As we have built Writable, making the program equitable to all students has been an intrinsic value within our team. We strive to not simply comply with accessibility standards but to build features and tools in the program that we see and hear are needed to best support students with a variety of needs, learning styles, and abilities.
Accessibility Features
- With 600+ assignments and prompts, there is a large library of curricular content within Writable. But to fit the needs of all learners you can also create your own assignment or treat any assignment in Writable as a customizable template. This means you can upload a PDF or copy and paste in your own readings, edit the rubric or replace it entirely with your custom district rubric, change out the prompt, directions, or scaffolds, record or upload instructional lessons or educational videos, and even edit the assignment to be in the language of your choice.
WCAG 2.0 AA Compliant
- These web content accessibility standards are important for making sure Writable is accessible to those with a range of learning differences, from low vision and hearing impairment to learning, cognitive, and speech limitations.
- For more than 10% of students in the United States, English is their second language. And of those students, close to 80% report Spanish being the primary language spoken at home (Pew Research Center). To best support these students, Writable navigation and menus can be viewed in Spanish.
- Not only can a student’s work be read aloud to them inside Writable, but students can have the prompts, readings, and directions read aloud to them as well. This feature is handy not only for students who may not yet have strong reading proficiency but for all students to gain the benefits during the revision process from hearing one’s writing read aloud.
Printable Readings
- This can be helpful for students who may prefer or need offline learning.
- Educators can record instructional lessons inside Writable assignments to connect virtually with students and reinforce directions, prompts, readings, and learning strategies. Any video can also be linked to a Writable assignment as an additional learning support. Coming soon, educators will be able to leave individual video feedback messages for students.
As a Google for Education partner, Writable seamlessly integrates with Google Classroom and Google Suite for Education (Docs, Sheets, and Drive). By using Google tools with Writable you can further extend accessibility features and functionality for students.
Writable + Google Docs
When you assign from Writable you have the option of sending the assignment directly to the Classroom stream and having students write in an embedded Google Doc. This simplifies a student’s experience because they will not have to log in to yet another program and will be using Docs, a program they are already familiar with. You also add additional accessibility built within Docs by enabling their use inside Writable. Here are some of the additional features Docs provides:
Screen Reader & Magnifier
- Under the “Tools” tab, select the “Accessibility Settings” options then choose screen reader and/or magnifier.
Voice Typing
- Under the “Tools” tab find “Voice Typing” then click the microphone icon to speak and watch text appear on in the Doc.
The Lexend Font Family
- This font was designed to improve the readability for beginning writers and readers.
Grammar & Spelling
- Under the “Tools” tab there are multiple options you can select for additional grammar and/or spelling suggestions and corrections.
Translate
- Under the “Tools” tab choose “Translate Document” then select the language of your choice.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Control, + to enlarge text
- Control, Shift, + to enlarge everything on the screen
- Ctrl + Alt + x to speak selection
- Ctrl + Alt + r to speak from cursor location
Writable + Chromebooks & Most Modern Devices
Chromebooks and most other modern computers offer a variety of additional supports and features that can also be used in conjunction with Writable. Here are some of our favorites, or watch this playlist of videos from Google for Education.
- Selects paragraphs to be read aloud to support EL students, students with reading difficulties, or students who may need pronunciation support.
- Enlarges the screen for visually impaired students.
- Highlights the mouse cursor, text caret, or keyboard focus to support students who need concentration support or with limited vision.
- ChromeVox reads aloud all text on the screen to support students with low vision, reading difficulties, or EL students.
- This allows for a connected Braille display to support low vision and blind students.
Building a program that best supports all students is a continual priority and we always appreciate feedback and suggestions. If you have any feature requests or ideas for how we can improve equity and accessibility within Writable, please let us know!
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