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IMPORTANT: This feature enables support for screen readers to be used with EdReady. While it enables certain features that help screen readers to work with EdReady content this setting will remove from view any learning tools that are not compatible with screen readers, including videos. This feature can be turned on and off at will. You may wish to try both ways, or toggle the feature on and off depending on your needs at any given time. Be sure to log out and back in after making changes to this setting. |
Steps To Enable Screen Reader Support
From your EdReady Goals Dashboard, hover on your name at the top right of the screen to reveal the dropdown menu.
Select the first option, "My Account", as shown in the screenshot below.
On the My Account screen, look for the text at the bottom of the Account Information section that says "Show Additional Options" and click on it to reveal several checkboxes:
Select the checkbox for "Use EdReady with a screen reader" to enable the option:
Here, you can use the dropdown menu to select your preferred screen reader: ChromeVox (aka Screen Reader for Chrome) JAWS, NVDA, Voice Over, Other, or I don't know.
If you use a screen reader that is not listed, choose Other or I don't know. You can also experiment with the other available options, as some may work better or worse as technologies evolve over time.
Additional Options
You can select any of the four additional options using your spacebar key:
- Use EdReady with a Screen reader (required in most cases) will highlight focus indicators on each page, making it easier to navigate the site. Once this setting is enabled, the student experience will focus only on the questions (in all test activities: diagnostic, unit tests, and topic tests) and learning materials that are fully accessible with a screen reader. This functionality will work seamlessly in the background.
- Enable keyboard focus wherever possible enables you to navigate through the interactive elements on the page and provides a sighted user with a visual indicator of the current element.
- Enable contrast controls will present you with contrast options for the display of EdReady. These options help people with low contrast sensitivity and color blindness set the optimal display for readability. However, some students notice that it obscures parts of questions that they need to see in order to answer correctly, so it may be undesirable in some parts of the system.
- Enable table of contents for all pages will give you an overview of the screen’s contents and organization at the top of the screen. It will also allow you to more quickly navigate to a specific section of the screen.
Select “Save changes” before navigating away.
Next, you must log out and log back in to ensure that EdReady will only load accessible resources.
IMPORTANT: You must click Save Changes AND log out of EdReady, then log back in to fully enable screen reader support.
Screen Reader Recommendations
EdReady has been designed for compatibility with most screen readers.
We formerly recommended and provided documentation for ChromeVox by Google, but that extension is now in maintenance mode as Chromebooks have their own screen reader and Google has opted to defer to the bigger names in screen reader technology.
JAWS, while widely used, is also the least standardized screen-reader, so you may encounter situations that need special handling with JAWS compared to a more standardized reader like NVDA.
If you choose to try ChromeVox (now known simply as Screen Reader in the Chrome web store), this configuration is what we use as our testing standard for EdReady. Once installed, the following ChromeVox configuration works best (note that selecting the “Google US English” voice is critical):
- Enable verbose descriptions: checked
- Place cursor between characters when editing text: checked
- Use the mouse to change focus: unchecked
- Enhance specific sites: checked
- Display an item's context before other information: unchecked
- Voices: select "Google US English"
- Keyboard shortcuts: select "Flat keymap"
Below is a screenshot of those options.
You can then customize the keyboard shortcuts to meet your needs. Refer to Google Chromevox documentation if you have questions.
Getting Help
We want to work closely with you to ensure your success with EdReady. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions or find something is not working as you expect it to. You can contact us using the Help button on any screen.
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