Accessibility Settings That May Help Students Navigate and Type
Additional settings that I would try with students would be the Large Mouse Cursor if students seem to lose where they are or have trouble locating the mouse. Along the same lines you can use the Highlight Text Caret to help students locate where they are typing, and also the Highlight Mouse Cursor.
It may be beneficial for teachers also to turn on the Highlight Mouse Cursor if they are demonstrating on their TVs how to do an activity.
Typing With Your Voice (Google Docs)
In Google Docs you can simply select Tools > Voice Typing or You can also press Ctrl+Shift+S in Windows or Command+Shift+S in macOS.
Here are some other useful commands to get you started being more productive and making the most out of Voice Typing:
Selecting text: Select [word, phrase, all, next line, next paragraph, next word, last word]”
Format your document: Apply Heading [1-6], apply normal text, Bold, italicize, italics, underline
Change font size: Decrease font size, increase font size, font size [6-400], make bigger, make smaller
Edit your document: Copy, cut, paste, delete [word or phrase], insert [table of contents, bookmark, equation, footer, header, page break]
Move around your document: Go to start/end of [line, paragraph, column, row, document], move to next/previous [character, word, page, column, heading, line, misspelling, paragraph, row]
Speech To Text Dictation
Sometimes Read & Write Google does not work with certain programs or websites that our students use. HMH, for example, has a built-in screen reader that is pretty intuitive but it does not have a dictation option and R&WGoogle doesn't work 100% of the time. The directions to the right will turn on the built-in dictation tool on Chromebooks.
I believe this is an important tool for students to get used to and know how to toggle on and off because once they leave an environment where accessibility tools are purchased and provided many of our students will still rely on these tools in their day to day jobs and life.
Select To Speak
Just like I mentioned above Read & Write Google may not always work with the program we are trying to use so always having a back-up is a great idea. This will also work with any student, not just those with R&W.
