Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Helpful Extensions for Chrome, General tips for a HS student with low vision (self.Blind)
submitted by TooManyBalloooons
Hi everyone!
I have a child in 8th grade entering high school next year. He is visually impaired/legally blind and despite having an IEP in place, we struggle to get him to access content like his peers. He can read font at about 48pt size and does not use/read Braille. The school he attends uses Chromebooks and Google Apps for just about everything. Our frustration with accessing just about everything educationally speaking has grown very high.
One obstacle we encounter frequently is zoomed in text that doesn't wrap, resulting in a lot of horizontal scrolling. Do you know of any extensions or tools that can help us minimize this experience, or take text from one source and put it in another easily? I am imagining how if I read an article on my narrow phone, the words wrap differently than if I access it on my 32" monitor.
Are there any other tips you have for getting through school when dealing with teachers who neglect to consider accessibility? I do follow up and remind them of his IEP but it isn't always successful or helpful.
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Edit: Thank you SO much for all the helpful tips and information. We will definitely be trying out a lot of the new suggestions and keep working on self-advocacy. I appreciate it so much!
I have a child in 8th grade entering high school next year. He is visually impaired/legally blind and despite having an IEP in place, we struggle to get him to access content like his peers. He can read font at about 48pt size and does not use/read Braille. The school he attends uses Chromebooks and Google Apps for just about everything. Our frustration with accessing just about everything educationally speaking has grown very high.
One obstacle we encounter frequently is zoomed in text that doesn't wrap, resulting in a lot of horizontal scrolling. Do you know of any extensions or tools that can help us minimize this experience, or take text from one source and put it in another easily? I am imagining how if I read an article on my narrow phone, the words wrap differently than if I access it on my 32" monitor.
Are there any other tips you have for getting through school when dealing with teachers who neglect to consider accessibility? I do follow up and remind them of his IEP but it isn't always successful or helpful.
​
Edit: Thank you SO much for all the helpful tips and information. We will definitely be trying out a lot of the new suggestions and keep working on self-advocacy. I appreciate it so much!
GTbuddha 3 points 1y ago
Have you contacted your state services for the blind? They will be good to be connected to for the future anyway.
MusicLover035 3 points 1y ago
Could you potentially ask your vision department to purchase a different kind of laptop? I know I got a windows laptop because Chromebooks weren't the best for me, but I also used JAWS instead of zoom.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I will talk to his TVI about that!
ForceR-1356 3 points 1y ago
What about the computers accessibility features? Particularly the one where half to 3/4 o the screen is magnified while the remaining portion stays regularly displayed.
Not sure what state you are in, but in my state there are agencies that can provide tech like Fusion to navigate school or send a teacher focused on being a buffer between class teacher and what your child needs to succeed.
Not sure what state you are in, but in my state there are agencies that can provide tech like Fusion to navigate school or send a teacher focused on being a buffer between class teacher and what your child needs to succeed.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you! We do have access to a Teacher for the Visually Impaired and he has a parapro who attends class with him. Regardless -- it's the regular classroom teachers who keep giving him things to complete that are difficult and/or exhausting to complete. The solution that seems to be used most often is just "make everything really big" with no other modifications so we are trying to work past that!
thebrightworker 3 points 1y ago
I know a thing that works with firefox, but i can't for the life of me find an alternative that works for google chrome or edge browser.
but in firefox I can do ALT+V and then press "Y" then "N" keys.
Which is a shortcut for the menu:
View->Page Style->No Style.
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If you can find an extention that removes the page style, aka the CSS, then that'll be good - but i tried just now and couldn't find one that worked.
but in firefox I can do ALT+V and then press "Y" then "N" keys.
Which is a shortcut for the menu:
View->Page Style->No Style.
​
If you can find an extention that removes the page style, aka the CSS, then that'll be good - but i tried just now and couldn't find one that worked.
DHamlinMusic 3 points 1y ago
Think Edge has a setting for this built in, under reading mode possibly, but not sure.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you! His school computer is a chromebook, so he is "locked in" to Chrome for now, but I will look into these features on my desktop and talk to his vision teacher to see about getting him a different type of laptop.
BlindManOnFire 3 points 1y ago
When I have trouble zooming in and encounter the horizontal scroll I'll copy and paste the entire text into a page that wraps no matter the font size. You can even paste it in Notepad if you use Windows, but I prefer putting it somewhere online because Notepad doesn't have a dark mode option.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 2 points 1y ago
That's a great idea -- I will see about getting him set up for something (like I use Evernote!) that has dark mode and wrapping.
TechnicalPragmatist 2 points 1y ago
Have you taken a look at chromevox it’s chromes built in screen reader which doesn’t have a too bad little teaching tutorial how to use it either. Learn to use screen readers? And text to speech software. I like chromevox actually but think windows does better then a chromebook. I own one and do really like chromevox and think google has done a great job with it. It’ll make it much more accessible.
Also learn to use assistive tech well that’s the other key. Can you get training on using assistive tech and get him to learn to use it.
Also learning to advocate for himself will be paramount and interveneing in the moment to tell teachers at the time and to problem solve and to really get the teachers attention at the time the problem occurs. Also quick thinking skills and problem solving is also very useful. But knowing what assistive tech is out there is useful too. Also learn to write to the devs of the program and telling them it’s not accessible if all methods of screen reading is tried. But learning assistive tech is really important here.
Also learn to use assistive tech well that’s the other key. Can you get training on using assistive tech and get him to learn to use it.
Also learning to advocate for himself will be paramount and interveneing in the moment to tell teachers at the time and to problem solve and to really get the teachers attention at the time the problem occurs. Also quick thinking skills and problem solving is also very useful. But knowing what assistive tech is out there is useful too. Also learn to write to the devs of the program and telling them it’s not accessible if all methods of screen reading is tried. But learning assistive tech is really important here.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you so much. We are working on self advocacy a lot. He is a very compliant kid who doesn't like to "make waves," so he tends to try and do what he is asked even if it's hard for him. I appreciate all the feedback on the different types of tech and we will keep checking out different ones until we find combos that work for him :)
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
No problem I am a techy so if you want any help with that let me know I like helping people find solutions to this type of thing.
Also that’s interesting yeah, self advocacy is hard sometimes but it can be done for sure. Just some training and work is definitely needed.
Also that’s interesting yeah, self advocacy is hard sometimes but it can be done for sure. Just some training and work is definitely needed.
Shadowwynd 1 points 1y ago
I like the free ReadAloud extension for Chrome. You select text, click the ReadAloud icon (looks like a megaphone), and it opens the text in a separate window, high contrast large font and reads the selected text aloud while highlighting.
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I also like AlphaText:
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It lets you set line spacing, font, colors, etc. with a click.
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I also like AlphaText:
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It lets you set line spacing, font, colors, etc. with a click.
TooManyBalloooons [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thank you! We have ReadAloud and it's great for long stuff. AlphaText looks great -- I hadn't heard of it yet and it looks like it might be a really good tool to add!!
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