in November at least! Here's a link to the conference website: https://accessinghigherground.org/ Wink Harner Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production The Foreign Type Portland OR foreigntype@gmail.com This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive quirks, misrecognitions, or errata . Virus-free.www.avast.com <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 15 09:09:45 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Carpenter, Anne via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 15 09:10:05 2025 Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 In-Reply-To: References: <1142273677196.1101761319449.1448.0.391116JL.2002@synd.ccsend.com> Message-ID: [heart] Carpenter, Anne reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Susan Kelmer via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 12, 2025 5:36:30 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 Registration is open for this year?s Accessing Higher Ground conference in Denver, Colorado. Shameless but informational plug from me: This is my last year at the conference where I will be offering the two-day Preconference training on Alternate Format Production. I am retiring next year. I have been blessed and grateful to have been able to teach so many people over the years, and to be a resource to so many others, but my journey is coming to an end as I move to the next (hopefully exciting) phase of my life. For those that have been thinking about attending for the preconference sessions but weren?t sure, this is the year to do it! I hope to see you there! Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC23D9.688B3060] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you?ve received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: Accessing Higher Ground (Nov. 17 -21) > Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:24 AM To: Susan Kelmer > Subject: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External email - use caution] 5-day schedule now posted [Accessing Higher Ground Logo] Accessing Higher Ground November 17 - 21, 2025 The early registration discount ends September 27 AHG 2025 will be onsite at the Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado. ? The full 5-day schedule is now posted Review complete agenda and pricing. ? Registration Attendee Registration for the onsite conference [https://cvent.me/Ava9MW] *(Virtual conference registration will open in late September) ? 1-Week Program & Over 100 Hours of Content The full 5-day schedule and agenda is now posted on the conference site. (Schedule Overview) Pre-conference Thirteen sessions, half, full-day and 2-day in length, including hands-on workshops, will be offered during the pre-conference. More Pre-conference Information Complete Session List - Pre and Main Conference Fees Main Conference: $645* Pre- and Main Conference Package: $995** (*$580.50 **$895.50 for AHEAD & ATHEN members) More pricing information More Information If you have any questions contact Howard Kramer at 720-351-8668 or at the email below e-mail: hkramer@ahead.org Conference URL: http://accessinghigherground.org Presented by [AHEAD Logo] ? Accessing Higher Ground | 16810 Kenton Drive, Suite 220 c/o AHEAD | Huntersville, NC 28078 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice [Constant Contact] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 16 07:39:51 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deanna Ferrante (she / her) via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 16 07:40:07 2025 Subject: [Athen] Paid Research Opportunity: We Want to Hear from Undergrad Students with Disabilities Message-ID: Hello ATHEN Community, Macmillan Learning is launching a paid student research opportunity to learn from undergraduate students with disabilities about their self-advocacy skills, and we would appreciate your support by amplifying this opportunity to your students. I have included a note below that can be shared. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you, Deanna - - - Hello Student, Macmillan Learning is launching a new research initiative focused on how we can better support students with disabilities, like you, to improve your self-advocacy skills. We know that the transition from high school to college for students with disabilities brings a drastic change in services and support. We would love to learn more about your self-advocacy experience: what is working, what is challenging, and how we might help. Qualifications: -Undergraduate student with a disability -18 years or older -Attends a U.S.-based higher education institution -All students who meet the prior 3 qualifications are welcome to fill out the screener survey: https://forms.gle/TFmxHbQCrou6Vbmn6. Note that our current recruitment need is students with disabilities who are NOT currently registered with their disability/accessibility service office. If you do not fit these qualifications, we encourage you to share this opportunity with your network. What to Expect: -A 1-hour recorded interview via Zoom -A chance to share your insights, challenges, and needs regarding self-advocacy -A demo of an early prototype -Camera use is encouraged if you are comfortable, but optional -This is a paid opportunity ($60 via Amazon e-gift card) If you are interested, please fill out this Google Form screener survey prior to Tuesday, September 23rd: https://forms.gle/TFmxHbQCrou6Vbmn6. Please note: we cannot guarantee that every student who qualifies will be selected to participate. We are excited to learn from you! Best, Deanna Ferrante Executive Accessibility Project Manager Macmillan Learning The survey will remain open until 9/23/2025. Macmillan Learning may (but is not obligated to) extend the end date of the offer if in Macmillan Learnings judgment, it has not received an adequate number of completed surveys by the scheduled end date. Limit one redemption per person. Void where prohibited. Macmillan Learning may in its discretion modify, suspend or cancel this offer at any time. This offer is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with the provider of the card. Please see Macmillan Learnings Privacy Notice: https://store.macmillanlearning.com/us/privacy-notice. By completing the survey, entrant hereby acknowledges Macmillan Learnings collection and use of their personal information in accordance with such Notice. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 16 22:31:58 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 16 22:32:02 2025 Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille Message-ID: Thoughts from an experienced Alternate Media Specialist. Lately I've encountered fake Braille readers, so am posting this. Creating hardcopy Braille is time-consuming. We all want to serve our students best, but before you start OCRing, transcribing, editing, embossing, do these things: * Figure out if the student actually reads Braille. Many folks learn basic Braille so they can take notes, track contacts and find the right elevator floor or gender-appropriate restroom. If they are truly only able to read a little bit, Braille is completely inappropriate for academic work. If they want Braille because they are "just learning it" read on. * Find out what grade they can read. I've had several students who can only read grade 1 or can read grade 2 but hate UEB. Make sure you know. * If they need to read something short in class, such as prompts for a presentation, or a list of items for an in-class activity, a limited knowledge of Braille will hinder them less. However their main materials should be provided as documents in Word, HTML, Daisy or whatever format they prefer. I have a hearing-impaired student who has learned only grade 1, and I give her handouts for in-class reading in Braille but everything else is a text document. She has to turn up her hearing aids to read with speech, but until her Braille is better she's stuck with that. * Find out if they have a Braille display and if they like using it. If so, it's way easier to give them a BRF, Daisy, Word or HTML document, depending on what formats their display is able to read. Some have sophisticated internal software; others must be connected to a computer with a screen reader, and others do both. If they prefer hardcopy Braille, of course you need to emboss it, but check with them first. * Math is the exception. It cannot be easily worked with on a single-line Braille display - most of them are - and you need to know if they know the Nemeth code or the UEB math code. Many of my Braille readers cannot read Braille math. * I also encounter students who say they know Braille but don't know any punctuation marks, a clue they read it only when necessary. You can give them a cheat sheet of course, but it is likely they are reading at only 30 words a minute or less. Again this could work for a short class handout, or a table of contents for an eBook, or a guide to the page numbers a student has to read each week. Even for myself I often emboss the table of contents for a book I intend to read with speech, and I read Braille more rapidly than most. * If a student doesn't read Braille recreationally, it is likely Braille you give them for class will not be helpful. To be a fast Braille reader you must practice. Many Braille readers didn't know they were practicing as kids, because they just got in to reading good stories. But adults who lost their sight later do know it is practice, and if they are not doing it then they do not really read Braille. * Be sure if they want Braille that they are signed up to receive Braille for free from NLS "The national library service for the blind and physically handicapped" which serves U.S. citizens. They offer a free Braille eReader too. Books can also be ordered five a month through "Braille on Demand" which gives them embossed copies to keep. NLS has a large collection of fiction, nonfiction and Braille music. Don't re-invent the wheel. * Is the material already available or in the public domain? One of my students wanted to read some Edgar Alan Poe poetry in class. I found it already in embosser-ready format so it was easy to download and send to my embosser. One other interesting fact: my three most skilled Braille readers actually have Down syndrome and are in a special program we have for developmentally delayed adults. Though they read at only a third grade reading level, they actually **CAN** read, I've confirmed that. They devour all the Henry Huggins, Hobbit, Dr. Seus and Magic Treehouse books I can find. This is better than nearly all the blind adults I serve. One of them just finished reading a biography of Helen Keller out loud to her class which sparked a very informative discussion about different disabilities. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 16 22:56:06 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (foreigntype@gmail.com via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 16 22:56:19 2025 Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This is very useful information, Debee! Just an FYI for everyone: consider the reading speed of ca 30/wpm for an under-prepared student in Braille proficiency. Average reading speed wpm for sighted people is between 250-300 wpm. Advanced readers can hit 500-750/wpm. Considering how much reading is required both in and outside of class, there simply are not enough hours in the week for a student under-prepared in Braille. Debee?s recommendation to evaluate their reading skills in pre-prepared Braille using samples of different levels from Grade 1, to Grade 2, to different subject matters, to UEB Braille. Examples of Nemeth code math, biology, physics, algebra etc to gauge their skill level and then through Q&A with the student, come up with the most appropriate access to the text materials for them. Braille proficiency may come, but learning that while trying to prepare for class, quizzes, tests, research is not access! Reading at 30 wpm requires 10 x the amount of time the average student uses to access the same material. Something to consider especially when working with newly blind or incoming new blind/lv students to your offices for accommodations. Wink Harner Adaptive Technology Consulting and Training Portland OR. foreigntype@gmail.com On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 10:32?PM Deborah Armstrong via athen-list < athen-list@u.washington.edu> wrote: > Thoughts from an experienced Alternate Media Specialist. Lately I?ve > encountered fake Braille readers, so am posting this. > > Creating hardcopy Braille is time-consuming. We all want to serve our > students best, but before you start OCRing, transcribing, editing, > embossing, do these things: > > - Figure out if the student actually reads Braille. Many folks learn > basic Braille so they can take notes, track contacts and find the