Blog+Accessibility+for+Dyslexic+Students


 * Making Classroom Blogs more Accessible for Students with Dyslexia **
 * Courtney Stine**

Teachers are beginning to use Web resources more and more in everyday teaching practices. This shift is giving students opportunities to work and collaborate with their peers in new and exciting ways and providing them with useful skills that will help them in future career paths. For some students, though, using certain Web applications makes learning more difficult simply because of the page layout or design. I am thinking specifically of students who deal with dyslexia, which is one of the most prevalent learning difficulties faced by students (Vassallo, 2003). There are certain things teachers can look for in a Web application that can help these students be just as successful as those without this challenge.

One Web resource that is gaining popularity in the classroom is the use of blogs. Teachers are creating blogs to keep students and parents informed of classroom activities, procedures, guidelines, expectations, assignments and projects, and a variety of other class content. This is great tool, but teachers need to keep certain things in mind when creating the blog to make it more accessible to their dyslexic students. First of all, teachers should choose a blog site that allows the user to change text size. This can make a big difference for those students who have trouble processing print. Another thing to keep in mind when writing the blog is that text should be broken up into small blocks with adequate spacing. Pictures and graphics can help in this process as well. Teachers can tend to get wordy when it comes to descriptions or instructions which can be a great barrier to students with dyslexia. Once you have crafted your blog entry, try reading it aloud to see if it makes sense to you. Better yet, use a program like [|vozME], Natural Reader, or ReadPlease and have the text read back to you. It is much easier to determine the clarity of the text if you are listening to it yourself. Finally, students with dyslexia may have trouble posting a comment to the blog entry if a CAPTCHA image is required. If this is used, make sure the student has an alternate way to respond or someone to help read the image. Blogging is a great resource for the classroom, and students with dyslexia can reap the same benefits as all students with these very simple modifications.

Vassallo, Sandra. Enabling the Internet for people with dyslexia. May 2003. Retrieved October, 5 2010, from [].
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