Khalil Abdel MassihAcademic Programs ManagerMicrosoft Middle East and Africa

Making Technology Accessible for Everyone

1www.britishcouncil.ae

Microsoft’s Mission

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Technology….

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…that’s

accessible to anyone—

regardless of age

or ability…

…that makes it

easier for peopleto see, hear, and use devices…

…and that

personalizes experiences to meet unique

needs and preferences.

Prepare Learners for Work and Life

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A need for Education Transformation: From Lifetime Employment to Lifetime Employability / Entrepreneurship

Global Econom

ic Change

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Impacts in the classroomPersonalized Learning and Accessibility

• Personalized learning shifts the focus from what is being taught to what is being learned—the student’s needs and style become central to the learning process.

• Accessibility in the classroom enables students of all abilities, special needs, and disabilities, to have the same educational opportunities.

Personalize the Device for students to:

• Make it easier to see, hear, and use more comfortably• Support learning style differences• Assist special needs students• Save teachers time and effort

Transformation Enablers

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• Vision• Strategic Planning, Organizational

Capacity and Sustainability• Monitoring and Evaluation• Inclusion and Accessibility• Universal Access, and Environmental

Impact• Curriculum and Assessment• Personalized Learning: Developing

Global Learners• Learning Communities and Technical

Support• Leadership and Educator Change

Management• Devices, Services, Spaces and

Solutions• Public Private Partnerships and Local

Capacity Development

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Intelligent intervention

Learning analytics

Compliance

Real-time education

Mobile educators

Mobile learners

Student engagement

E-Learning platforms

Distant learning

Devices: Tablets & Apps

Skills development

Personalized learning

Learning anywhere, anytime

IT capacity on demand

Lower costs/efficiency

Accountability/ROII want to use my cool, fun devices and apps on the go securely…

I like connecting and sharing interests with teachers, other students, friends and family…

Social

I want to easily search for and find any information on our systems…

I need to access and share my projects, pictures and music from anywhere…

And Align to our brain rules…

• Continuous Challenges• Outdoors• Changing environment• In Motion

World Statistics

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15% of the world’s population has

identifiable special needs** World Health Organization Report on Special needs, 2012

57%of adults can benefit from

accessible technologies.** “The Market for Accessible Technology” conducted by Forrester Research, commissioned by Microsoft, 2004

"Assistive technology for people with special needs can

also benefit the other 85% of the population that is

‘situational in special need ’ during some part of their

day."*

85%

* Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With special needs”, September 2013

85%

In Education

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Every classroom has a student who can benefit from using accessibility

Every classroom has a student who:

• Has a hard time seeing the board and can benefit from making the

Device / PC easier to see.• Finds concentrating difficult and can benefit from making the PC

less cluttered.• Experiences difficulty hearing the teacher speak and can benefit

from making the PC easier to hear.

Accessibility empowers all students with accessible technology that

enables personalized learning.

In Education

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1. Barriers to education for children with disabilities contribute to high rates of unemployment and poverty among adults with disabilities.

2. Accessible technologies are making it easier for all students—including those with vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity, language, and learning impairments—to gain equal access to education

3. Touch interfaces, word-prediction features, and speech recognition can help students who have dexterity challenges. Adjustable display settings and text-to-speech features can help those with low vision. Technology can also help students with social challenges by providing opportunities to communicate and collaborate with their peers in new ways.

Microsoft Advocacy

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85% 1. Ensure policies promote the use of accessible technology in education.

2. Incorporate accessible technologies in classrooms. This includes adopting procurement policies for technology in schools that reference international accessibility standards, allow for flexibility in design,

3. Ensure full use of existing accessibility features. Most mainstream technology tools that are used in allow for personalized settings that can help students access curricula and collaborate with peers.

4. Improve teacher training and support. Teachers need additional skills and knowledge to understand the value of accessible technology in the classroom.

