Overview
Today we rely on our digital world for education, business, and leisure. The ever-changing digital landscape necessitates skills be learned and retained quickly, and for some accessing the digital world is even more challenging. Students with visual impairments face a constant uphill battle every time they access this digital world. In this presentation we will explore methods and strategies to help TVIs and their students better understand digital accessibility, build critical skills for checking the accessibility of content, and gain knowledge to better self-advocate. Strategies to improve recovery of skills related to accessibility of digital content will also be shared.
Learning Objectives
- Describe two principles that make digital content accessible, which includes defining accessibility (a11y) and the WCAG Standards.
- Identify two methods that students with visual impairment can leverage to determine if digital content is accessible regardless of the service delivery model being remote, in-person, or hybrid.
- Describe two strategies that mitigated student loss of AT skills and/or improved recovery of AT skills in relation to accessibility of digital content
Primary & Secondary Strand
Vision & Hearing Technologies
Target Audience
- AT Specialists
- Educators
- Paraprofessionals
- Special Education Educators
- Speech-Language Pathologists
- Teachers of the Visually Impaired
- Visual Impairment Specialists
Experience Level
Introductory
Primary Life Cycle Addressed
Elementary - Secondary (K-12)
Session Delivery Format
In-person presentation with recording
Course Schedule
This course was given at the ATIA 2022 Conference on Friday, Jan 28: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (EST)
Continuing Education Credits
For Satisfactory Completion and Continuing Education information, please visit: ATIA Learning Center CEUs
This course is offered for the following CE Provider Credits:
ACVREP; AOTA; IACET
For: 0.10 CEU Units or 1.0 CEU Hours.
This course was approved by CRCC for CRC CEUs and was included in the ATIA 2022 Virtual Event series. The ATIA 2022 Virtual Event CRC series offering was available from January 25, 2022 through January 24, 2023.
Speaker/s:
Andrea Bilello, M.Ed., CATIS
Perkins School for the Blind, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments, CATIS
Biography
Andrea Bilello is a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and CATIS. She has a Master’s degree in Special Education from UMaine, Orono and Vision Studies from UMASS Boston. With 17 years of experiences in education, Andrea enjoys teaching students who are blind and visually impaired and providing instruction in assistive technology. Andrea receives a salary from Perkins School for the Blind, where she is an itinerant Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and CATIS for Community
Relevant Financial Relationship: Yes
Andrea Bilello is a itinerant Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and CATIS at Perkins School for the Blind who providers her annual salary.
Relevant Non-Financial Relationship: No
Andrew Crook
CVS Health, Accessibility Engineer
Biography
Andrew Crook is an Accessibility Software Engineer with a passion for accessibility, and its positive impact on technology; enabling individuals to have opportunities such as education, employment, independence, and a general quality of life that would previously have been out of reach. His has an associate’s degree from Keene State College and the General Assembly Software Engineering Immersive program. He has a unique perspective of accessibility with regards to its relationship with technology due to having a degenerative retinal condition which has resulted in a slow but continuous loss of vision.
Andrew receives a salary from CVS Health and is not representing CVS in any capacity at this conference. Andrew is donating his time and expertise at will and is not receiving any compensation for this presentation.
Relevant Financial Relationship: Yes
I receive a salary from CVS Health as an Accessibility Engineer. CVS is not compensating me for this time and my views and statement made in this presentation are my own and not representative of CVS Health .
Relevant Non-Financial Relationship: Yes
I have a unique perspective of accessibility with regards to its relationship with technology due to having a degenerative retinal condition which has resulted in a slow but continuous loss of vision.
Rebecca Weber
Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Teacher
Biography
Rebecca (Becca) Weber is a recent graduate of Kutztown University where she received a Bachelor's Degree as a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments, Birth to 21. She will be starting as a technology teacher at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia this fall. She is proficient with a variety of assistive technology devices and software, including JAWS and NVDA for Windows, Voiceover for Mac, iPhone and iPad, and braille notetakers and displays. In her free time, she enjoys learning more about assistive technology and improving her skillset.
Rebecca received will be receiving a salary from Overbook School for the Blind.
Relevant Financial Relationship: Yes
Rebecca Weber receives a salary from Overbrook School for the Blind as an assistive technology teacher.
Relevant Non-Financial Relationship: Yes
Rebecca Weber is a member of the national Federation of the blind and serves as the vice president of the Pennsylvania Association of blind students. She does not receive any compensation.