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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Learn why web accessibility is important. And gain 7 tips to help you optimize an accessible website.

7 Effective tips for optimizing your accessible website

In this guest blog learn why web accessibility is important. And gain 7 tips to help you optimize an accessible website.

This is a fun & easy way to get involved, and will bring some positivity into your teacher's classroom! Feel free to get creative or download one of our templates to colour & share. 

teacher-appreciation-day-flower-pot-colouring-poster-us-size.pdf

teacher-appreciation-day-donut-colouring-poster-us-size.pdf

teacher-appreciation-day-light-bulb-colouring-poster-us-size.pdf

teacher-appreciation-day-rainbow-colouring-poster-us-size.pdf

Send your teacher a card with all the reasons why you appreciate them and show off your writing skills at the same time. Use our template to get started and then either send it to your teacher directly or upload it to your digital classroom environment. 

teacher-you-are-a-_class-act_-because.pdf

thank-you-for-being-a-great-teacher.pdf

teacher-you-are-amazing-because.pdf

If you're thinking of gifting your teacher, here are some ideas they'll appreciate! Digital gift cards are a great option. You could take your teacher to the movies with a free movie on Amazon Prime, support a local restaurant, or subscribe to a service like Teacher’s Black Box or Teacher’s Crate. Think about what your teacher would enjoy. 

If you haven’t been able to arrange a gift, don’t worry - you could record a short video message for your teacher instead. They will really appreciate the thought & effort, and parents can join in too! Here’s a video that our Texthelpers created to give you some inspiration:

It's 'Ofishal'!! Teachers are a great catch!


Award your teacher with a digital certificate or sticker

It's time for you to become a teacher for a day! Choose from our selection of digital stickers and award it to your teacher in recognition of all their hard work.

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We’d love to know if you try out any of these ideas. Share your finished masterpieces with us on Twitter @texthelp or on our Facebook page. 

National Thank a Teacher Day is on 23rd June and is the perfect opportunity to thank a teacher in your life. We’ve put together some of the best ways to thank your teacher.

Celebrating National Thank a Teacher Day

What a year it's been for teachers! Adapting to new ways of teaching, juggling work and family life, dealing with constant uncertainty... the past twelve months have been a steep learning curve for educators everywhere. 

Wednesday 23rd June is National Thank a Teacher Day, and we think this is the perfect opportunity for students and parents to thank teachers for everything they do. We've put together some ideas for how you can thank your teacher, either remotely or in person. 

Assistive technology is quite an ambiguous term. The way modern technology has been applied across sectors is typically in a bid to assist the user – such as fintech-fuelled, one-click payments, or building-less neo-banks – in many ways.

Reverting to its origin, assistive technology in its very core form is technology designed to help people with specific needs in some way. An obvious use decades ago may have been support of certain disabilities with the likes of a mobility scooter or hearing aid.

Learning and communication disabilities, however, didn’t necessarily have a technological support system through which assistance could be provided 30+ years ago. Our CEO and founder Martin McKay discovered this first-hand in the early 80s when his father suffered a severe stroke. He was left unable to speak, read and write, which effectively gave him the inspiration to explore tech as a force for good from a young age.

Thankfully, society has since recognised the power of assistive technology in supporting learning and it has become highly regarded as a tool for special educational needs (SEN) learning within schools. Due to its enabling power, there’s room to explore its potential as the market, and user age of the user, grows.

Coming from a Northern Irish business, it hasn’t escaped my attention that the local education system has been challenged in the SEN area. Roughly one in five students across the country has special educational needs and an independent review of how the Education Authority supports those pupils has been declared. It’s easy to see how this issue can be amplified countless times on a global scale.

Yet, this predicament grows further still. The past year has made the potential of assistive technology, which can help with the likes of literacy, speech and writing, abundantly clear through the mass adoption of remote learning and home-schooling.

Learning loss is a regular occurrence during school holidays, but extended school closures meant that students went without the typical face-to-face, communication-driven routine their days are structured around and transformed their education process. While many studies have observed teens, the Education Endowment Foundation has revealed that reception-age children have been negatively impacted, with many more needing additional language support. Tech can assist here with simple tools such as subtitles which link language and voice together.

“The past year has made the potential of assistive technology, which can help with the likes of literacy, speech and writing, abundantly clear through the mass adoption of remote learning and home-schooling.”

Lockdown learning has meant that assistive technology isn’t (and wasn’t) just something isolated for SEN pupils, but broader education technology at large is in effect an assistive technology. This presented another challenge to overcome, since remote learning conditions weren’t always evenly distributed because this depended greatly on the individual circumstances of a student’s household. We know from our research that poorer students in the UK were unhappier during lockdowns than their wealthier peers, which aligns with the former having less access to technology. In a scenario where a SEN student may be from a lower income household, the problem can quickly escalate.

In observing the space through this lens, I want to flag that at no point do learning disabilities just stop overnight. So this is a message not just for educational institutions to take note of, but workplaces too, recognising that these pupils will grow into adults with similar, if not the same, learning challenges.