right > elevator floor or gender-appropriate restroom. If they are truly only able > to read a little bit, Braille is completely inappropriate for academic > work. If they want Braille because they are ?just learning it? read on. > - Find out what grade they can read. I?ve had several students who can > only read grade 1 or can read grade 2 but hate UEB. Make sure you know. > - If they need to read something short in class, such as prompts for a > presentation, or a list of items for an in-class activity, a limited > knowledge of Braille will hinder them less. However their main materials > should be provided as documents in Word, HTML, Daisy or whatever format > they prefer. I have a hearing-impaired student who has learned only grade > 1, and I give her handouts for in-class reading in Braille but everything > else is a text document. She has to turn up her hearing aids to read with > speech, but until her Braille is better she?s stuck with that. > - Find out if they have a Braille display and if they like using it. > If so, it?s way easier to give them a BRF, Daisy, Word or HTML document, > depending on what formats their display is able to read. Some have > sophisticated internal software; others must be connected to a computer > with a screen reader, and others do both. If they prefer hardcopy Braille, > of course you need to emboss it, but check with them first. > - Math is the exception. It cannot be easily worked with on a > single-line Braille display ? most of them are ? and you need to know if > they know the Nemeth code or the UEB math code. Many of my Braille readers > cannot read Braille math. > - I also encounter students who say they know Braille but don?t know > any punctuation marks, a clue they read it only when necessary. You can > give them a cheat sheet of course, but it is likely they are reading at > only 30 words a minute or less. Again this could work for a short class > handout, or a table of contents for an eBook, or a guide to the page > numbers a student has to read each week. Even for myself I often emboss the > table of contents for a book I intend to read with speech, and I read > Braille more rapidly than most. > - If a student doesn?t read Braille recreationally, it is likely > Braille you give them for class will not be helpful. To be a fast Braille > reader you must practice. Many Braille readers didn?t know they were > practicing as kids, because they just got in to reading good stories. But > adults who lost their sight later do know it is practice, and if they are > not doing it then they do not really read Braille. > - Be sure if they want Braille that they are signed up to receive > Braille for free from NLS ?The national library service for the blind and > physically handicapped? which serves U.S. citizens. They offer a free > Braille eReader too. Books can also be ordered five a month through > ?Braille on Demand? which gives them embossed copies to keep. NLS has a > large collection of fiction, nonfiction and Braille music. Don?t re-invent > the wheel. > - Is the material already available or in the public domain? One of my > students wanted to read some Edgar Alan Poe poetry in class. I found it > already in embosser-ready format so it was easy to download and send to my > embosser. > > One other interesting fact: my three most skilled Braille readers actually > have Down syndrome and are in a special program we have for developmentally > delayed adults. Though they read at only a third grade reading level, they > actually **CAN** read, I?ve confirmed that. They devour all the Henry > Huggins, Hobbit, Dr. Seus and Magic Treehouse books I can find. > > This is better than nearly all the blind adults I serve. One of them just > finished reading a biography of Helen Keller out loud to her class which > sparked a very informative discussion about different disabilities. > > > > --Debee > > > _______________________________________________ > athen-list mailing list > athen-list@mailman22.u.washington.edu > http://mailman22.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Wed Sep 17 13:41:21 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Howard Kramer via athen-list) Date: Wed Sep 17 13:42:00 2025 Subject: [Athen] Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early-Bird Registration ends September 27! Message-ID: Dear ATHEN Colleagues, I am writing to invite you to attend the 28th Annual Accessing Higher Ground: Accessible Media, Web & Technology Conference, which will take place at the Hilton Denver City Center, Denver, Colorado, November 17 -21, 2025. *Focus on ADA Title II Requirements and the Opportunities and Challenges of AI* *ATHEN & AHEAD members also receive a 10% discount* * off registration fees*. This year?s event includes over 42 virtual and 110 onsite sessions on specific topics such as creating accessible Office documents, PDFs, video, and Canvas pages. In addition, the upcoming ADA Title II requirements and the opportunities and challenges of AI will be a particular focus. View the complete list of sessions in list or calendar format . *Register Here * *Highlights from this year?s event: * (Titles link to session descriptions) *Pre-Conference* ? 1-day Accessibility Testing Workshop (2025 update) , Karl Groves, Accessibility Consultant, AFixt (1-day workshop) ? Create accessible documents in Office 365: Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (2025) , George Joeckel, Online Training Program Manager, Utah State University / WebAIM, (1-day Certificate) ? Introduction to the Screen Reader Ropes Course: Demystifying Screen Reader Use for Manual Testing *, *Deneb Pulsipher, Captain Accessible, SeaMonster Studios - Alternate Format Hands-On Intensive: How to Create Effective Alternate Format , Susan Kelmer, Alternate Format Production Program Manager, University of Colorado Boulder (2-day lab) *Main Conference* ? Accessibility testing for everyone ? getting started Becky Gibson, Lead Accessibility Specialist, UKG ? Planning and Creating Accessible documents, media and other digital material Craig Boassaly, President, Eliquo Training & Development Incorporated ? AI and Digital Accessibility: The Good, The Bad, The Hopeful Aaron Arvig, Digital Accessibility Coordinator, State of Minnesota ? When Access Needs Collide: An Interactive Discussion on Navigating Inclusive Classroom Practices , Deanna Ferrante, Executive Accessibility Project Manager, Macmillan Learning ? From Commitment to Continuity: Advancing a Holistic Digital Accessibility Plan in Higher Education to Meet Title II Compliance , Binky Lush, Manager, Discovery, Access and Web Services, Penn State University Libraries *And over 80 more * View the full 5-day agenda or register here . Conference site: https://accessinghigherground.org/ Questions: Contact Howard Kramer, 720-351-8668 or hkramer@ahead.org. -- Regards, Howard Howard Kramer AHG Conference Director Accessing Higher Ground cell: 720-351-8668 Sign up to access the recordings from the *2024 Accessing Higher Ground Conference .* Sign up to our mailing list to receive announcements . Complete program information and registration is open for AHEAD's full line-up of Spring 2025 webinars . Registration is open for the 2025 AHEAD Conference in Denver, CO . July 14 - 18, 2025. Not yet a member of AHEAD? *We welcome you to join AHEAD now. * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Wed Sep 17 20:47:06 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Wed Sep 17 20:47:14 2025 Subject: [Athen] FW: AFB Research Webinar: Analyzing Data When You Are Blind or Have Low Vision In-Reply-To: <1A.77.10294.C6A1BC86@i-0bbe517a622e8c4cf.mta2vrest.sd.prd.sparkpost> References: <1A.77.10294.C6A1BC86@i-0bbe517a622e8c4cf.mta2vrest.sd.prd.sparkpost> Message-ID: Since we?ve been discussing visually impaired students and statistics. The webinar is Oct 1 at 9 AM pacific noon eastern. From: American Foundation for the Blind Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 1:31 PM To: Deborah Armstrong Subject: AFB Research Webinar: Analyzing Data When You Are Blind or Have Low Vision Learn how we can break down barriers in the social science research field! [Image removed by sender. American Foundation for the Blind.] [Image removed by sender. AFB Research Webinar Series. Analyzing Data When You Are Blind or Have Low Vision: Tips and Tricks.] AFB Research Webinar: October 1, 2025 at 12PM Eastern Many common tools for statistics and qualitative data analysis are difficult for blind and low-vision people to use, making it harder for blind and low-vision students to advance into research careers. However, there are tools and strategies that can be effective. Whether you are a student taking your first stats class or a blind or low-vision research professional, join us to learn the latest tips and tricks for analyzing data, accessibly! AFB researchers will be joined by Dr. Jonathan Godfrey, a renowned blind statistician and senior lecturer at Massey University, and Emily Romero, a blind doctoral student and qualitative expert at the University of Northern Colorado, who will share their advice and lived experiences with us. Register today to learn how we can break down barriers in the social science research field! Register for the Webinar ? Sign Up for AFB's Public Policy & Research Mailing List Receive up-to-date information about research opportunities, our latest reports and webinars, or our public policy advancements. Sign Up for PPRI Alerts [Image removed by sender. Find AFB on Facebook] [Image removed by sender. Find AFB on Twitter] [Image removed by sender. Find AFB on Instagram] [Image removed by sender. Find AFB on LinkedIn] ?2025 American Foundation for the Blind. All rights reserved. American Foundation for the Blind 2900 S Quincy St #200 Arlington, VA 22206 United States If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive our emails, please unsubscribe. [Image removed by sender.] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ~WRD0000.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 823 bytes Desc: ~WRD0000.jpg URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 18 06:03:49 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Susan Kelmer via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 18 06:03:54 2025 Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This is interesting. I've never had a student ask for Braille who didn't read Braille in the first place. Why would they do that? Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC286A.61C81820] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you've received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: athen-list On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 11:32 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille [External email - use caution] Thoughts from an experienced Alternate Media Specialist. Lately I've encountered fake Braille readers, so am posting this. Creating hardcopy Braille is time-consuming. We all want to serve our students best, but before you start OCRing, transcribing, editing, embossing, do these things: * Figure out if the student actually reads Braille. Many folks learn basic Braille so they can take notes, track contacts and find the right elevator floor or gender-appropriate restroom. If they are truly only able to read a little bit, Braille is completely inappropriate for academic work. If they want Braille because they are "just learning it" read on. * Find out what grade they can read. I've had several students who can only read grade 1 or can read grade 2 but hate UEB. Make sure you know. * If they need to read something short in class, such as prompts for a presentation, or a list of items for an in-class activity, a limited knowledge of Braille will hinder them less. However their main materials should be provided as documents in Word, HTML, Daisy or whatever format they prefer. I have a hearing-impaired student who has learned only grade 1, and I give her handouts for in-class reading in Braille but everything else is a text document. She has to turn up her hearing aids to read with speech, but until her Braille is better she's stuck with that. * Find out if they have a Braille display and if they like using it. If so, it's way easier to give them a BRF, Daisy, Word or HTML document, depending on what formats their display is able to read. Some have sophisticated internal software; others must be connected to a computer with a screen reader, and others do both. If they prefer hardcopy Braille, of course you need to emboss it, but check with them first. * Math is the exception. It cannot be easily worked with on a single-line Braille display - most of them are - and you need to know if they know the Nemeth code or the UEB math code. Many of my Braille readers cannot read Braille math. * I also encounter students who say they know Braille but don't know