[Athen] ReadSpeaker Building Block for Blackboard

[Ron Stewart]

>From a general usability perspective it is a good tool for those who benefit

from audio reinforcement, perhaps even some disabilities. For the majority
of folks who have sensory disabilities and more serious processing
disabilities it really does not do a lot.  With the campuses I work with,
several who have implemented this tech or similar tech like Browse-Aloud the
most significant problem is the lack of understanding that tools like this
do very little to insure the accessibility of your webspace. 

 

They are not a replacement for actually insuring that your site is fully
accessible with commonly used assistive technologies, and in fact can be
detrimental to the process since they give a false sense of security about
the sites accessibility.

 

Ron Stewart

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Chaves, Derek
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 8:57 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] ReadSpeaker Building Block for Blackboard

 

We have implemented readspeaker on moodle and  wordpress. It is great tool
to increase the cognitive accessibility of an LMS. I think a better
implementation would be with hardcode instead of using the block. We feel
the best place for the plugin is as the last element in the header so the
location is standardized through the entire LMS.  Our moodle implementation
has ben taken down for the time being but you can see our wordpress version
on our site http://neindex.org. Let me know if I can be of any further
assistance.

 

Sincerely,

 

Derek Chaves

Director of Technology

UMass Medical School

E. K. Shriver Center

INDEX

55 Lake Avenue North, S3-WS9

Worcester, MA  01655

Ph:  774-455-4003

 <mailto:Derek.Chaves at umassmed.edu> Derek.Chaves at umassmed.edu

 

 

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Prickett, Elizabeth
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 5:15 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu; altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu
Subject: [Athen] ReadSpeaker Building Block for Blackboard

 

Good afternoon!

 

A representative from ReadSpeaker (http://www.readspeaker.com/) contacted
our Distance Education Director about offering a building block for
Blackboard. I've seen ReadSpeaker used with Cengage's MindTap application.
Our students who are in developmental and student success courses are able
to access their ebooks this way when they would like to hear them read out
loud.

 

We're wondering if this building block is worth investigating. Has anyone
implemented this with your LMS already?

 

Thanks for your feedback!

 

 

Liz Prickett

Alternative Media Specialist

Center for Academic & Professional Excellence (CAPE)

Victoria College

2200 E. Red River Street

Victoria, TX 77901

Elizabeth.Prickett at VictoriaCollege.edu

(361) 573-3291, ext. 3243

 

 

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