Khalil Abdel Massih Academic Programs Manager Microsoft Middle East and Africa Making Technology Accessible for Everyone 1www.britishcouncil.ae

Microsoft’s Mission 2

Technology…. 3 …that’s accessible to anyone — regardless of age or ability… …that makes it easier for people to see, hear, and use devices… …and that personalizes experiences to meet unique needs and preferences.

Prepare Learners for Work and Life 4 Education System Change School Leadership Innovative Teaching Practices Individuals with skills for life and work today A need for Education Transformation: From Lifetime Employment to Lifetime Employability / Entrepreneurship Global Economic Change

5 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September 2013 Impacts in the classroom Personalized Learning and Accessibility Personalized learning shifts the focus from what is being taught to what is being learned—the student’s needs and style become central to the learning process. Accessibility in the classroom enables students of all abilities, special needs, and disabilities, to have the same educational opportunities. Personalize the Device for students to: Make it easier to see, hear, and use more comfortably Support learning style differences Assist special needs students Save teachers time and effort

Transformation Enablers 6 Vision Strategic Planning, Organizational Capacity and Sustainability Monitoring and Evaluation Inclusion and Accessibility Universal Access, and Environmental Impact Curriculum and Assessment Personalized Learning: Developing Global Learners Learning Communities and Technical Support Leadership and Educator Change Management Devices, Services, Spaces and Solutions Public Private Partnerships and Local Capacity Development

7 Leverage Megatrends in Industry Megatrends in education are changing ICT consumption & institution priorities Intelligent intervention Learning analytics Compliance Real-time education Mobile educators Mobile learners Student engagement E-Learning platforms Distant learning Devices: Tablets & Apps Skills development Personalized learning Learning anywhere, anytime IT capacity on demand Lower costs/efficiency Accountability/ROI I want to use my cool, fun devices and apps on the go securely… Mobility I like connecting and sharing interests with teachers, other students, friends and family… Social I want to easily search for and find any information on our systems… Big data I need to access and share my projects, pictures and music from anywhere… Cloud

And Align to our brain rules… Continuous Challenges Outdoors Changing environment In Motion

World Statistics 9 15% of the world’s population has identifiable special needs* * World Health Organization Report on Special needs, % of adults can benefit from accessible technologies.* * “The Market for Accessible Technology” conducted by Forrester Research, commissioned by Microsoft, 2004 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September 2013 "Assistive technology for people with special needs can also benefit the other 85% of the population that is ‘situational in special need ’ during some part of their day."* 85% * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With special needs”, September %

In Education 10 Every classroom has a student who can benefit from using accessibility Every classroom has a student who: Has a hard time seeing the board and can benefit from making the Device / PC easier to see. Finds concentrating difficult and can benefit from making the PC less cluttered. Experiences difficulty hearing the teacher speak and can benefit from making the PC easier to hear. Accessibility empowers all students with accessible technology that enables personalized learning.

In Education 11 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September Barriers to education for children with disabilities contribute to high rates of unemployment and poverty among adults with disabilities. 2.Accessible technologies are making it easier for all students— including those with vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity, language, and learning impairments—to gain equal access to education 3.Touch interfaces, word-prediction features, and speech recognition can help students who have dexterity challenges. Adjustable display settings and text-to-speech features can help those with low vision. Technology can also help students with social challenges by providing opportunities to communicate and collaborate with their peers in new ways.

Microsoft Advocacy 12 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September % 1.Ensure policies promote the use of accessible technology in education. 2.Incorporate accessible technologies in classrooms. This includes adopting procurement policies for technology in schools that reference international accessibility standards, allow for flexibility in design, 3.Ensure full use of existing accessibility features. Most mainstream technology tools that are used in allow for personalized settings that can help students access curricula and collaborate with peers. 4.Improve teacher training and support. Teachers need additional skills and knowledge to understand the value of accessible technology in the classroom. 5.Stay current with new technologies. To help make education more engaging and inclusive such as mobile learning touch screens, interactive user interfaces, and the use of game consoles for learning.

13 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September 2013 Accessibility Accessibility features Assistive technology Compatibility

14 * Gartner, “Market Trends: New Technologies Benefit Employees and People With Disabilities”, September 2013 Impairments affecting learning Vision Learning Mobility and dexterity Hearing and deafness Language and speech

15 85% Vision impairments Five ways to make a Devide easier for students to see How-to article Includes Low vision Colorblindness Blindness Accessibility features in Windows and Office Magnifier Make text larger Screen resolution High Contrast Narrator (blind) Audio descriptions Keyboard shortcuts Reading pane in Word Assistive technology Screen magnifiers Screen readers Braille printers, displays, and note takers Book readers

Learning style differences and impairments Includes Dyslexia Attention deficit disorders Learning style differences Learning a new language Developmental delays Accessibility features in Windows and Office Eliminate distraction - make it easier to focus and concentrate Spelling and grammar checks OneNote for staying organized, researching, audio notes AutoComplete (word prediction) Speech Recognition Assistive technology Word prediction – ClaroRead, TextHelp Read & Write Reading comprehension (Universal Reader) Six ways to adjust the Device to make it easier for students to concentrate How-to article

Mobility and dexterity impairments Includes Dexterity impairments – hand, wrist, and arm pain, fine motor control Gross motor impairments (Cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries) Accessibility features in Windows and Office Mouse settings – pointer size, speed, button configuration Keyboard settings – Mouse Keys, Sticky Keys, Filter Keys On-Screen Keyboard Keyboard shortcuts Speech Recognition Windows Touch Assistive technology Ergonomic keyboards and mouse alternatives – joystick, trackball mouse Keyboard filters Alternative input – sip and puff, head mouse Four ways to help a student control the mouse How-to article