any punctuation marks, a clue they read it only when necessary. You can give them a cheat sheet of course, but it is likely they are reading at only 30 words a minute or less. Again this could work for a short class handout, or a table of contents for an eBook, or a guide to the page numbers a student has to read each week. Even for myself I often emboss the table of contents for a book I intend to read with speech, and I read Braille more rapidly than most. * If a student doesn't read Braille recreationally, it is likely Braille you give them for class will not be helpful. To be a fast Braille reader you must practice. Many Braille readers didn't know they were practicing as kids, because they just got in to reading good stories. But adults who lost their sight later do know it is practice, and if they are not doing it then they do not really read Braille. * Be sure if they want Braille that they are signed up to receive Braille for free from NLS "The national library service for the blind and physically handicapped" which serves U.S. citizens. They offer a free Braille eReader too. Books can also be ordered five a month through "Braille on Demand" which gives them embossed copies to keep. NLS has a large collection of fiction, nonfiction and Braille music. Don't re-invent the wheel. * Is the material already available or in the public domain? One of my students wanted to read some Edgar Alan Poe poetry in class. I found it already in embosser-ready format so it was easy to download and send to my embosser. One other interesting fact: my three most skilled Braille readers actually have Down syndrome and are in a special program we have for developmentally delayed adults. Though they read at only a third grade reading level, they actually **CAN** read, I've confirmed that. They devour all the Henry Huggins, Hobbit, Dr. Seus and Magic Treehouse books I can find. This is better than nearly all the blind adults I serve. One of them just finished reading a biography of Helen Keller out loud to her class which sparked a very informative discussion about different disabilities. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 11:51:30 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 22 11:51:42 2025 Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech Message-ID: Hi all, I've hit a roadblock in making sure we can provide access to exams hosted in Examsoft's Examplify platform. In the past, we had the Speechify Windows desktop application and that would read an unsecured Examplify exam. Now that desktop application no longer exists and everything I look at appears to be based in a web browser, which does not work for reading another desktop application. We tried to have a Word document for TTS and have the student respond to the questions in Examplify but the department is not happy with this solution as they believe it provides the student with additional access. What have you found to be successful for these types of exams? Thank you! Dawn [The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.] Dawn Hunziker, Associate Director Disability Resource Center THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Highland Commons, D207 1224 E. Lowell St., Tucson AZ 85721 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) hunziker@arizona.edu accessibility@arizona.edu drc.arizona.edu www.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 12:06:02 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Kamran Rasul via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 22 12:06:11 2025 Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Dawn, I'm not sure if this will be helpful; if the student has access to a PC, they can install NVDA and use its text-to-speech feature by hovering over the text using a mouse device. It worked in an Exemplify secure environment - at least it did several years ago; I'm not sure if anything has changed since then. [cid:image001.png@01DC2BD2.64F2C2F0] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 2:52 PM To: ATHEN Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech External Email - Use Caution Hi all, I've hit a roadblock in making sure we can provide access to exams hosted in Examsoft's Examplify platform. In the past, we had the Speechify Windows desktop application and that would read an unsecured Examplify exam. Now that desktop application no longer exists and everything I look at appears to be based in a web browser, which does not work for reading another desktop application. We tried to have a Word document for TTS and have the student respond to the questions in Examplify but the department is not happy with this solution as they believe it provides the student with additional access. What have you found to be successful for these types of exams? Thank you! Dawn [The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.] Dawn Hunziker, Associate Director Disability Resource Center THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Highland Commons, D207 1224 E. Lowell St., Tucson AZ 85721 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) hunziker@arizona.edu accessibility@arizona.edu drc.arizona.edu www.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 12:17:57 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Fowles, Derrick S. via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 22 12:18:02 2025 Subject: [Athen] [Spam] athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hello All, I have a student I'm working with that is visually impaired and needs help especially with his math courses. His ask is for a a program for both text to speech and speech to text for math. What recommendations would you have for that student that would be accurate in reading the symbols etc. that comes in math? Thank you. Best Regards, Derrick Fowles (he/him) Assistive Technology Coordinator Accommodations and Accessibility Services 3924 Pender Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 (703) 764 -5084 / dfowles@nvcc.edu [NOVA Logo] [cid:4e89dfe5-b0c3-47c6-96b3-0ae0d0cfc667] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information or otherwise be protected by law. Any access, use, disclosure or distribution of this email message by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is unauthorized and prohibited. If you are not an intended recipient (or an agent acting on an intended recipient?s behalf), please contact the sender by reply email and immediately destroy all copies of the original message. Virus scanning is recommended on all email attachments. ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 3:00 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu Subject: [Spam] athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13. Caution: This is an external email. Safety and security should be considered when clicking links or opening attachments. [You don't often get email from athen-list@u.washington.edu. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] Send athen-list mailing list submissions to athen-list@u.washington.edu To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmailman22.u.washington.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fathen-list&data=05%7C02%7CDfowles%40nvcc.edu%7C950cd142ae644f198ce608ddfa0a7137%7C9f05c0e4988c48288359193b3485e731%7C0%7C0%7C638941644956874122%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nu9yFS5RMEmFvjhv2nBMzh10Iwqv9%2FZTmm%2Fb6X93eck%3D&reserved=0 or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to athen-list-request@mailman22.u.washington.edu You can reach the person managing the list at athen-list-owner@mailman22.u.washington.edu When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of athen-list digest..." Today's Topics: 1. ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech (Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:51:30 +0000 From: "Hunziker, Dawn A - \(hunziker\) via athen-list" To: ATHEN Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Hi all, I've hit a roadblock in making sure we can provide access to exams hosted in Examsoft's Examplify platform. In the past, we had the Speechify Windows desktop application and that would read an unsecured Examplify exam. Now that desktop application no longer exists and everything I look at appears to be based in a web browser, which does not work for reading another desktop application. We tried to have a Word document for TTS and have the student respond to the questions in Examplify but the department is not happy with this solution as they believe it provides the student with additional access. What have you found to be successful for these types of exams? Thank you! Dawn [The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.] Dawn Hunziker, Associate Director Disability Resource Center THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Highland Commons, D207 1224 E. Lowell St., Tucson AZ 85721 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) hunziker@arizona.edu accessibility@arizona.edu drc.arizona.edu> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arizona.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7CDfowles%40nvcc.edu%7C950cd142ae644f198ce608ddfa0a7137%7C9f05c0e4988c48288359193b3485e731%7C0%7C0%7C638941644956936856%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DZ8HNgYw9RIod3ZAmNuAIE%2B0EMfDTp9gAgtZ3cLensc%3D&reserved=0 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: > ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ athen-list mailing list athen-list@mailman22.u.washington.edu https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmailman22.u.washington.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fathen-list&data=05%7C02%7CDfowles%40nvcc.edu%7C950cd142ae644f198ce608ddfa0a7137%7C9f05c0e4988c48288359193b3485e731%7C0%7C0%7C638941644956993178%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ptDZJHsZRvRYDynlICo6YpcyAp%2Bc%2F9%2Bttc3dbMgGMKA%3D&reserved=0 ------------------------------ End of athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13 ******************************************* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 18632 bytes Desc: image.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 29611 bytes Desc: image.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 12:54:02 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 22 12:54:12 2025 Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Kamran, That was a solution I offered to the student but they felt that NVDA was too much - it read too much and overwhelmed them. I'm re-looking at the preferences to see if I can turn off a lot of that verbosity. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm now exploring NaturalReader with a screenshot reader option.... Bear Down, Dawn Dawn Hunziker Associate Director | Disability Resources The University of Arizona | hunziker@arizona.edu drc.arizona.edu | accessibility.arizona.edu 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) ________________________________ From: Kamran Rasul Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 12:06 PM To: Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) ; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: [EXT] RE: ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech External Email ________________________________ Hi Dawn, I'm not sure if this will be helpful; if the student has access to a PC, they can install NVDA and use its text-to-speech feature by hovering over the text using a mouse device. It worked in an Exemplify secure environment ? at least it did several years ago; I'm not sure if anything has changed since then. [cid:image001.png@01DC2BD2.64F2C2F0] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 2:52 PM To: ATHEN Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech External Email - Use Caution Hi all, I've hit a roadblock in making sure we can provide access to exams hosted in Examsoft's Examplify platform. In the past, we had the Speechify Windows desktop application and that would read an unsecured Examplify exam. Now that desktop application no longer exists and everything I look at appears to be based in a web browser, which does not work for reading another desktop application. We tried to have a Word document for TTS and have the student respond to the questions in Examplify but the department is not happy with this solution as they believe it provides the student with additional access. What have you found to be successful for these types of exams? Thank you! Dawn [The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.] Dawn Hunziker, Associate Director Disability Resource Center THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Highland Commons, D207 1224 E. Lowell St., Tucson AZ 85721 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) hunziker@arizona.edu accessibility@arizona.edu drc.arizona.edu www.