Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

Texthelp Blog - Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

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Most employers want to build a fair, inclusive and accessible organisation. Not only is it good business sense, but it’s important for attracting and retaining talent. However, many companies still exclude current and prospective employees through poor communication.

Whether you're addressing neurodiverse staff – with dyslexia, ADHD, Aspergers, etc – or supporting those with low literacy levels, improving accessibility through language should be a constant priority. 

Complex language is a common barrier to communicating efficiently with teams. This is something companies need to consider as early as the recruitment stage. Job specs are often long, complex and overwhelming – even for those who are not neurodiverse or struggle with literacy.

However, for those that do have these challenges, the job details are a barrier they can’t overcome. These individuals may in fact meet the criteria for the role and be an ideal fit for the team. However, they could be discounted because they don't respond like other candidates. It’s here that the business needs to review its job descriptions, level the playing field and give every prospective employee an opportunity to showcase their skills.

Making the job description less complex is just one part of making your recruitment process more accessible. Often, the requirements set at the application stage don’t reflect the demands of the role itself. Certain skills that appear in the job spec may not actually be necessary.

For example, it’s very common to see ‘excellent written skills’ as an essential on a job application. However, with the growing use of digital tools to aid writing, this skill isn’t always vital. It may also put people with a neurodiversity such as dyslexia at a disadvantage. We know that around one in 7 people in the UK are neurodiverse, so that’s a large section of potential employees to exclude.

As a result, on top of simplifying the application process, HR leaders must also consider the competencies that are genuinely needed and remove those that are there out of habit. 

To ensure you are meeting the needs of all employees and candidates in this area, it is also worth getting involved in the Department of Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. By progressing through the different stages of the scheme, companies can not only improve their internal processes but also improve employer branding. It is a great way to reassure candidates with extra challenges and encourage their application. 

Making your internal company content simple to understand should not be just about supporting people with learning difficulties, or those that are neurodiverse. With the average UK reading age at nine years old, there are many employees who will struggle to understand complex information.

Complicated language, distracting visual layouts and even multiple fonts will affect the average employee as well as those with neurodiversities such as dyslexia.

These factors need to be considered when putting together internal documents, or content for company intranet pages. Going further, it needs to be something that managers are aware of. Senior members of the team should be trained on how they communicate, the need to avoid jargon and the emphasis on simplicity. 

This will improve output as managers improve the way they brief colleagues. For example, if the company is involved in an acquisition, it is crucial that every employee fully understands what this means for their role and the businesses. Keeping things simple will make sure everyone gets the message.

Changing internal business processes is vital, but no organisation is an island. External documents, reports and even emails can be challenging for employees  with a neurodiversity, low literacy or those with English as a second language. 

It’s here that you need to provide tools or software to help your employees consume information and communicate with ease. These tools can’t be exclusive to a particular group of employees. Those who experience accessibility issues may be slow to raise problems with their managers or HR. To make sure no one is left out, support tools need to be available to all employees at every level.

Even with these processes in place, your company should aspire to build a more inclusive and accessible workplace. We should all be striving to create spaces for talented people that welcomes all.

The post-pandemic office is almost certainly going to involve some level of remote or blended working. While flexible and hybrid working is great for staff and makes the workplace more accessible to those with physical disabilities, we shouldn't neglect those with disabilities or conditions that can’t be seen.

Employees can feel isolated working remotely or having less physical interaction with colleagues and for some, the lack of a routine can be difficult to deal with. 

Whether they are in the office or not, it’s vital that you support your staff and communicate well. Without physical interaction, some employees may miss out on nuances in a conversation, tone and even just basic understanding.

Even if they are in the office, staff will most likely be communicating with colleagues who are still working from home. As such, it’s important that you empower employees to produce communications with confidence and quality.

Making internal and external content easy to understand by everyone will ensure that no matter where staff are based, they are on the same page. If you get this right, you’ll make sure you reach all types of employees – regardless of age or background. 

Going further, consider establishing working groups or regular meetings with a cross-section of your workforce to confirm where challenges lie.

This way, even if the business changes how it operates or its work style, you can be prepared to adapt. Communication is at the foundation of any efforts to provide a welcoming workplace.

It needs to be built into the heart of your company. Starting right from the recruitment stage and factoring into any change in the organisation, clear communication and improved accessibility needs to be a priority. 

Building a fair, inclusive and accessible organisation begins with communication.

Speaking plainly: inclusivity and accessibility starts with the written word

This article was originally published in HR Magazine on 23rd June 2021. 

My son, Thomas, is in the 2nd grade. Most of his reading assessments come back as being "on grade level." However, some of his writing assessments fall just below the line of what is deemed "on grade level." 

