#7 Adaptive Tech and Web Design

          Adaptive technologies are very important for the modern classroom.  As we progress through time we are gradually becoming more and more supportive and accommodating of those with disabilities.  This began with the American Disabilities Act which made it illegal to discriminate based on disabilities and required accommodations be made for those that do live with these disabilities.

          As heard in the podcast, there are many students that will require alternate input or output devices.  For input, they may use text to type instead of having to work a keyboard or a trackball instead of a mouse.  They may also make more use of touch screens or have various different types of keyboards such as expanded, customizable, or mini keyboards as seen on pages 74 and 75.  For output, the student may need a software that speaks the text to them if they are unable to see.  The student may also need to make use of screen magnification software and screen readers as seen on page 76.

          I have had very little experience with adaptive tech, however, I spent a semester working with special needs students as a teacher's aid during my junior year of high school.  During that semester, I was able to see students work with touchscreen keyboards as well as a lot of text-to-talk and talk-to-text keyboards.  Seeing them use these was quite fascinating as it was able to help them communicate what they wanted to get done, much more efficiently.


          From working with Weebly, I learned far more than I expected too.  At first, I did not expect to learn much as I was very well versed in using Wix.  However, I soon realized that the two software were very different as Weebly focuses more on drag and drop technology.  While it was initially frustrating to learn something new, I soon grew to love the software far more than Wix.  I found myself having fun creating a new website and I did not want to stop adding different aspects to it.  I love how user-friendly it is once one is able to get the hang of it.  The only complaint that I had was how long it took me to figure everything out on my own.

          Learning about how to make a website is incredibly helpful for my future career.  As I have mentioned in previous blogs, the teachers that I enjoyed the most were those that showed that they cared the most.  I find that the most outward way to show this is by having a well-designed website that makes it easy for the class to understand what is going on and retrieve information easily.  If there is something that I could do better, it would be having the text easier to read on backgrounds.  I would have liked to be able to give my text that is over pictures borders, but I was unable to figure out how.  Even with this, I am still very proud of what I created.

One can find my website by clicking on the picture below.