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 14:42:47 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Mariotti, Tamara via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 22 14:42:52 2025 Subject: [Athen] [Spam] athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Equatio is really the only option that I can think of for text to speech, and speech to text options with Math. It is worth connecting with them to see if they can assist you for a period of time. Tamara [State University of New York Logo, A blue Circle around the initials SUNY, the NY is bolded to emphasize the New York system of colleges. There are 64 campuses in SUNY] Tamara Mariotti (she, her, hers) Why pronouns? Assistant Director of Resources for Students with Disabilities The State University of New York, System Administration H. Carl McCall SUNY Building 353 Broadway, Albany, New York 12207 Tel: 518.320.1173 Be a part of Generation SUNY: Facebook - Twitter - YouTube From: athen-list On Behalf Of Fowles, Derrick S. via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 3:18 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu; athen-list-request@mailman22.u.washington.edu Subject: Re: [Athen] [Spam] athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13. Hello All, I have a student I'm working with that is visually impaired and needs help especially with his math courses. His ask is for a a program for both text to speech and speech to text for math. What recommendations would you have for that student that would be accurate in reading the symbols etc. that comes in math? Thank you. Best Regards, Derrick Fowles (he/him) Assistive Technology Coordinator Accommodations and Accessibility Services 3924 Pender Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 (703) 764 -5084 / dfowles@nvcc.edu [NOVA Logo] [cid:image003.png@01DC2BE8.4E47AF00] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information or otherwise be protected by law. Any access, use, disclosure or distribution of this email message by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is unauthorized and prohibited. If you are not an intended recipient (or an agent acting on an intended recipient's behalf), please contact the sender by reply email and immediately destroy all copies of the original message. Virus scanning is recommended on all email attachments. ________________________________ From: athen-list > on behalf of via athen-list > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 3:00 PM To: athen-list@u.washington.edu > Subject: [Spam] athen-list Digest, Vol 236, Issue 13. Caution: This is an external email. Safety and security should be considered when clicking links or opening attachments. [You don't often get email from athen-list@u.washington.edu. 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ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech (Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker) via athen-list) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 18:51:30 +0000 From: "Hunziker, Dawn A - \(hunziker\) via athen-list" > To: ATHEN > Subject: [Athen] ExamSoft/Examplify and Text-to-Speech Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Hi all, I've hit a roadblock in making sure we can provide access to exams hosted in Examsoft's Examplify platform. In the past, we had the Speechify Windows desktop application and that would read an unsecured Examplify exam. Now that desktop application no longer exists and everything I look at appears to be based in a web browser, which does not work for reading another desktop application. We tried to have a Word document for TTS and have the student respond to the questions in Examplify but the department is not happy with this solution as they believe it provides the student with additional access. What have you found to be successful for these types of exams? Thank you! Dawn [The University of Arizona block 'A' logo.] Dawn Hunziker, Associate Director Disability Resource Center THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Highland Commons, D207 1224 E. Lowell St., Tucson AZ 85721 520-626-9409 (Call/SMS) hunziker@arizona.edu> accessibility@arizona.edu> drc.arizona.edu> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arizona.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7CDfowles%40nvcc.edu%7C950cd142ae644f198ce608ddfa0a7137%7C9f05c0e4988c48288359193b3485e731%7C0%7C0%7C638941644956936856%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DZ8HNgYw9RIod3ZAmNuAIE%2B0EMfDTp9gAgtZ3cLensc%3D&reserved=0 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 29611 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 23 08:58:35 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (normajean.brand via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 23 08:58:43 2025 Subject: [Athen] Helping a blind student survive physical anthropology In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: [heart] normajean.brand reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2025 11:39:32 PM To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: [Athen] Helping a blind student survive physical anthropology [External Email Notice: This email is from outside the Houston Community College System. HCC will never use external email accounts to send confidential information, job opportunities, business/financial-related emails, or account password/expiration updates.] When she started college she was low-vision but now my student is almost completely blind. Though she?s a liberal arts major she?s required to take at least one science course. We?ve had this problem forever; absolutely none of our science courses are accessible. They all have labs which sometimes involve working with computer simulations, and often involve measuring, pouring, looking through a microscope etc. My suggestion has always been that the blind student works with a partner and operates as the note-taker and the person who researches the science, while the lab partner performs the physical parts of the experiment. The partner can also say if a solution changes color while the blind student can be the one who knows what the color changing signifies. This seems quite reasonable to me and that?s how blind friends in the past have coped with Anthropology, biology, geology, chemistry and even meteorology labs. But this professor requires students work alone believing that lab partners encourage cheating. This is not the first time we?ve had this problem and I keep being asked for another solution. We don?t typically hire assistants to help students; there?s nothing in our budget for that. I told the counselor who is panicking that we also have students with sight but physical limitations that also prevent them from performing alone in science labs and she needs to consult with the department chair for a permanent solution. But I?m a paraprofessional; consulting with the department chair would be a violation of my personal role at the college. So I?m asking the list. What have you done when this situation crops up? And why in the heck cannot there be at least one fully accessible science course for those who have no intent to make science a major? I keep reading about all sorts of grants schools get to encourage participation in STEM for blind and visually impaired students but it?s always for a particular high school or community college, or worse yet a school for the blind, and it?s not applicable to anyone outside the little ?test? group. someone really needs to get a grant to create a fully online mooc-style course that any disabled student who needs to fulfill a science requirement can enroll in. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 23 09:14:00 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (normajean.brand via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 23 09:14:06 2025 Subject: [Athen] Seeking Guidance: Supporting a Newly Blind Student in Online STEM Courses In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: [heart] normajean.brand reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 4:15:14 PM To: Bishop, Jeff - (jeffbis) ; Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: Re: [Athen] Seeking Guidance: Supporting a Newly Blind Student in Online STEM Courses [External Email Notice: This email is from outside the Houston Community College System. HCC will never use external email accounts to send confidential information, job opportunities, business/financial-related emails, or account password/expiration updates.] Regarding physiology, most colleges have 3D models already. If your student is local they need to show up to examine them. If not, you could contact a college in your student?s home area to see if they can help. Sighted students need the 3D models too for study purposes. I didn?t know this until I got lost on campus one day and wandered in to an enormous lab full of 3D models, skeletons, muscles, tendons, ligaments etc.Students had to check out the models they needed along with a study room. The woman who runs the lab said most colleges had them. She said sighted students also needed somethings besides 2D pictures to envision what anatomy and physiology really looked like. Make sure the student is really really comfortable using AI to independently get descriptions of things like the bloodstream that cannot be shown as a 3D model. Talk to the instructor regarding alternate test questions because many questions on exams will be asking a student to identify pictured items. The student will need to learn to advocate for this as well. If getting student volunteers to assist is difficult one often overlooked resource are sororities, fraternities, and on-campus clubs. And if your student is online, many young people enjoy the opportunity to do volunteer work over zoom as long as it?s just a few hours a week. We have a similar problem with an instructor who didn?t want a blind student. Sometimes it?s good to ask the student to wait until a more accepting instructor is available which is what we?re doing now for physical anthropology. The current instructor is not supportive of students working in teams, but the one we?ve encouraged the student to learn from will teach it again in the winter. As a newly blind person, your student may not know how to be symbiotic yet, but it?s super important in STEM classes, as they can add great support to a team by taking notes, coming up with study questions and making sure everyone participates. With my students, I always ask them to think about what they are going to contribute to a team so it will be a natural thing for other team members to fill in where their disability prevents participation. For example, one of my LD students was encouraged to take ?video notes? when their team worked on a project and kept a running record of what the group was discovering. Someone new to their disability may not know how to compensate or may be uncomfortable about revealing their limitations. They will need encouragement! Also with these difficult courses, it?s best to take one at a time if you have any sort of sensory disability. It?s hard sometimes to convince young people to do this, especially because DOR and financial aid don?t want to support a student taking fewer units. But we always fill in with easy classes like speechor P.E. so they can get the needed funding but not be stressed taking too many hard classes at once. You probably know this already, but I?m posting all these tips for the benefit of those new to serving disabled students. It?s the little things we often overlook, like reminding a student not to take physics, chemistry and biology all at the same time! From: athen-list On Behalf Of Bishop, Jeff - (jeffbis) via athen-list Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 5:01 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Seeking Guidance: Supporting a Newly Blind Student in Online STEM Courses Hello all, We are working with a student who will be taking statistics, organic chemistry, and physiology?entirely online. She is newly blind and is currently learning JAWS for Windows. Notably, she has taken the chemistry course before as a sighted student. We are in the process of seeking academic aid, but we are also very concerned about how to best support her with aspects of these classes that are highly visual, particularly the 3D models and computer-based work that are integral to chemistry and physiology. Have any of you faced a similar situation? If so, how did you approach accommodations for courses that rely heavily on visual and spatial content? Any specific recommendations for tools, strategies, or approaches that worked well for students in these disciplines would be very helpful. We sincerely appreciate any guidance or resources you can share. Thank you, Jeff Bishop -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 23 09:38:24 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (normajean.brand