PSBMA.ORG
​Educational Technology and Library Department
  • Home
  • Student Tools
  • Library
  • Keyboarding
  • Canvas
  • G Suite
  • Assessment
  • About ETL

Assistive Technology

Macintosh OS 
From System Preferences, choose Accessibility to control the following:
  • Display - inverts colors or use grayscale
  • VoiceOver - enables text to be read aloud 
  • Zoom - magnifies portions of the screen

To dictate text directly into a text box, from System Preferences, choose Dictation & Speech and click On.

iOS
To activate VoiceOver
  1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General and then Accessibility.
  3. Under Vision at the very top, tap on VoiceOver.
  4. Turn On VoiceOver by tapping on the On/Off toggle.
  5. You can scroll down with three fingers to view VoiceOver options and customize your experience.
To use VoiceOver
  • Single tap anywhere on the screen and your iPhone or iPad will speak aloud the item that you're tapping on.
  • Double tap on an item to select it.
  • To scroll through a page, use three fingers. With VoiceOver off you typically use only one finger to scroll, in VoiceOver, you'll need to use three so your iPhone or iPad doesn't misread a tap as a scroll.
  • To toggle speech commands on and off from the Lock Screen, double tap with three fingers.
  • A two finger double tap while performing an action will start or stop that action. For example, if you're on a phone call, double tapping the screen with two fingers will end the call. If you're in the Camera app, double tap with two fingers to take a photo.


To use Speak Selection
  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General and then Accessibility.
  3. Under the Vision section, tap on Speak Selection.
  4. Turn On the toggle to enable Speak Selection.
  5. Optionally you can also control the speech rate and turn on and off word highlighting on this screen.
  6. Press and hold on text and select what you'd like Speak Selection to read to you.
  7. Tap on Speak in the popup menu.


To enable Zoom
  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on General and then Accessibility.
  3. Under the Vision section, tap on Zoom.
  4. Turn the Zoom option On.

To use Zoom
  • Double tap with three fingers anywhere on the screen to enable and disable zoom. You can do this from pretty much anywhere.
  • Drag three fingers around the screen to pan around and move to another area of the screen.
  • Use one or two fingers to scroll in the particular section that is on the screen.


Licenses required by approval of the Special Education Department
Learning Ally
Bookshare
Read Naturally Live
Lexia 
ST Math
ChromeBooks
  1. Sign in to your Chromebook.
    • If you're using your Chromebook for the first time, select Accessibility from the Welcome screen when you first turn it on.
  2. Click the status area, where your account picture appears.
  3. Select Settings.
  4. Click Show advanced settings at the bottom of the page.
  5. In the "Accessibility" section, select the boxes next to:
    • Make the cursor bigger (so it's more visible on the screen)
    • Turn on high contrast mode (makes the screen easier to read)
    • Turn on spoken feedback (describes what is happening on the screen)
    • Turn on sticky keys (allows shortcut keys to be typed in sequence, without pressing modifier keys at the same time)
    • Turn on the screen magnifier (enlarges items on the screen)
    • Automatically click when the cursor stops (click without using your mouse)
    • Turn on the on-screen keyboard (shows a keyboard that can be clicked with a mouse)
After you've turn on accessibility features, you can adjust them from your keyboard:
  • To turn spoken feedback on or off, press Ctrl + Alt + Z.
  • To magnify the screen, press Ctrl + Alt + Brightness up or Brightness down (or use Ctrl + Alt + two fingers scrolling up or down on the trackpad). To pan the view around, move your cursor past the edge of the screen.
The mission of the Public Schools of Brookline Educational Technology and Libraries Department
is to collaborate proactively with staff and students to deepen and extend learning opportunities.