5. Stay current with new technologies. To help make education more engaging and inclusive such as mobile learning touch screens, interactive user interfaces, and the use of game consoles for learning.

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Accessibility

Compatibility

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Impairments affecting learning

• Vision• Learning • Mobility and dexterity• Hearing and deafness• Language and speech

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85% Vision impairments

Five ways to make a Devide easier for students to see

How-to articleHow-to article

IncludesLow visionColorblindnessBlindness

Accessibility features in Windows and OfficeMagnifierMake text largerScreen resolutionHigh ContrastNarrator (blind)Audio descriptionsKeyboard shortcutsReading pane in Word

Assistive technologyScreen magnifiersScreen readersBraille printers, displays, and note takersBook readers

www.microsoft.com/enable

Learning style differences and impairmentsIncludes• Dyslexia• Attention deficit disorders• Learning style differences• Learning a new language• Developmental delays

Accessibility features in Windows and Office• Eliminate distraction - make it easier to focus

and concentrate• Spelling and grammar checks• OneNote for staying organized, researching,

audio notes• AutoComplete (word prediction)• Speech Recognition

Assistive technology• Word prediction – ClaroRead, TextHelp Read & Write• Reading comprehension (Universal Reader)

Six ways to adjust the Device to make it easier for students to concentrate How-to articleHow-to article

www.microsoft.com/enable

Mobility and dexterity impairments

Includes• Dexterity impairments – hand, wrist, and arm pain,

fine motor control• Gross motor impairments (Cerebral palsy,

multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries)

Accessibility features in Windows and Office• Mouse settings – pointer size, speed, button

configuration• Keyboard settings – Mouse Keys, Sticky Keys, Filter Keys• On-Screen Keyboard• Keyboard shortcuts• Speech Recognition• Windows Touch

Assistive technology• Ergonomic keyboards and mouse alternatives –

joystick, trackball mouse• Keyboard filters• Alternative input – sip and puff, head mouse

Four ways to help a student control the mouse

How-to articleHow-to article

www.microsoft.com/enable

Hearing impairmentsIncludes• Hearing loss and hard-of-hearing• Deafness

Accessibility features in Windows• Volume• Computer sounds• Text and visual alternatives

for sounds – such as captions

Assistive technology• Personal listening device• Headphones• Sign language translator

Four ways to make a Device easier for students to hear

How-to articleHow-to article

www.microsoft.com/enable

Language/speech impairments

Includes• Delayed speech or inability to

speak• Inability to comprehend words

Accessibility features in Windows• Narrator• Windows Touch

Assistive technology• Augmentative

communication devices• Speech synthesizers• Touchscreens with audio

Five ways Microsoft OneNote can help students with dyslexia stay organized

How-to articleHow-to article

www.microsoft.com/enable

Identifying who needs assistive technology

All students personalize Devices to make them easier to see, hear, and use with Personalization and Ease of Access Center

A few students will be identified by teachers as having special needs that might benefit from a needs assessment

Accessibility consultant to conduct assessment and make recommendations

Assessing School Readiness

Do special needs teachers know who to go to for computer accessibility support for their students with special needs?

• Microsoft offers resources at www.microsoft.com/education/

Does your school technology plan include accessibility?

• Considerations for IT Technicians

Assessing School ReadinessHelping Teachers• Do your teachers know how to help students with mild special

needs adjust their PCs to make them easier to see, hear, and use? » Microsoft has tutorials that can help.

• Do teachers, IT technicians, and students have information about accessibility for the software they are using? » Microsoft has accessibility information for schools at

www.microsoft.com/education/enable/. • Do students and staff have the opportunity to personalize their

PCs to make them easier to see, hear, and use?» Consider a Personalization Day / Time to let students personalize

their PCs and save their settings in unique profiles.

Good practice in schools

Create an accessibility team• Assign accessibility responsibilities to interested teachers, special

needs teachers, and an IT professional for technical issues.

• Ensure all teachers know who to go to if they notice a student who needs to make the PC / device easier to see, hear, and use.