via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 23 09:38:31 2025 Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 In-Reply-To: References: <1142273677196.1101761319449.1448.0.391116JL.2002@synd.ccsend.com> Message-ID: [heart] normajean.brand reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Susan Kelmer via athen-list Sent: Friday, September 12, 2025 5:36:30 PM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] A personal plug: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External Email Notice: This email is from outside the Houston Community College System. HCC will never use external email accounts to send confidential information, job opportunities, business/financial-related emails, or account password/expiration updates.] Unsubscribe It appears that you have subscribed to commercial messages from this sender. To stop receiving such messages from this sender, you can unsubscribe. Click here to unsubscribe Registration is open for this year?s Accessing Higher Ground conference in Denver, Colorado. Shameless but informational plug from me: This is my last year at the conference where I will be offering the two-day Preconference training on Alternate Format Production. I am retiring next year. I have been blessed and grateful to have been able to teach so many people over the years, and to be a resource to so many others, but my journey is coming to an end as I move to the next (hopefully exciting) phase of my life. For those that have been thinking about attending for the preconference sessions but weren?t sure, this is the year to do it! I hope to see you there! Susan Kelmer Alternate Format Production Program Manager Disability Services Division of Student Life T 303 735 4836 www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices [cid:image001.png@01DC23D9.688B3060] Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you?ve received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. From: Accessing Higher Ground (Nov. 17 -21) > Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:24 AM To: Susan Kelmer > Subject: Accessing Higher Ground 2025: Early Registration Discount ends September 27 [External email - use caution] 5-day schedule now posted [Accessing Higher Ground Logo] Accessing Higher Ground November 17 - 21, 2025 The early registration discount ends September 27 AHG 2025 will be onsite at the Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado. ? The full 5-day schedule is now posted Review complete agenda and pricing. ? Registration Attendee Registration for the onsite conference [https://cvent.me/Ava9MW] *(Virtual conference registration will open in late September) ? 1-Week Program & Over 100 Hours of Content The full 5-day schedule and agenda is now posted on the conference site. (Schedule Overview) Pre-conference Thirteen sessions, half, full-day and 2-day in length, including hands-on workshops, will be offered during the pre-conference. More Pre-conference Information Complete Session List - Pre and Main Conference Fees Main Conference: $645* Pre- and Main Conference Package: $995** (*$580.50 **$895.50 for AHEAD & ATHEN members) More pricing information More Information If you have any questions contact Howard Kramer at 720-351-8668 or at the email below e-mail: hkramer@ahead.org Conference URL: http://accessinghigherground.org Presented by [AHEAD Logo] ? Accessing Higher Ground | 16810 Kenton Drive, Suite 220 c/o AHEAD | Huntersville, NC 28078 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice [Constant Contact] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 8916 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 23 09:45:58 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (normajean.brand via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 23 09:46:36 2025 Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: [heart] normajean.brand reacted to your message: ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 5:31:58 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] So your student wants Braille [External Email Notice: This email is from outside the Houston Community College System. HCC will never use external email accounts to send confidential information, job opportunities, business/financial-related emails, or account password/expiration updates.] Thoughts from an experienced Alternate Media Specialist. Lately I?ve encountered fake Braille readers, so am posting this. Creating hardcopy Braille is time-consuming. We all want to serve our students best, but before you start OCRing, transcribing, editing, embossing, do these things: * Figure out if the student actually reads Braille. Many folks learn basic Braille so they can take notes, track contacts and find the right elevator floor or gender-appropriate restroom. If they are truly only able to read a little bit, Braille is completely inappropriate for academic work. If they want Braille because they are ?just learning it? read on. * Find out what grade they can read. I?ve had several students who can only read grade 1 or can read grade 2 but hate UEB. Make sure you know. * If they need to read something short in class, such as prompts for a presentation, or a list of items for an in-class activity, a limited knowledge of Braille will hinder them less. However their main materials should be provided as documents in Word, HTML, Daisy or whatever format they prefer. I have a hearing-impaired student who has learned only grade 1, and I give her handouts for in-class reading in Braille but everything else is a text document. She has to turn up her hearing aids to read with speech, but until her Braille is better she?s stuck with that. * Find out if they have a Braille display and if they like using it. If so, it?s way easier to give them a BRF, Daisy, Word or HTML document, depending on what formats their display is able to read. Some have sophisticated internal software; others must be connected to a computer with a screen reader, and others do both. If they prefer hardcopy Braille, of course you need to emboss it, but check with them first. * Math is the exception. It cannot be easily worked with on a single-line Braille display ? most of them are ? and you need to know if they know the Nemeth code or the UEB math code. Many of my Braille readers cannot read Braille math. * I also encounter students who say they know Braille but don?t know any punctuation marks, a clue they read it only when necessary. You can give them a cheat sheet of course, but it is likely they are reading at only 30 words a minute or less. Again this could work for a short class handout, or a table of contents for an eBook, or a guide to the page numbers a student has to read each week. Even for myself I often emboss the table of contents for a book I intend to read with speech, and I read Braille more rapidly than most. * If a student doesn?t read Braille recreationally, it is likely Braille you give them for class will not be helpful. To be a fast Braille reader you must practice. Many Braille readers didn?t know they were practicing as kids, because they just got in to reading good stories. But adults who lost their sight later do know it is practice, and if they are not doing it then they do not really read Braille. * Be sure if they want Braille that they are signed up to receive Braille for free from NLS ?The national library service for the blind and physically handicapped? which serves U.S. citizens. They offer a free Braille eReader too. Books can also be ordered five a month through ?Braille on Demand? which gives them embossed copies to keep. NLS has a large collection of fiction, nonfiction and Braille music. Don?t re-invent the wheel. * Is the material already available or in the public domain? One of my students wanted to read some Edgar Alan Poe poetry in class. I found it already in embosser-ready format so it was easy to download and send to my embosser. One other interesting fact: my three most skilled Braille readers actually have Down syndrome and are in a special program we have for developmentally delayed adults. Though they read at only a third grade reading level, they actually **CAN** read, I?ve confirmed that. They devour all the Henry Huggins, Hobbit, Dr. Seus and Magic Treehouse books I can find. This is better than nearly all the blind adults I serve. One of them just finished reading a biography of Helen Keller out loud to her class which sparked a very informative discussion about different disabilities. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Wed Sep 24 09:44:39 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Wed Sep 24 09:44:44 2025 Subject: [Athen] Perusal again Message-ID: Last year, I took a course that used Perusal, an online tool which lets students annotate text. The textbook, or course reader is contained within the web-based app, and students highlight text and comment on it. Perusall | Increase Student Engagement with Social Learning It's a very social-media-oriented interface with loads of keyboard shortcuts. So theoretically, it's supposed to be accessible. But using it with a screen reader, I found it was very difficult to highlight text. Though a sighted user could hold the shift and press the arrow keys to highlight text, just as one would do in a word processor, if this was done with a screen reader it didn't work. If the screen reader's virtual cursor or browse mode was on, then highlighting text was taken over by the screen reader, and the browser and underlying web app was unaware that text was being highlighted. If the user turned on forms or focus mode, then they could highlight text, but the screen reader would not give any feedback, so the user wouldn't know what was being highlighted. NVDA has a new keystroke, native selection mode, which is toggled with shift-f10. I haven't tried it because I no longer have access to Perusal. That might work, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I have two blind students who are now required to use Perusal in an online class. I'm wondering if anyone else has tried it with a screen reader and has a solution. Specifically does the NVDA native selection mode work? Thanks. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Wed Sep 24 20:18:32 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (via athen-list) Date: Wed Sep 24 20:18:37 2025 Subject: [Athen] Perusal again In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <00a401dc2dcb$132e3a80$398aaf80$@montana.com> Hi, I have used native selection mode for highlighting and annotating/taking notes with Thorium. It works! I think it will depend how the application is configured to work with electron. Firefox supported this for a long time, and Chrome and Edge does now, and Thorium uses electron under the hood. Hope this helps. Best George From: athen-list On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2025 10:45 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Perusal again Last year, I took a course that used Perusal, an online tool which lets students annotate text. The textbook, or course reader is contained within the web-based app, and students highlight text and comment on it. Perusall | Increase Student Engagement with Social Learning It's a very social-media-oriented interface with loads of keyboard shortcuts. So theoretically, it's supposed to be accessible. But using it with a screen reader, I found it was very difficult to highlight text. Though a sighted user could hold the shift and press the arrow keys to highlight text, just as one would do in a word processor, if this was done with a screen reader it didn't work. If the screen reader's virtual cursor or browse mode was on, then highlighting text was taken over by the screen reader, and the browser and underlying web app was unaware that text was being highlighted. If the user turned on forms or focus mode, then they could highlight text, but the screen reader would not give any feedback, so the user wouldn't know what was being highlighted. NVDA has a new keystroke, native selection mode, which is toggled with shift-f10. I haven't tried it because I no longer have access to Perusal. That might work, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I have two blind students who are now required to use Perusal in an online class. I'm wondering if anyone else has tried it with a screen reader and has a solution. Specifically does the NVDA native selection mode work? Thanks. