News You Can Use

There is a lot to celebrate in the month of October. AIM-VA has books in accessible formats to support many of these special celebrations in October.

There are many special weeks and/or days to celebrate in the month of September. AIM-VA has books in accessible formats to support many of the topics.

Creating annotations is important for readers who want to take notes while they are reading. Taking notes of important items to remember will make it easier to review the document for main ideas or important details. It’s also a way to note where there are questions that need to be answered. Creating annotations helps students become involved and engaged with the text. It may help students focus on the important content in the text.

In an earlier blog, increasing font size to help with readability on a screen was discussed. Similarly, this month we will talk about changing the background color to improve the readability of a document.

This school year, we have discussed various common features that may make reading electronic documents more accessible.

This month let’s talk about changing the rate of reading speed in documents.

Happy New Year!

Let’s start the new year by looking at one of the important tools for students using screen readers or who have visual impairments, ‘alt text’ for visual data such as images, drawings, or other graphics.

TTS refers to tools that are designed to change digital text to speech and allows that digital text to be read aloud. Providing text to speech allows students to have access to grade level materials and listening to the text allows them to broaden their vocabulary as well as gain new information.

Last month, the uses of the high-lighting feature were discussed in this blog.

This month let’s look at font size
and its impact on reading.

Last year, the beginning-of-the-month blog focused on different reading programs educators could use with their students to support reading AIM-VA digital files. In 2022-2023, the focus will be on common electronic reading features that students can use to enhance their reading experience. The first one we will discuss is the HIGHTLIGHTING feature available when reading digital text.

Summer is a great time for teachers to challenge themselves to learn some additional tools and explore options to support how to read that will help them when students return to school.