• Microsoft’s Accessibility: A Guide for Educators

• Identify an assistive technology expert in your community to help with assistive technology assessments for students with disabilities.

Considerations for IT technicians • Ensure Devices / PCs are deployed so Ease of Access Center and

Personalization are available to students.

• Consider allowing individuals to create a user account (rather than generic accounts) so their accessibility and personalization settings are saved and available when they log in with their user profile.

• Set up Devices / PCs with working speakers, volume controls, and headsets for student who have hearing impairments.

• Have a selection of ergonomic, comfort keyboard and mice available for students with dexterity impairments.

• Identify an assistive technology expert in your area to help with assistive technology assessments for students with disabilities.

Scenario: Student who has a visual impairment and is colorblind

Accessibility solutions: • Try a High Contrast color scheme in Windows to make

the PC easier to see• Make text larger• Try Magnifier• Run the Office 2013 Accessibility Checker on Word files

sent to Alex

Student scenario: Alex has a visual impairment and is colorblind. He needs to have what he is reading on the computer enlarged or magnified, and he needs to rely on text, rather than color, for information.

Scenario: Student who is hard-of-hearing

Student scenario: Christina is hard-of-hearing so she needs to be able to adjust the volume on her computer. She uses headphones to block out background noise and increases the volume without disrupting other learners in the classroom. She also may need to watch parts of videos more than once to make sure she doesn’t miss anything that is being said.Accessibility solutions: • Computer volume• Change computer sounds• Text and visual alternatives for sounds – such as

captions• Headsets

Scenario: Student who has Muscle fatigue and wrist pain

Student scenario: Sam has dexterity difficulties, including muscle fatigue. He needs to be able to limit the amount of keyboard work he does. Sam benefits from using Windows Speech Recognition to dictate large amounts of text for reports and uses an ergonomic Microsoft Comfort keyboard and mouse.

Accessibility solutions: • Windows Speech Recognition• Microsoft Comfort keyboard and mouse

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Technology has the potential to become

our sixth sense.

Personalized

experiences.that adapt to the

world around us,

and enable more

natural interaction.

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In Flexible Learning environments that cater for

Special needs

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Embedding 21st Century Skills

Ways of Living in the World

•Citizenship – Local and Global•Real-World Problem Solving•Personal and Social responsibility

Tools for Working

•Information and Communication literacy•Information and Communication Systems

Ways of Thinking•Creativity and Innovation•Critical Thinking, Problem-solving, Decision-making•Self Learning - Learning to Learn

Ways of Working•Effective Communication•Collaboration•Knowledge Construction•Self Regulation

Based on ITL Research www.itlresearch.com

Remember…

1. Every classroom has a student who can benefit from accessibility

2. Accessibility features in Technologies and how to use • Personalization• Ease of Access Center

3. Where to find accessibility info for teachers• www.microsoft.com/enable/

Al Amal School for Hard-of-Hearing

The Voice

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Total of 64 Students

27 Faculty members

Year 7 & 81:1 initiative

Other years1:many initiative

Delivering feedback to students remotely, Introducing different kind of assessment

CommunicationTeacher-ParentsTeacher-Students

Teachers developing content

in Sign language And organizing

resources

feedback

Challenges:

overview

Simple technologies with big Impact

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• Easily add sign language video• Screen recording • Students to be able to revisit the content

any time

• Assign Class note for each class

• Organize all contents in one place for easy access

• Use the inking feature for demonstrating or marking work

• Up level the feedback delivered by the teachers.

• Add a personalized Video Feedback linked to a note, by both teacher or students

• Enhance the communication between Teacher-student and Teacher-Parent

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Movie Maker

• Teachers can easily add a caption, subtitle to any videos with a free downloadable software

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People-centric design changes how we work, play, and live.

www.microsoft.com/enablewww.microsoft.com/enable

Let’s think differently.

Let’s think people-centric design.

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