Accessibility workshop for teachers now available

“As a special education teacher, I am constantly on the hunt for technology and tools that give students with disabilities an environment that is personalised, differentiated and yet as close to their peers’ experience as possible… With Windows 10 and Office 365, I have been able to find and use many of the accommodations that I have been looking for making consumption of materials, content creation, collaboration and organisation possible for students using the same technology and tools as their peers.” – Robin Lowell, Special Education, Science and Mathematics teacher

Microsoft’s mission is to empower all people and all organisations to achieve more. Our goal for students with special needs is no different. Microsoft Windows and Office 365, together with further assistive technologies developed by others, offer tools that make technology easier to use. These tools help teachers to deliver personalised instruction and give students a more robust learning experience and greater equity in school.

Windows 10 now has built-in accessibility features right out of the box that help you do more. Whether your students need assistance with vision, hearing, physical strength or even cognition, there are many tools built right in to Windows 10 to help improve their learning experience at school. Windows 10 makes their device easier to see or use without a screen, easier to hear or utilise visual alternatives to sound, compensate for limited reach or strength and help students to focus on learning tasks by reducing unnecessary distractions.

Office 365 has many tools and features that help students with special learning needs to better consume, create, collaborate, and organise their content. Learning Tools and Read Mode support students in their reading, decoding and comprehension right across Office 365. When creating content, OneNote, Researcher, Editor and Accessibility Checker all support students with special needs to produce better results. To better foster collaboration, tools like the Accessibility Checker and Skype Translator reduce factors that might otherwise exclude students from documents, making them more accessible. Finally, the power of OneNote combined with Office Lens on your smartphone and OneDrive make it easier for students with special needs to organise their learning.

Our Microsoft Learning Consultants now offer workshops around Australia that demonstrate these accessibility features within Microsoft tools. We show teachers how to access and apply these tools to support their students and improve the learning experience.

Contact your local Microsoft Learning Consultant for more details.

• Accessibility
• Office365