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 25 11:17:22 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 25 11:17:28 2025 Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors Message-ID: I work at a college serving academic students. But we have a community program called Hope for adults with developmental delays. Hope students do a variety of activities to help them become more employable. Many of them involve working on a computer. They read short articles about current events. They make movies. They play online educational games. They do basic drills in spelling and math. Most of the students are on the education level of a second or third grade child, but being adults, they of course have greater maturity. Recently the program has been getting more blind students and because the instructors don't know anything about access technology, they don't try to teach them how to use the computers, usually iPads and Macs. But what's happening is that the blind students are sitting around while the sighted students are doing things on computers. I keep getting asked to produce Braille for the students, but the teachers don't understand that not all blind people know Braille. One of the students does read fluently at a third grade reading level and I've been giving her children's books like Henry Huggins and Magic treehouse. She is very articulate and clear about her needs. But I haven't figured out what to do with the other blind students. It's not really my job but I keep getting asked for Braille math drills, Braille news articles, Braille spelling exercises, and when I do supply some Braille, I'm told it was too difficult for them to read. Terms like Grade 1 and Grade 2 and UEB don't make any sense to teachers who have never worked with the blind. Have any of you ever taught any access technology skills to adults who learn at a second or third grade level? Should I attempt to teach the instructors enough they can help their students use Macs or iPads, or do you think it won't work because so much material intended for children that's online will not be accessible, anyway? Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to integrate them better in to class, especially if it means less work for me. I'm not lazy but I don't like working on a project that ultimately will fail. I'm not a TVI and I have no idea what's involved working with either kids or adults with developmental delays. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 25 12:40:30 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 25 12:40:37 2025 Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: You are correct about the first need being teaching the "teachers" about assistive technology. California School for the Blind has a screen reader training website which can be used for both instructors and students to train. There are accessible apps out there, just need to hunt them down.. APH's Braille Buzz is a great iOS/android app with interesting lessons and activities that might work with this population. So is APH's Math Robot, an iOS app. Once the students are able to handle technology, they will be able to handle books digitally. Hope that helps! Best, Ramya Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 11:17 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors I work at a college serving academic students. But we have a community program called Hope for adults with developmental delays. Hope students do a variety of activities to help them become more employable. Many of them involve working on a computer. They read short articles about current events. They make movies. They play online educational games. They do basic drills in spelling and math. Most of the students are on the education level of a second or third grade child, but being adults, they of course have greater maturity. Recently the program has been getting more blind students and because the instructors don?t know anything about access technology, they don?t try to teach them how to use the computers, usually iPads and Macs. But what?s happening is that the blind students are sitting around while the sighted students are doing things on computers. I keep getting asked to produce Braille for the students, but the teachers don?t understand that not all blind people know Braille. One of the students does read fluently at a third grade reading level and I?ve been giving her children?s books like Henry Huggins and Magic treehouse. She is very articulate and clear about her needs. But I haven?t figured out what to do with the other blind students. It?s not really my job but I keep getting asked for Braille math drills, Braille news articles, Braille spelling exercises, and when I do supply some Braille, I?m told it was too difficult for them to read. Terms like Grade 1 and Grade 2 and UEB don?t make any sense to teachers who have never worked with the blind. Have any of you ever taught any access technology skills to adults who learn at a second or third grade level? Should I attempt to teach the instructors enough they can help their students use Macs or iPads, or do you think it won?t work because so much material intended for children that?s online will not be accessible, anyway? Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to integrate them better in to class, especially if it means less work for me. I?m not lazy but I don?t like working on a project that ultimately will fail. I?m not a TVI and I have no idea what?s involved working with either kids or adults with developmental delays. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 25 13:15:38 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Joshua Hori via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 25 13:15:43 2025 Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: There?s also the Accessible Equation Editor, which would allow instructors to give them google docs of course content and they can either use braille to read it or a screenreader. The braille output by students would be readable by instructors too. Sam Dooley (the developer) may be able to run the course too. I think your iPad solution is a great suggestion, but will they know how to use it? Combining it with an AI Advanced Audio feature, which has access to the camera, they could get audio descriptions of what?s around them. Writing something on the whiteboard? Google Gemini will describe it all (ChatGPT summaries the audio descriptions). ????? I compared audio descriptions of Gemini and ChatGPT back in February on LinkedIn. I already need to update the article as new features have become available. Best, Joshua From: athen-list on behalf of Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 12:42?PM To: Deborah Armstrong , Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: Re: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors You are correct about the first need being teaching the "teachers" about assistive technology. California School for the Blind has a screen reader training website which can be used for both instructors and students to train. There are accessible apps out there, just need to hunt them down.. APH's Braille Buzz is a great iOS/android app with interesting lessons and activities that might work with this population. So is APH's Math Robot, an iOS app. Once the students are able to handle technology, they will be able to handle books digitally. Hope that helps! Best, Ramya Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 11:17 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors I work at a college serving academic students. But we have a community program called Hope for adults with developmental delays. Hope students do a variety of activities to help them become more employable. Many of them involve working on a computer. They read short articles about current events. They make movies. They play online educational games. They do basic drills in spelling and math. Most of the students are on the education level of a second or third grade child, but being adults, they of course have greater maturity. Recently the program has been getting more blind students and because the instructors don?t know anything about access technology, they don?t try to teach them how to use the computers, usually iPads and Macs. But what?s happening is that the blind students are sitting around while the sighted students are doing things on computers. I keep getting asked to produce Braille for the students, but the teachers don?t understand that not all blind people know Braille. One of the students does read fluently at a third grade reading level and I?ve been giving her children?s books like Henry Huggins and Magic treehouse. She is very articulate and clear about her needs. But I haven?t figured out what to do with the other blind students. It?s not really my job but I keep getting asked for Braille math drills, Braille news articles, Braille spelling exercises, and when I do supply some Braille, I?m told it was too difficult for them to read. Terms like Grade 1 and Grade 2 and UEB don?t make any sense to teachers who have never worked with the blind. Have any of you ever taught any access technology skills to adults who learn at a second or third grade level? Should I attempt to teach the instructors enough they can help their students use Macs or iPads, or do you think it won?t work because so much material intended for children that?s online will not be accessible, anyway? Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to integrate them better in to class, especially if it means less work for me. I?m not lazy but I don?t like working on a project that ultimately will fail. I?m not a TVI and I have no idea what?s involved working with either kids or adults with developmental delays. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 25 13:52:04 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Monica Olsson via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 25 13:52:10 2025 Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Josh, Can you point me to more information about the Accessible Equation Editor. Do instructions for faculty/students exist anywhere, especially how to export the work from the editor into an accessible format. Thank you! Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers) Policy Associate ? Accessible IT Coordinator Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges ?Email: molsson@sbctc.edu ? Phone: 360-704-3922 The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Joshua Hori via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 1:15 PM To: Karthikeyan, Ramya ; Access Technology Higher Education Network ; Deborah Armstrong Subject: Re: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors [Sent from outside SBCTC] There?s also the Accessible Equation Editor, which would allow instructors to give them google docs of course content and they can either use braille to read it or a screenreader. The braille output by students would be readable by instructors too. Sam Dooley (the developer) may be able to run the course too. I think your iPad solution is a great suggestion, but will they know how to use it? Combining it with an AI Advanced Audio feature, which has access to the camera, they could get audio descriptions of what?s around them. Writing something on the whiteboard? Google Gemini will describe it all (ChatGPT summaries the audio descriptions). ????? I compared audio descriptions of Gemini and ChatGPT back in February on LinkedIn. I already need to update the article as new features have become available. Best, Joshua From: athen-list on behalf of Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 12:42?PM To: Deborah Armstrong , Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: Re: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors You are correct about the first need being teaching the "teachers" about assistive technology. California School for the Blind has a screen reader training website which can be used for both instructors and students to train. There are accessible apps out there, just need to hunt them down.. APH's Braille Buzz is a great iOS/android app with interesting lessons and activities that might work with this population. So is APH's Math Robot, an iOS app. Once the students are able to handle technology, they will be able to handle books digitally. Hope that helps! Best, Ramya Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 11:17 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors I work at a college serving academic students. But we have a community program called Hope for adults with developmental delays. Hope students do a variety of activities to help them become more employable. Many of them involve working on a computer. They read short articles about current events. They make movies. They play online educational games. They do basic drills in spelling and math. Most of the students are on the education level of a second or third grade child, but being adults, they of course have greater maturity. Recently the program has been getting more blind students and because the instructors don?t know anything about access technology, they don?t try to teach them how to use the computers, usually iPads and Macs. But what?s happening is that the blind students are sitting around while the sighted students are doing things on computers. I keep getting asked to produce Braille for the students, but the teachers don?t understand that not all blind people know Braille. One of the students does read fluently at a third grade reading level and I?ve been giving her children?s books like Henry Huggins and Magic treehouse. She is very articulate and clear about her needs. But I haven?t figured out what to do with the other blind students. It?s not really my job but I keep getting asked for Braille math drills, Braille news articles, Braille spelling exercises, and when I do supply some Braille, I?m told it was too difficult for them to read. Terms like Grade 1 and Grade 2 and UEB don?t make any sense to teachers who have never worked with the blind. Have any of you ever taught any access technology skills to adults who learn at a second or third grade level? Should I attempt to teach the instructors enough they can help their students use Macs or iPads, or do you think it won?t work because so much material intended for children that?s online will not be accessible, anyway? Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to integrate them better in to class, especially if it means less work for me. I?m not lazy but I don?t like working on a project that ultimately will fail. I?m not a TVI and I have no idea what?s involved working with either kids or adults with developmental delays. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Thu Sep 25 15:34:04 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Joshua Hori via athen-list) Date: Thu Sep 25 15:34:12 2025 Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: They have a YouTube channel and Sam is responsive to email requests. The documentation is built into the tool: https://www.lakepinesbraille.com/ee/doc/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EqualizeEditor Best, Joshua Hori Accessible Technology Coordinator Information Educational Technology Academic Technology Services 50 Hutchison Dr. Davis, CA 95616 530-752-2439 Schedule a meeting via Calendly From: Monica Olsson Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 1:52?PM To: Joshua Hori , Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: Re: Question for Access technology instructors Hi Josh, Can you point me to more information about the Accessible Equation Editor. Do instructions for faculty/students exist anywhere, especially how to export the work from the editor into an accessible format. Thank you! Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers) Policy Associate ? Accessible IT Coordinator Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges ?Email: molsson@sbctc.edu ? Phone: 360-704-3922 The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Joshua Hori via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 1:15 PM To: Karthikeyan, Ramya ; Access Technology Higher Education Network ; Deborah Armstrong Subject: Re: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors [Sent from outside SBCTC] There?s also the Accessible Equation Editor, which would allow instructors to give them google docs of course content and they can either use braille to read it or a screenreader. The braille output by students would be readable by instructors too. Sam Dooley (the developer) may be able to run the course too. I think your iPad solution is a great suggestion, but will they know how to use it? Combining it with an AI Advanced Audio feature, which has access to the camera, they could get audio descriptions of what?s around them. Writing something on the whiteboard? Google Gemini will describe it all (ChatGPT summaries the audio descriptions). ????? I compared audio descriptions of Gemini and ChatGPT back in February on LinkedIn. I already need to update the article as new features have become available. Best, Joshua From: athen-list on behalf of Karthikeyan, Ramya via athen-list Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 12:42?PM To: Deborah Armstrong , Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: Re: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors You are correct about the first need being teaching the "teachers" about assistive technology. California School for the Blind has a screen reader training website which can be used for both instructors and students to train. There are accessible apps out there, just need to hunt them down.. APH's Braille Buzz is a great iOS/android app with interesting lessons and activities that might work with this population. So is APH's Math Robot, an iOS app. Once the students are able to handle technology, they will be able to handle books digitally. Hope that helps! Best, Ramya Ramya Karthikeyan Alternative Format Specialist UCLA Center for Accessible Education 310-825-1501 (CAE line) http://www.cae.ucla.edu/ ________________________________ From: athen-list on behalf of Deborah Armstrong via athen-list Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2025 11:17 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Question for Access technology instructors I work at a college serving academic students. But we have a community program called Hope for adults with developmental delays. Hope students do a variety of activities to help them become more employable. Many of them involve working on a computer. They read short articles about current events. They make movies. They play online educational games. They do basic drills in spelling and math. Most of the students are on the education level of a second or third grade child, but being adults, they of course have greater maturity. Recently the program has been getting more blind students and because the instructors don?t know anything about access technology, they don?t try to teach them how to use the computers, usually iPads and Macs. But what?s happening is that the blind students are sitting around while the sighted students are doing things on computers. I keep getting asked to produce Braille for the students, but the teachers don?t understand that not all blind people know Braille. One of the students does read fluently at a third grade reading level and I?ve been giving her children?s books like Henry Huggins and Magic treehouse. She is very articulate and clear about her needs. But I haven?t figured out what to do with the other blind students. It?s not really my job but I keep getting asked for Braille math drills, Braille news articles, Braille spelling exercises, and when I do supply some Braille, I?m told it was too difficult for them to read. Terms like Grade 1 and Grade 2 and UEB don?t make any sense to teachers who have never worked with the blind. Have any of you ever taught any access technology skills to adults who learn at a second or third grade level? Should I attempt to teach the instructors enough they can help their students use Macs or iPads, or do you think it won?t work because so much material intended for children that?s online will not be accessible, anyway? Ideally it would be great if we could find a way to integrate them better in to class, especially if it means less work for me. I?m not lazy but I don?t like working on a project that ultimately will fail. I?m not a TVI and I have no idea what?s involved working with either kids or adults with developmental delays. --Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 29 06:35:42 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Willard, Amy via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 29 06:35:48 2025 Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision Message-ID: Greetings, Any recommendations for microscopes for low vision? The microscope used in class is a Nikon YS2-T so I am looking at either some kind of attachments for this or an alternative if needed. I found this one recommended on a previous thread but it is unfortunately sold out. https://amscope.com/collections/microscopes/products/c-dm300hd Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 29 06:49:58 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Kamran Rasul via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 29 06:50:05 2025 Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Full HD 7" Digital Compound Microscope w/ Mechanical Stage, 4 Objectives, and 32GB MicroSD Card [cid:image001.png@01DC3126.67E34C60] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 9:36 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Greetings, Any recommendations for microscopes for low vision? The microscope used in class is a Nikon YS2-T so I am looking at either some kind of attachments for this or an alternative if needed. I found this one recommended on a previous thread but it is unfortunately sold out. https://amscope.com/collections/microscopes/products/c-dm300hd Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 29 07:09:41 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Willard, Amy via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 29 07:09:52 2025 Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thank you Kamran! I didn't realize that other distributors had this so I greatly appreciate it. Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all ________________________________ From: Kamran Rasul Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 8:49 AM To: Willard, Amy ; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: RE: Microscopes for Low Vision Full HD 7" Digital Compound Microscope w/ Mechanical Stage, 4 Objectives, and 32GB MicroSD Card [cid:image001.png@01DC3126.67E34C60] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list On Behalf Of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 9:36 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Greetings, Any recommendations for microscopes for low vision? The microscope used in class is a Nikon YS2-T so I am looking at either some kind of attachments for this or an alternative if needed. I found this one recommended on a previous thread but it is unfortunately sold out. https://amscope.com/collections/microscopes/products/c-dm300hd Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Mon Sep 29 07:20:21 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Kamran Rasul via athen-list) Date: Mon Sep 29 07:20:26 2025 Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: No problem! [cid:image001.png@01DC312A.A527F900] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: Willard, Amy Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 10:10 AM To: Kamran Rasul ; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: Re: Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Thank you Kamran! I didn't realize that other distributors had this so I greatly appreciate it. Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all ________________________________ From: Kamran Rasul > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 8:49 AM To: Willard, Amy >; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' > Subject: RE: Microscopes for Low Vision Full HD 7" Digital Compound Microscope w/ Mechanical Stage, 4 Objectives, and 32GB MicroSD Card [cid:image001.png@01DC312A.A527F900] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list > On Behalf Of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 9:36 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network > Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Greetings, Any recommendations for microscopes for low vision? The microscope used in class is a Nikon YS2-T so I am looking at either some kind of attachments for this or an alternative if needed. I found this one recommended on a previous thread but it is unfortunately sold out. https://amscope.com/collections/microscopes/products/c-dm300hd Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 30 10:45:33 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Deborah Armstrong via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 30 10:45:40 2025 Subject: [Athen] Perusal (long) Message-ID: I have a student new to blindness and screen readers who is using NVDA and struggling with Perusal, as I posted here before. Below is the long email I sent her this morning. Hopefully it can help someone else. The big problem I think is that the interface has so many different panels and keyboard users need to highlight text which JAWS blocks completely and NVDA allows only with its ?native selection? mode. Here?s my email to this student: Dear : I spent an hour experimenting with Perusal this morning. In summary: you can use it with a screen reader, but it?s a bit of a challenge. I can show you what I?ve figured out so far. I am in the office tomorrow and Friday. This page How to navigate Perusall with a keyboard and enable read-aloud ? Perusall Is a complete guide to using it with the keyboard, but below are the things you need to know to use it with NVDA. First in your browser, Chrome or Edge, you need to turn caret