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When I started teaching myself how to use VoiceOver, I often got very frustrated at how much of a challenge it seemed to be. There were moments where I fantasized about throwing my iPad out the window because I couldn’t figure it out, and I consider myself to be very tech-savvy. It wasn’t until I sat down and talked to some of my blind friends that I finally learned how to use it, and now I feel confident with using VoiceOver whenever I am having a bad vision day or find certain material hard to read. Today, I will be sharing how to use VoiceOver for Beginners, with limited technology skills required.

How exciting for our Virginia students that are headed back to school for a fun and successful 2018-19 school year. Students come to school with a variety of abilities. Educators are preparing learning environments to meet individual student needs. Meeting student’s individual needs can often be challenging. Consider these options when creating your accessible classroom.

The more relaxed schedule of summertime is the perfect time to nurture those habits of reading for enjoyment and establishing lifelong good habits. Summer reading helps win the battle of the summer slide which frequently affects students with print disabilities. Reading for enjoyment is often not first on the list of fun activities for our students who struggle with literacy. They choose the easy route to avoid reading. As educators, we realize there are many benefits to reading, but how do we make sure our students have the opportunity to make the choice to read?

William Shakespeare is a world renowned author of plays and poems that continue to influence readers today. It is believed that he was born on April 23rd. Many countries around the world use this day to celebrate and remember Mr. Shakespeare as one who continues to give to the literary world. He wrote stories of history, adventure, love, comedy, tragedy, and even fairytales. His use of language contains a variety of sentence structures, varied sentence lengths and use of metaphors; each, reading and writing features that our students learn and practice today in school.

As children grow and develop, stories are a magical part of a child’s life, building imagination and curiosity while teaching about the surrounding world. Reading provides opportunities for children to engage in discussions and build language skills.

Virginia Educators are committed to transforming the educational experiences for students— where learning opportunities to innovate, create, and pursue passions become the norm rather than the exception. What possibilities await your classroom in 2018?

Digital text or text on screen provides opportunities for students with disAbilities to be more efficient, productive, and independent in the classroom. Using text on screen can assist these individuals with many daily life activities. See what students are saying about text on screen.

AIM-VA has a library of over 10,000 accessible instructional materials including a wide variety of accessible formats of favorite reading books. As educators who become Digital Rights Managers (DRMs) order materials for students, these materials are housed in AIM-VA’s digital library, ready for others to quickly order and download for their qualifying students.

One popular book series with is Here’s Hank by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver.

The use of digital materials and technology in the classroom allows students to practice these 21st century skills in the educational setting daily; building independence and preparing them for a career in the future. Incorporating digital materials and technology for learning provides opportunities for students with diverse learning styles and abilities to contribute to group activities in the inclusion classroom. These tech tools adjustably scaffold reading and writing tasks for struggling learners. Students with a disability are able to rise to a higher level of learning, becoming active learners in a group setting and building confidence and skills that are needed beyond the classroom.

One of the central beliefs of the AIM-VA project is that accessible instructional materials should be provided to the students that need them in a timely manner; that all reasonable steps are taken in order to allow students with disabilities to receive accessible formats at the same time as other students receive instructional materials at school. To that end, AIM-VA has developed multiple systems to ensure that you, as a DRM, can prepare for the next school-year before this current school-year ends. Whether you’re a TVI requesting braille conversion and need a large amount of lead time, an elementary reading specialist that wants to convert an entire years’ worth of “short readers”, or you are just an educator looking to get a head start to ease the welcome-back workload; use the following tips to help yourself prepare for the 2017-2018 school-year.