To my surprise, Thomas brought home a paper from school a couple of weeks ago advertising a writing club at school, and he wanted to join. As part of that writing club, the kids are given a writing challenge each week to be turned in on Friday. 

Last week, students were asked to write a story and Thomas didn't want to do it. He put it off all week until Thursday night, when he told me, "I just know it's going to take me forever to write a whole story." 

The following image shows the writing work that Thomas produced in school. You can see that he is working hard to get his spacing correct, and his letters of an even size, rather than thinking about the content. Automaticity is something we take for granted as adults, it means the ability to do something without conscious thought - much like how you are reading this blog without thinking about the mechanics of reading - so you can focus on the content. It takes time and practice to develop this skill, but there are tools and techniques that can help-- more on that later. 

This is Thomas’ response to an in-class writing assignment the same week he wrote Pepper the Easter Dalmatian. Joni notes that Thomas does not yet have automaticity in handwriting, which impacts his ability to fully focus on content. He concentrates more on the mechanics of his writing (printing legibly, letter size & placement). 

Enter Read&Write! Thomas created his short story for the writing club using Talk&Type, Prediction, and the Check It proofreading tool.  The goal of the assignment did not include a hand- writing component, which gave Thomas freedom to craft his story using these tools.  This assignment also allowed his teachers to see what Thomas is truly capable of writing! The writing assignment instructions asked Thomas to make sure his story had a beginning, middle and end.   

Thomas wrote the short story below using Read&Write’s Talk&Type, Word Prediction and Check It (a proofreading tool). He also used the Read Aloud tools (Play-Pause-Stop) to listen to his story a few times to make sure it made sense and had those three key pieces. 

I was thrilled.  This is a TON of output for a 2nd grader! The best part...he did it all in under an hour and was SO proud of himself. Thomas said, "I bet NO ONE wrote as much as I did! Bam!”

This assignment allowed Thomas and me to talk more about “composing” and how experienced writers work, especially when they have so much in their head that a pencil or keyboard just can’t keep up.  

Here’s the key takeaway for me.  I realized Thomas had this story inside and how, without the right tools…

“We might never have seen what he is really capable of writing.”  

This assignment helped Thomas realize he has the tools, confidence and enthusiasm needed to fully engage when asked to write independently! 

So if you are interested in helping your students, or perhaps your own child, develop automaticity, what can you do?

Manage expectations
As adults we have to understand that what is easy for us can be challenging for a child. The steps to complete a task might seem obvious to you, but simply ensuring your child understands each element of a task or project can really help. 


Understand that this will take time
Don’t expect perfection, as mistakes are inevitable. However, you can begin to teach children to recognize and correct their own mistakes. During spelling tasks or reading exercises you could say, “You made one mistake. Can you find it?” Children can often find their mistakes upon re-reading a phrase or sentence. 


Practice makes perfect
Understand that these skills will take regular practice, and using a tool like Read&Write can help children build confidence. It will also point out any errors in grammar and spelling to help produce a high standard of work - and give teachers/ parents less checking to do! You can see from the examples that allowing Thomas to produce the work in a typed format gave him space to focus on the content, producing a well thought out story.


Too much, too soon
If you notice children struggling with reading, then you could hold off on spellings for a time. When learning to read and write children need a lot of practice, patience and encouragement - both at home and at school. With time and patience your child will develop automaticity in reading and writing too. 

Now, let’s hand over to Thomas and Pepper, the Easter Dalmatian. 

Pepper is a Dalmatian who is very clumsy. Pepper has a boy named Thomas who loves him very much. Thomas named him Pepper because he has black spots. Pepper has an unusually long tongue that hangs out of his mouth everywhere he goes. Pepper also has very long legs. Everywhere he goes he trips over his long legs and falls.

After a long winter, it was Pepper’s favorite season--Spring! Pepper loved to lay in the sun and feel the warmth on his speckled belly. Pepper's boy Thomas sometimes called him Bunny because when Pepper slept in the sun, his silky soft ears would lay back, and he looked like a sleeping bunny. Pepper’s whole family started to call him Bunny. It was his new nickname.

Lately there was a lot of talk about bunnies at Pepper’s house. Easter was coming, and Thomas was excited. Pepper overheard Thomas talking to his mom about the Easter Bunny. Pepper had never heard of the Easter Bunny, But Thomas called him Bunny, so he must have been talking about him. Pepper was the Easter Bunny!

Thomas said to his mom, “I am very excited to come downstairs and see all those treats! I have to make sure I leave my Easter basket out for the Easter Bunny!”.“ I’m sure the Easter Bunny will leave you lots of surprises!” said his mom.

Pepper slowly began to understand that he was the Easter Bunny, and that Thomas was expecting him to leave him a basket of surprises in the morning. Pepper loved Thomas, and he would never let him down. After everybody got to sleep on that Saturday night, Pepper got straight to work. He found Thomas's Easter basket on the table. He started looking around for stuff that he could put in his basket. Thomas was his best friend, and he deserved the best surprises. Pepper thought hard about what would be the best surprises for Thomas. He thought long and hard about his favorite surprises, and he decided to share those with Thomas. 

He tripped over his own feet looking for his favorite smelly old sock. He made sure the sock was extra smelly, and put it in Thomas's Easter basket. Pepper had brought in his favorite rock from outside and put it in Thomas's basket next to the smelly old sock. He also wanted to give Thomas something soft. Nothing is softer than mom’s slippers. He tripped up the steps and fell through Mom's bedroom door, but luckily mom stayed asleep. Pepper quickly grabbed the pink fuzzy slipper and headed back to the Easter basket. He tumbled down the stairs and made a crash landing right next to the table with the Easter basket. He quickly placed the slipper into the Easter basket next to the smelly old sock and his favorite rock.

 Lastly, Pepper heard Thomas talking about Easter eggs. Pepper knew the eggs were kept in the big silver box in the kitchen. He used his nose and his paws to pry open the door. He found the eggs in a brown paper carton. He dragged the carton onto the floor, and suddenly something began to ooze out of the brown paper carton. Yellow oozy stuff started coming out of the eggs. Pepper did his best to pick up some of the broken pieces. He carried some of the goo and pieces of broken shell back to Thomas's Easter basket. He couldn't understand why Thomas would want a treat like this. It did not seem like a treat to him as it oozed down his face. 

The night was almost over, and it was almost time for the family to wake up. Pepper knew that Thomas was always the first one up. He was ready for Thomas to come and see all of his work. He knew that Thomas would love his surprises. Pepper was proud of himself even though it was his first Easter, he knew that he had given his best friend Thomas the very best treats. 

Second Grader Thomas Shares His Experience with Read&Write

Texthelper, Joni Degner, shares her Read&Write story from April 2021

In this blog we hear from Texthelper Joni Degner. During a recent team meeting Joni shared her son’s experience of using Read&Write. We thought it would make an interesting reading for all the parents and teachers out there and so we asked Joni and Thomas if we could share the story with you. 

Social media has given brands the ability to reach larger audiences than ever before. But when we consider that10% of the global populationare affected by some form of disability, it’s clear that failing to prioritise the accessibility of social media content dramatically limits the audience brands can communicate with.

Accessible social media content is not explicitly required by guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, but it shouldn’t need to be. Producing accessible and inclusive content should be something that effective social media marketers just do as best practice. However, this is not often the case.

Over 4.3 billion people use social media – approximately 55% of the world’s population. If we contrast this number with the 10% of the population that has some form of disability, this means there are 430 million social media users who may be left out through complex and inaccessible content.

If you’re not addressing the accessibility of your social media content then you’re cutting out a key and significant proportion of your audience. The NHS estimates that in the UK alone there are approximately 1.5 million people who have a learning disability and approximately 13.9 million disabled people in the UK, including 19% of working age adults. This is a huge audience your social media campaigns may be excluding.

How to be an inclusive social media marketer, and how it benefits your brand

When we consider the proportion of social media audiences with additional needs, it’s clear that accessible content is not just a ‘nice to have’ add-on for ethically-minded brands. It’s an essential consideration for anyone seeking to build their brand via social media.

If you do it right, accessible social media campaigns are more effective because they can communicate with the widest possible audience – regardless of whether people have a visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, any other combination of impairments, or are typically-abled.

Accessible content is not only beneficial for social media marketers wanting to reach a larger audience. Implementing accessibility measures often makes content more digestible and engaging for everyone, improving brands’ ability to communicate their message clearly and effectively.

Additionally, if a brand is perceived as being more socially-minded and inclusive, consumers will look upon it more favourably. According to a recent survey by Google, 64% of people took action after seeing an ad that they considered to be inclusive.

So, what measures can you take to produce inclusive social media content, which reaches the largest possible audience?

Uncaptured by disability statistics is the fact that the average reading age in the UK is estimated to be just nine years old. Making sure your copy is written clearly, in short sentences, and avoids the use of jargon or unnecessarily complex language, is a vital part of making social media more accessible. Writing with readability in mind makes your content more understandable and benefits every user that views it.

Additionally, it’s important to consider those with visual impairments when drafting social media copy. Consider how assistive technology, such as screen readers, will read the text. Try to avoid or limit the use of symbols, avoid hashtags in the body of the text, and make sure spelling and punctuation is correct.

Words are only part of your social activity. Videos and audio clips are also tools used by most brands and need to be reviewed for accessibility. Closed captions on videos are a prime example of a measure that benefits everyone, beyond those with auditory impairments it was originally conceived of to help. Closed captions not only help those with hearing impairments understand what is being conveyed by a video post, they also help those non-fluent in the audio language, as well as viewers watching on mute.

