Web Accessibility

When I read about Web Accessibility this week, it really opened my eyes to something that I had not really thought about before. I have been an Adaptive Swim Instructor for many years, and I have worked with many individuals with various disabilities. I thought I had a good understanding of opening my eyes to barriers but it did not cross my mind that the internet would be a place that was not already fully accessible. You can access so many amazing tools through the internet that reduce and remove barriers globally. So often I feel like we rely on technology to reduce barriers around accessibility. For example one young girl I used to nanny spoke through an IPad like device as she was non verbal. Tech for her was crucial for her communication. After reading about Web Accessibility, I’m understanding that I need to treat the web as separate from tech in this regard, and that there are lots of things I will make sure to do in future posts to make my blogs fully accessible. I learned how to add “img alt text” through UVic’s Web Accessibility page. Now all of my pictures and videos uploaded to my blog will have full descriptions available for someone visually impaired.

Another great tip from that site was to ensure your test is left-justified, making it easier to read. On Kim Ashbourne’s Research Hub blog, I learned about this cool Chrome Extension called Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader. This can be really useful for every user. Kim talks about how when her eyes are tired, she uses this extension to still read but give her eyes a break. It also highlights the word as it is read, so language learners and students with reading challenges can follow along with the audio. I then read about another blog from UVic called Remote Teaching Resources that describes how to make Accessible Content for Online Learners, which is so crucial right now as everyone has shifted to at least partial online content for teaching. They have a ton of resources to best support your students and make your teaching more accessible. There will always be more to learn on this subject as the internet and learners change and evolve, but as educators it’s our job to keep up!

Privacy and Safety

I want to focus specifically on Privacy and Safety from Jesse Miller’s talk. Privacy and safety are two huge buzzwords when talking about anything from politics to personal lives, but especially as teachers for ourselves and our students. I find that the more I learn about privacy and safety on the internet, the more paranoid I get, leading me to triple check my security settings, but it is so much more. As teachers, we lead quite public lives and need to be so careful about our online presence. High school students in particular are rather proficient at googling their teachers. We learned in the beginning of EDCI 336 to make sure we had high privacy settings for anything we wanted private, and to be the epitome of professional in the public sphere.

Through reading the BC Cloud Computing Guidelines, I was reminded of some important things to take into consideration when using internet and apps in the classroom. Remembering to research the company before you start using it, how the company makes money, where their headquarters are and where the data is stored are crucial before making a decision on which service to use. The EU has quite stringent privacy laws, making them a safer option that somewhere like the USA if that is where the headquarters or data is stored, as those companies are more likely to be honest and held accountable. As a teacher, we are responsible for our students if we are encouraging or asking them to use a certain app or software that we have done our due diligence and protect them. There are some really cool resources for teachers and parents by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that give lesson plans, tips and tricks, and conversations to have with youth about privacy and safety online. I definitely have a lot to learn about protecting myself and my future students, but just like accessibility, these are super important skills that I will continue to learn and implement.