Hearing impairments Includes Hearing loss and hard-of-hearing Deafness Accessibility features in Windows Volume Computer sounds Text and visual alternatives for sounds – such as captions Assistive technology Personal listening device Headphones Sign language translator Four ways to make a Device easier for students to hear How-to article

Language/speech impairments Includes Delayed speech or inability to speak Inability to comprehend words Accessibility features in Windows Narrator Windows Touch Assistive technology Augmentative communication devices Speech synthesizers Touchscreens with audio Five ways Microsoft OneNote can help students with dyslexia stay organized How-to article

Identifying who needs assistive technology Personalization Day / Time Special Needs Identified Needs Assessment Assistive Technology Selected All students personalize Devices to make them easier to see, hear, and use with Personalization and Ease of Access Center A few students will be identified by teachers as having special needs that might benefit from a needs assessment Accessibility consultant to conduct assessment and make recommendations

Assessing School Readiness Do special needs teachers know who to go to for computer accessibility support for their students with special needs? Microsoft offers resources at Does your school technology plan include accessibility? Considerations for IT Technicians

Assessing School Readiness Helping Teachers Do your teachers know how to help students with mild special needs adjust their PCs to make them easier to see, hear, and use? »Microsoft has tutorials that can help.tutorials Do teachers, IT technicians, and students have information about accessibility for the software they are using? »Microsoft has accessibility information for schools at Do students and staff have the opportunity to personalize their PCs to make them easier to see, hear, and use? »Consider a Personalization Day / Time to let students personalize their PCs and save their settings in unique profiles.

Good practice in schools Create an accessibility team Assign accessibility responsibilities to interested teachers, special needs teachers, and an IT professional for technical issues. Ensure all teachers know who to go to if they notice a student who needs to make the PC / device easier to see, hear, and use. Microsoft’s Accessibility: A Guide for EducatorsAccessibility: A Guide for Educators Identify an assistive technology expert in your community to help with assistive technology assessments for students with disabilities.assistive technology expertassistive technology

Considerations for IT technicians Ensure Devices / PCs are deployed so Ease of Access Center and Personalization are available to students. Consider allowing individuals to create a user account (rather than generic accounts) so their accessibility and personalization settings are saved and available when they log in with their user profile.create a user account Set up Devices / PCs with working speakers, volume controls, and headsets for student who have hearing impairments. headsets Have a selection of ergonomic, comfort keyboard and mice available for students with dexterity impairments.ergonomic, comfort keyboard and mice Identify an assistive technology expert in your area to help with assistive technology assessments for students with disabilities.assistive technology expert assistive technology

Scenario: Student who has a visual impairment and is colorblind Accessibility solutions: Try a High Contrast color scheme in Windows to make the PC easier to seeHigh Contrast color scheme Make text larger Try MagnifierMagnifier Run the Office 2013 Accessibility Checker on Word files sent to AlexOffice 2013 Accessibility Checker Student scenario: Alex has a visual impairment and is colorblind. He needs to have what he is reading on the computer enlarged or magnified, and he needs to rely on text, rather than color, for information.

Scenario: Student who is hard-of- hearing Student scenario: Christina is hard-of- hearing so she needs to be able to adjust the volume on her computer. She uses headphones to block out background noise and increases the volume without disrupting other learners in the classroom. She also may need to watch parts of videos more than once to make sure she doesn’t miss anything that is being said. Accessibility solutions: Computer volume Change computer sounds Text and visual alternatives for sounds – such as captionsText and visual alternatives for sounds Headsets

Scenario: Student who has Muscle fatigue and wrist pain Student scenario: Sam has dexterity difficulties, including muscle fatigue. He needs to be able to limit the amount of keyboard work he does. Sam benefits from using Windows Speech Recognition to dictate large amounts of text for reports and uses an ergonomic Microsoft Comfort keyboard and mouse. Accessibility solutions: Windows Speech Recognition Microsoft Comfort keyboard and mouse

28www.britishcouncil.ae Technology has the potential to become our sixth sense. Personalized experiences. that adapt to the world around us, and enable more natural interaction.

29www.britishcouncil.ae In Flexible Learning environments that cater for Special needs

30 Embedding 21st Century Skills Ways of Living in the World Citizenship – Local and Global Real-World Problem Solving Personal and Social responsibility Tools for Working Information and Communication literacy Information and Communication Systems Ways of Thinking Creativity and Innovation Critical Thinking, Problem-solving, Decision-making Self Learning - Learning to Learn Ways of Working Effective Communication Collaboration Knowledge Construction Self Regulation Based on ITL Research

Remember… 1.Every classroom has a student who can benefit from accessibility 2.Accessibility features in Technologies and how to use Personalization Ease of Access Center 3.Where to find accessibility info for teachers

Al Amal School for Hard-of-Hearing The Voice

33 Total of 64 Students 27 Faculty members Year 7 & 8 1:1 initiative Other years 1:many initiative Delivering feedback to students remotely, Introducing different kind of assessment Communication Teacher-Parents Teacher-Students Teachers developing content in Sign language And organizing resources feedba ck Challenges: overview

Simple technologies with big Impact 34 Easily add sign language video Screen recording Students to be able to revisit the content any time

Assign Class note for each class Organize all contents in one place for easy access Use the inking feature for demonstrating or marking work Up level the feedback delivered by the teachers. Add a personalized Video Feedback linked to a note, by both teacher or students Enhance the communication between Teacher-student and Teacher-Parent

Movie Maker Teachers can easily add a caption, subtitle to any videos with a free downloadable software

37www.britishcouncil.ae People-centric design changes how we work, play, and live.

Let’s think differently. Let’s think people-centric design. 38