Repost: Class Notes and Accessibility

Original Post September 2020
One of the things I like to do for story review is to have students brainstorm what they remember. In the past, I've taken notes on the board and taken a picture of them to put online to share. However, this is not a way to provide full access to vision students who read braille or use audio devices. So, I decided to try and find a way to take the notes in a way that was easy for me, but to provide it for students in multiple formats (multiple means of representation in UDL speak). ​

Class Stats

I did this today with a Latin I class. We were reviewing the first half of a story before reading the second half. I ask students to give me notes of what they remembered, in any order, each period. I added them all to the same document and made the notes available to all classes. ​

Tools Used

1. Notability App for iPad
2. Apple Pencil (ish, it's off brand)
3. Google Docs
4. Zamzar converter
5. Apple Bluetooth keyboard (ish, it's also off brand)

How We Made it Work

Right now I am teaching in person and digitally, so I needed a way to see all my students AND take these notes. So, I pulled out my iPad and wrote notes while they spoke and typed at me. I used the Notability app which I've talked about before when discussing annotated stories. I love this app for taking notes professionally and creating resources for students, but I still don't know everything about it. For example, today I learned that I can take my handwriting on the app and quickly convert it to digital type (which can be read by an text to voice system). 

After I had all the notes written, I used the Notability app to convert them into typed text. It wasn't perfect and there were a few mistakes, but I quickly fixed those using a keyboard. I then uploaded the document as a PDF. Zamzar was able to take that PDF and turn it into a word doc. I then removed all formatting (making it more accessible to a braille Note). ​

Original Notes

Typed Notes

As you can see, my handwriting is fun. I use a mix of cursive and print and I colour code things. I don't solely provide one or the other and often use a mix of my own handwriting and digital type. I see value in both (aka, this isn't the place to get into an argument over cursive vs. typing skills). 

I am so glad I learned how to do this today and will definitely be employing it in the future as well!