browsing on. The caret is a cursor, and by default browsers don?t use an editing cursor. Toggle it on or off with F7 (function key F7) and all screen readers will read the dialog that pops up. Now that the caret browsing mode is on, you can highlight text by holding the shift and using the arrow keys, just as if you were selecting text in a document. But there?s a bit of a snag with a screen reader, which has its own ability to select text and that?s on by default. With NVDA, you need to turn ?native selection? on with the NVDA key and Shift and F10, (Function key F10). So on your laptop, you?d hold the shift, the caps lock and the F10 keys. Once that?s done you can stay in NVDA?s Browse mode, find some text, and select it with the shift and arrow keys. That works really, really well. (It does not work in Focus mode; actually it does, but you cannot hear what you highlighted!) Anytime you highlight text, to comment on it you press Enter. You now are automatically moved to the comments pane of the site, and the screen reader will show you what text you are commenting on, which helps to know if you selected the right thing. There?s an edit box to type in your comment and it can be a bit tricky to find because there?s also an enormous toolbar for formatting, and the screen reader wants to read it. But you can press E which is single letter navigation to go to an edit box, press Enter, and you are now in Focus mode and able to type in your comment, tab to submit and submit it. That?s how you do it, but a few more tips are good to know. First, if you are in the comments pane, you can use heading level navigation to get to any other comments or the repetition of the text the comments there refer to. Heading navigation doesn?t work very well when you are looking through the text though you can jump to particular pages with the keyboard. Second, I found when I took a course using Perusal, that I waited for other folks to comment, and then I simply went to their comments and added my own. It was way easier than highlighting and adding annotations about something not yet highlighted. And it?s also real fun to see and comment on what others are saying; the whole point of annotating as a group rather than having to do it all on your own. Just be sure you say something new and not just parrot what others have said. When I wanted to do this, I selected the radio button for ?All comments? or ?all unread comments? and then they were all together for me to move through and respond to. Control-Shift-Y goes to the next one no matter what filter you selected with the radio buttons that let you pick the kinds of comments you want to appear. Holding control and Shift and H toggles between the document you are highlighting and the comments pane so you don?t have to try to find either of these using speech. Control Shift and A displays all comments so you don?t need to locate the radio buttons. Using the tab key can move between links but isn?t that useful; the interface has way too much stuff that?s not considered a link. Some of Perusal?s keystrokes do conflict with NVDA so if something doesn?t work, try it in focus mode, then return to browse mode to actually read. (In focus mode you only read what?s in the current control like an edit box, list box or some other form field which expects interaction.) If you need to remain in browse mode because you have to read the surrounding content, you can pass the next keystroke through with NVDA+F2. That is, hold the caps lock key and press function key 2, then press the Perusal keystroke. Perusal has a read out loud feature. This can be useful if you just want to hear everything but it doesn?t tell you where you are located in the text. And if the text is not accessible; that is, it?s an image and not actual text, the read out loud will render it as garbage. You can however open that panel to choose voices on your computer and also the rate, and you can also close that panel. I know this is all very complicated. Using a screen reader itself can consume an entire quarter?s training course. Now, here are the Perusal-supplied keystrokes that help you get around what for me is a verbally very, very cluttered interface. Note the person who wrote this list was using a Mac; on Windows use Control where the instructions read command. * ? - Toggle the cheat sheet * Esc - Close the cheat sheet when open * O then D - Open document * O then A - Open assignment * O then C - Open group or one-on-one chat * G then H - Go to Course Home * Left arrow - Navigate to previous page/section * Right arrow - Navigate to next page/section * ? + Shift + Y - Read next thread * ? + Shift + U - Read next unread thread * ? + Shift + C - Open current conversation panel * ? + Shift + A - Open all conversations panel * ? + Shift + S - Open starred conversations panel * ? + Shift + M - Open thumbnails panel * ? + Shift + O - Open table of contents panel * ? + F - Open search panel * ? + Shift + I - Open notifications panel * ? + Shift + K - Open bookmarks panel * ? + Shift + X - Open notes panel * ? + Shift + E - Open read-aloud panel * ? + Shift + H - Toggle focus between highlighted text and comment editor * ? + Shift + Z - Move focus to main content area ?Debee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 30 15:20:32 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Joshua Hori via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 30 15:20:37 2025 Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: You might be able to fit a digital camera over the microscope?s eye piece to display on a computer. I think these 2 should fit the eye piece. AmScope MD Series Digital Eyepiece Microscope Camera Swift 5.0 Megapixel Digital Camera Best, Joshua Hori Accessible Technology Coordinator Information Educational Technology Academic Technology Services 50 Hutchison Dr. Davis, CA 95616 530-752-2439 Schedule a meeting via Calendly From: athen-list on behalf of Kamran Rasul via athen-list Date: Monday, September 29, 2025 at 7:21?AM To: 'Willard, Amy' , 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: Re: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision No problem! [cid:image001.png@01DC312A.A527F900] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: Willard, Amy Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 10:10 AM To: Kamran Rasul ; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' Subject: Re: Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Thank you Kamran! I didn't realize that other distributors had this so I greatly appreciate it. Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all ________________________________ From: Kamran Rasul > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 8:49 AM To: Willard, Amy >; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' > Subject: RE: Microscopes for Low Vision Full HD 7" Digital Compound Microscope w/ Mechanical Stage, 4 Objectives, and 32GB MicroSD Card [cid:image001.png@01DC312A.A527F900] Kamran Rasul, MEd. Assistive Technology/Alternate Format Specialist (SDS) Phone: 410-516-1167 E-mail: krasul1@jhu.edu Garland Hall, 1st Floor, Office 135-G 3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 Schedule a meeting with Kamran From: athen-list > On Behalf Of Willard, Amy via athen-list Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 9:36 AM To: Access Technology Higher Education Network > Subject: [Athen] Microscopes for Low Vision External Email - Use Caution Greetings, Any recommendations for microscopes for low vision? The microscope used in class is a Nikon YS2-T so I am looking at either some kind of attachments for this or an alternative if needed. I found this one recommended on a previous thread but it is unfortunately sold out. https://amscope.com/collections/microscopes/products/c-dm300hd Thanks all, Amy Willard Accessible Technology Coordinator|ADA Compliance Metropolitan Community College Office: 816-604-1092 3200 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 amy.willard@mcckc.edu | www.mcckc.edu Preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities for all CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 16012 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From athen-list at u.washington.edu Tue Sep 30 16:58:56 2025 From: athen-list at u.washington.edu (Lissner, L. Scott via athen-list) Date: Tue Sep 30 16:59:05 2025 Subject: [Athen] Fw: DOJ Regulatory Update Adds Facilities and Digital Accessibility Rule Making to their Long-Term Action List. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I put this together for another group and thought I would share. ----- Last week (9/22/2025) the Department of Justice published its biannual update to the Regulatory and Deregulatory Agenda. Before discussing the three items focused on accessibility in the digital and build environments disability (listed below) I would to offer a caveat and a little context for those of you who may be new to following the regulatory process at this level. Under the best of circumstances crystal balls are always cloudy. The current administration?s reorganization makes reliance on historic patterns and norms even less reliable. My crystal ball is very murky these days; I have tried to strike a balance between Pollyanna and Eeyore but a large grain of salt may be called for. The Regulatory Agenda focuses on agency plans to have to publish an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or a Final Rule within the next 12 months. The Regulatory Agenda includes a Long-Term Action category where agencies can "?list those rules it expects will have the next regulatory action more than 12 months after publication of the agenda? Last week?s publication of the Code of Federal Regulations added 7 items to the forty-one previously on Justices Long-Term Actions list. Three of those focus on disability announcing an intent to publish a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on a date ?To Be Determined?. Over the past 6 administrations that would reliably place the shift to active rulemaking at least a year out. The first two items focus on the incorporation of facilities standards Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board into the ADA?s Titles II and III. Both are being carried out as a required decennial review to keep the regulations congruent with case law and changes in technology under the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Given that the Department of Energy is bogged down in dealing with over 20,000 comments on its effort to rescind new construction accessibility requirements for their grant it seems unlikely that the administration is ready to move quickly on this. Despite their administration?s ?less is more? approach to regulation that may be a reason these are on the Long-Term rather than Active status. That said, it is certainly something to watch. The third item focuses on the Title II digital accessibility rule. Again, the action date is ?To Be Determined. The purpose for adding it to the agenda is ?to reconsider whether some of the regulatory provisions imposed by the April 24, 2024 rule could be made less costly? As part of Title II this rule applies to State and Local governments, including public colleges and universities. It has been suggested that time frame for agency enforcement (4/2026) might motivate Justice to move quickly despite it being under Long-Term status. They might, but there is no practical advantage to listing this activity under Long-Term status as opposed to listing a target date under Active status. Given the history of this rule, it is likely to generate robust public comment; if they were seeking to make substantive changes will likely need most of the next 7 months to prepare, publish, and respond to public comment. Even if they were to focus on limited changes (pushing back the agency enforcement date and/or allowing accommodations to play a larger role on content/document access) Categorizing this as active would be more effective procedurally and for political messaging. I am feeling a bit more Eeyore than Pollyanna. For me, these updates to the Regulatory Agenda signal a need to be vigilant and prepared for movement by the administration to reduce digital and facilities accessibility requirements. It is too early to consider changes in policy and practice but not to early to recommit to institutional mission and values, to the spirit of the ADA as well as state law. There is cause for serious concern but not panic. Agency Agenda Stage of Rulemaking Title RIN DOJ/CRT Long-Term Actions Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services 1190-AA80 DOJ/CRT Long-Term Actions Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities 1190-AA81 DOJ/CRT Long-Term Actions Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities 1190-AA82 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: