[Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

[Karlen Communications]

I agree with Robert!

 

I don’t advise using either the legacy ActiveX form controls or the new Content Controls to create Word forms. There are too many accessibility issues with using either.

 

Cheers, Karen

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 2:57 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

I would not recommend this approach as form fields are more difficult to deal with than simply writing in the answer where the hyphens and/or underscores are. Also, with form fields, if you decide to print the test for sighted users, the fields do not show unless they have information in them. Also, if you need to go to braille, it is easier with hyphens than with form fields. Plus, it is much easier to create the test with the hyphens than creating with forms.

 

 

Robert Lee Beach

Assistive Technology Specialist

Kansas City Kansas Community College

7250 State Avenue

Kansas City, KS  66112

Phone: 913-288-7671

Email:  <mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu> rbeach at kckcc.edu

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Samantha Johns
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 1:42 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

Hello,

 

You can include a labeled form field and do this using MS Word, here is a tutorial on adding these tools to MS Word <https://wiki.smartsimple.com/wiki/Adding_Form_Fields_to_a_MS_Word_Document> . 

 




Warm Regards, 

 

 

Samantha Johns, M.S.

(Pronouns: she, her, hers)

Accessible Media Coordinator

Office of Academic Innovation

 

Portland State University

1825 SW Broadway

Smith Memorial Student Union, Mezzanine 209
Portland OR 97201
(503) 725-2754

 



Caption Badge: Universal Design for learning 2016

 

“The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives. How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?”  ― Steve Krug

 

 

 

 

 

On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 11:25 AM Laura Hamrick <Laura.R.Hamrick at colorado.edu <mailto:Laura.R.Hamrick at colorado.edu> > wrote:

Thanks all - I’m glad this is getting discussed! I ran into this question recently and wasn’t sure what the best practice was.

 

I do have one question though. My understanding was that different screen readers have different default settings for whether they read out punctuation or not, including underscores and hyphens. My concern about relying on punctuation alone to indicate blanks was that if you don’t hear the underscores read out, then it might be very hard to find where the blank is in the sentence or you may not even realize there should be a blank.

 

Is it reasonable to assume that students who use screen readers will either have their settings configured so that underscores are read out or that they’ll be able to quickly make that adjustment once they realize it is a fill in the blank question and they don’t hear a blank? 

 

Thank you!

Laura

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > on behalf of Susan Kelmer <Susan.Kelmer at colorado.edu <mailto:Susan.Kelmer at colorado.edu> >
Reply-To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Date: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 9:58 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

I’ve always defaulted to the dashes as that was what I was taught.  It’s good to hear I wasn’t wrong. Haha!

 

-Susan

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 9:36 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

I’m not Susan and I don’t play one on TV either, but I am a screen reader user. I would not use the text, just the dashes as the screen reader announces it much better. Having to always hear (fill in the blank) for every question gets very annoying and can create cognative overload for some students. Plus, it doesn’t convert as well for students who do not use assistive technology.

 

 

 

Robert Lee Beach

Assistive Technology Specialist

Kansas City Kansas Community College

7250 State Avenue

Kansas City, KS  66112

Phone: 913-288-7671

Email: rbeach at kckcc.edu <mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu> 

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Christine Robinson
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 10:26 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

Hi Susan –

 

This morning a Spanish faculty member sent me a document with what appears to be a fill-in-the-blanks assignment, not a test or quiz:

 

Answer the following questions in Spanish orally and in writing:

1.Cúal es tu clase favorita ( what is your favorite class)?

Mi clase favorita es ____  __________________.

 

2.Quién es tu profesor favorito?  (Who is your favrite profesor?)

Mi profesor favorito es el profesor____________/la profesora ____________.

 

3.Cúal es tu especialización (what is your major)? 

Mi especialización es ______________.

 

4.Qúe clases tomas para (what clases you take for) tu especialización? 

Tomo (I take) ______________, ____________________ y _______________________.

 

5.Qué hay (What there is / there are) en tu clase? 

En mi clase hay una (a) ____________, un (a) ___________, unos (some) ___________, y unas (some)__________________. 

 

6.Qué edificios (what buildings) hay en el campus de GGC? 

En GGC hay una ____________, un ___________...

 

7.Qúe estudias (what you study) este semestre (this semester)?

Este semestre estudio (I study) ______________, ____________________ y _______________________.

 

8.Qúe clases tomas (what you take)? 

Tomo (I take) ______________, ____________________ y _______________________.

 

9. Como es tu horario semanal? (how is your weekly schedule?)

El lunes (on Monday) yo tengo (I have) arte a las once de la mañana (at 11 am)

 

So… she could replace each line with either - - - -, or [fill in the blank]?

 

Christine Robinson | Technical Trainer/Writer | Center for Teaching Excellence

Georgia Gwinnett College | 678-407-5193

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 11:13 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: Re: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

Christine, unless I have information from a student to say otherwise, I put in four dashes where there is a blank.  A screen reader user who also reads Braille recognizes this as a fill in the blank.  But you could make it more explicit and use brackets and “fill in the blank” to indicate that there is something to fill in, aka [fill in the blank].  A screen reader would likely want to turn on the punctuation so they would hear the brackets to give them warning that there is something outside of the normal text.

 

Generally, though, I only see these fill in the blank things on tests, and this is why blind students get extended time – because it takes longer to navigate through these things and be able to “see” the answers and fill in the space.  

 

Are faculty asking you for testing purposes, or for something else?

 

Susan Kelmer

Alternate Format Production Program Manager

Disability Services

University of Colorado Boulder

303-735-4836

 

 

 

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> > On Behalf Of Christine Robinson
Sent: Monday, January 7, 2019 8:40 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu <mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu> >
Subject: [Athen] Accessible "fill in the blank"

 

Hi all –

 

What’s the best way of providing “fill in the blank” space in a Word document? Faculty members are asking me how to do this in an accessible manner, for students using screen readers – and I’m “drawing a blank,” so to speak.

 

The traditional approaches have been 

1.      typing a line

For example:

Water molecules contain the elements ________ and _________.

 

2.      leaving blank space 

For example:

List the elements in a molecule of carbon:

 

With either traditional approach, if the document is filled out electronically, then the line or space is intended to be replaced with typewritten text. If the document is printed, then the line or space is written on by hand.

 

If the document were to be printed, then I would use paragraph spacing for my example in #2, so that there aren’t repeated blanks, but that wouldn’t be a good idea if students were going to answer the questions on their computers.

 

There are so many details to making electronic documents accessible! And I know it would be easier if faculty members put their content on web pages instead of in electronic documents, but that isn’t a change we can make in the near future.

 

Thanks for any help you can offer –

Chris

 

 

Christine Robinson | Technical Trainer/Writer | Center for Teaching Excellence

Georgia Gwinnett College | 1000 University Center Lane| Lawrenceville, GA 30043

 

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