Exploring MS Accessibility

Ensuring that learning is accessible for all students is critical. Join me as I share some of Microsoft's accessibility features.

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Microsoft has made every effort to blend Learning Tools, such as Immersive Reader, into every aspect of Office 365.

Remote Teaching and Learning in Office 365 Education Resources are available.

In the flyer below, you can see where it appears.


Immersive Reader

“THE ONE ARGUMENT FOR ACCESSIBILITY THAT DOESN’T GET MADE NEARLY OFTEN ENOUGH IS HOW EXTRAORDINARILY BETTER IT MAKES SOME PEOPLE’S LIVES. HOW MANY OPPORTUNITIES DO WE HAVE TO DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES JUST BY DOING OUR JOB A LITTLE BETTER?”

― STEVE KRUG

Immersive Reader

  1. All free, Office 365 apps (including Microsoft Forms!)

  2. Dyslexia

  3. Buncee

  4. Flipgrid

  5. Nearpod

  6. ThingLink

  7. Wakelet

And many other spaces, such as:


OfficeLens_ImmersiveReader_iOS.mp4

Immersive Reader In Your Browser

Get the Unofficial Immersive Reader Chrome Extension

Thanks to Joe Marquez for sharing this. Check out his video to the right, as well as his Wakelet on favorite Chrome extensions.


Microsoft Forms & Immersive Reader

Interactive Classroom Guides

In the Classroom

Some ideas from Jennifer Gonzalez:

  • Upload any PDF into OneNote (or use OneNote Class Notebook to share handouts or notes with the whole class). Once the text is in OneNote, students can use the Immersive Reader to dial in the precise reading conditions that work best for them.

  • Have students compose their own writing pieces in Microsoft Word or OneNote, then use the Read Aloud feature to listen to what they wrote. In the 2017 study, students who used this feature demonstrated noticeable improvements in their writing: With the ability to hear their writing read aloud at any stage of the writing process, students showed more motivation to revise and edit their writing than in previous years.

  • If you use the Microsoft Edge browser, you can send students to any web page and they can have the text read aloud to them or switch to distraction-free reading view, where they can enlarge the font for easier reading, highlight the text, and even take notes that can be saved for later. Edge can also be used to read any PDF or ePub file: When you right-click on these files in Windows 10, just scroll down to “Open with” and choose Edge.