As well as videos, images should also be something you review for accessibility – especially for those that may have visual impairments such as colour blindness. If you fail to consider factors such as descriptive captions and colour contrast, then you limit your ability to raise the profile of your brand with an enormous swathe of people. This isn’t something new to social media, in fact, Facebook’s blue and white colour scheme was chosen because Mark Zuckerberg is green-red colour blind.

It’s recommended to use a colour contrast of at least 4.5:1 – this is important for people with colour blindness to be able to distinguish one colour from another. Additionally, avoid using green and red or blue and yellow colour combinations, as these can be difficult to see.

Another important consideration is to avoid using colour to convey meaning. For example, in the West, red is often to denote a downward trend on a chart, danger, or a warning. Yet in China, red represents happiness, success, and good fortune. Step outside your own bubble and consider whether your content conveys the same message in different cultures.

#SocialMediaAccessibility not #socialmediaaccessibility

Another factor to consider is certain formats only used on social – most notably hashtags. Make sure that CamelCase is used for multi-word hashtags. Capitalising the first letter of each word helps people using screen readers by ensuring that they are read out correctly, as well as making hashtags easier to read for all.

It’s best practice to include hashtags and mentions at the end of your text. Punctuation marks are read aloud by screen readers and it is important to consider how hashtags or ‘@’ mentions can disrupt the flow of copy for those using assistive tech to read it aloud.

Much like punctuation marks, emojis and emoticons are read aloud by assistive tech.

Text-to-speech software reads out a description for every emoji used, so try to avoid including a row of the same emoji in your posts. Otherwise someone using a screen reader will hear, “red heart red heart red heart red heart”, which is not only irritating but gets in the way of conveying your brands’ message.

Avoid using emojis to communicate a core message – the ‘official’ meaning of an emoji, the one which will be read out by assistive tech, may not match up with what you’re using it to say. For example, the emoji which is most often used to show hands in prayer was originally intended to show a high-five, but as with language, the meaning and usage has evolved.

While these changes are easy to make, inaccessible social media is still rife. For people with accessibility needs, particularly in the context of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, this significantly limits their ability to feel connected and to participate in social media in the way we would want them to.

By keeping your social media content accessible, you are prioritising inclusion and presenting information in a clear way, for the maximum number of people. Ultimately these actions are nothing ‘over and above’ genuinely good and effective marketing. They should be central to any brand-building endeavour.

Creating inclusive and accessible social media content

Building your brand via social media? How inclusive and accessible is your content?

This article was originally published on BrandsJournal.com on 21st June 2021. 

In the run-up to the public sector mobile application accessibility deadline, learn more about how to make your app accessible.

Accessibility Regulations: the mobile app deadline

In the run-up to the public sector mobile application accessibility deadline, learn more about how to make your app accessible. 

Not long after I started teaching, I remember laughing at a bit on tv (I can't remember if it was on Saturday Night Live or another show), where a student gets an essay back from their teacher. The only comment in big red letters across the page was "ambiguous."  And the student sat there, mystified about how to proceed.  

Too often, I think, that's how students feel about our feedback.  We're rushed. We have 100 essays to correct and only a few days to do it. So putting comments on every paper in all the spots where you see room for improvement is at minimum difficult and often near impossible.  So our comments are sometimes...ambiguous!

With WriQ, our goal has always been to help teachers speed up and improve the feedback loop.  The faster a student gets suggestions for improvement, the more valuable and impactful that feedback is.  

So to help speed up the process and give teachers a more in-depth way to get their ideas to students, we are excited to add a Voice Notes feedback feature to WriQ.  Now, on the summary screen where you already can leave some typed feedback, you can add up to a five-minute voice note for your student.  This allows you to give more insight, encouragement, and a more positive tone than what can come across in written feedback.

Providing Feedback in WriQ with Voice Notes

WriQ update: send your students feedback using a voice note

In this blog we take a look at updates that have been made to WriQ. Now you can send your students some feedback via a voice note. Check out this blog by product evangelist and expert on all things WriQ - Mark Schwartz.

EquatIO Mathspace Updates - Version 1.16.0

3 Small but Rather LARGE Updates for EquatIO Mathspace Customers

In this blog we take a look at the latest updates to EquatIO. Read on to see how to make the most of the new features. 

Blog

Speaking plainly: inclusivity and accessibility starts with the written word

Texthelper, Joni Degner, shares her Read&Write story from April 2021

Building your brand via social media? How inclusive and accessible is your content?

Accessibility Regulations: the mobile app deadline

WriQ update: send your students feedback using a voice note

3 Small but Rather LARGE Updates for EquatIO Mathspace Customers

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