Nine is the average reading age in the UK and corporations should be mindful of this fact, not just in supporting staff, but in customer communication. The opportunity here lies in recognising the place of assistive tech as a tool to support with language barriers and promoting accessibility as standard, in turn creating an inclusive culture where teams can thrive while still protecting the bottom line.

Everyone has the right to understand and be understood, so businesses have a duty of care to recognise their employees are supported accurately. If schools and companies can collaboratively connect these dots, we can collectively work towards solving learning throughout entire lives – not just younger years.

Assistive technology can benefit every learner, not just SEN students

Once the domain of SEN learning, assistive technology is now for everyone

Assistive technology can benefit every learner, not just SEN students 

Assistive technologies empower all learners. This article was originally published in Education Technology on 12th June 2021. 

Here eight ways the new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines will further improve digital inclusion:

See how you can improve digital inclusion. We asked tech experts and business leaders about the new WCAG 3.0 and how it will help.

8 ways WCAG 3.0 will improve digital inclusion

See how you can improve digital inclusion. We asked tech experts and business leaders about the new WCAG 3.0 and how it will help. 

How will the new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 3.0) further improve digital inclusion?

To help you improve digital inclusion, we asked tech experts and business leaders this question for their best advice. From creating guidance for all digital assets to providing a blueprint for future design, there are several ways the new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 3.0) can further improve digital inclusion.

As more and more vendors double down on a digital-first approach, people with accessibility needs such as visual impairments have struggled to access online services. To keep customers engaged and provide an inclusive approach for those shopping online, businesses need to focus on accessibility.  

Those who don’t have accessibility needs can often forget the importance of an easy-to-understand, and simple-to-navigate website. 

Recent research indicates that less than 1% of website home pages are likely to meet standard accessibility requirements. Pair this with the knowledge that nearly three quarters of disabled online consumers will leave a website that they find difficult to use. 83% of disabled users will only shop on sites that they know are accessible. This means that UK retailers could be missing out on online sales of around £17.1 billion a year.

It’s important to remember that accessibility isn’t just about the technical aspects of your website either. It also encompasses the language that you use and how easy your content is to understand.

If you’re not addressing the inclusion on your website, then you are cutting out a significant proportion of your market. The NHS estimates that approximately 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability. Beyond this, there are approximately 2 million people in Britain living with sight loss that is severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives. Approximately 1 in 8 of adult males and 1 in 200 adult females have some form of colour blindness. In total, there are approximately 13.9 million disabled people in the UK, including 19% of working age adults.

These numbers are significant but they only include those with diagnosed disabilities. Uncaptured by these statistics is the fact that the average reading age for adults in the UK is roughly nine years old. If your online shop window has language that is hard to understand, you could be excluding an enormous pool of potential customers. If your UX is not accessible, struggling users will simply not reach the checkout. 

The importance of this cannot be overstated. The 2021 WebAIM Million report found that 86% of websites contain low colour contrast text. This could be enough to prevent the groups with vision impairments listed above from being able to use these websites with ease. Despite access to guidelines such as the WCAG, many e-retailers do not consider the accessibility needs of their customer base - taking a sledgehammer to their own revenue stream as a result. It wouldn’t be acceptable for 86% of public buildings to have no special access measures for those with physical disabilities. It is not acceptable that 86% of websites fail on at least one accessibility measure. 

User experience is a consideration at the forefront of many online retailers’ priorities. But what is often forgotten is that accessibility is a key part of that process. 

When using analytics to examine the UX there is more of a focus, particularly in e-commerce, on the journey that the user takes. Data around time spent on particular pages, or where people are dropping-off take the focus. To understand why this is happening, most look at the product, or at the interactions between these pages, for answers. In reality, vendors should also consider the complexity of language on each page and whether disabled customers can use them properly. It could be that these two factors are in fact driving customer drop-off. 

For a website to be fully accessible, then it must be possible to navigate using only the keyboard. For this to be possible, the website must have a clean and precise layout - making it easier to navigate for all. 

Having transcripts and closed captions for audio and video content is helpful not just for people with disabilities. It is helpful to a wide group of users. In the instance of a slow internet connection - the text will load faster and minimise frustration.  

Audit and improve accessibility with technology 

Making the UX as accessible as possible may seem like a monumental task, but it doesn’t all have to be managed manually. Technology has come a long way in auditing and providing insight on the accessibility of your site. 

Pages can be scanned for errors in seconds and issues can be prioritised for your team. Authoring tools can support content creators to write in an inclusive manner. Reading age can be measured, jargon words identified and suggestions for improvements easily made.

Utilising this tech should be a consideration for any vendor keen to prioritise online inclusion. 

Building brand reputation and customer engagement

Aside from engaging with a wider audience and building an inclusive brand, there are many other ways in which having an accessible website can benefit companies. 

For example, accessibility and SEO are linked very closely. Providing transcripts and closed captions for web content is a requirement for meeting web accessibility standards such as WCAG. As Google and other search engines provide search results based on matching search text with web text, they cannot search through your audio and video content. So, closed captions and transcripts help your SEO because the text enables your website to be discovered by search engines. 

Consumers are also increasingly prioritising spending their money with socially-responsible businesses.  Brands which disregard consumers with accessibility needs will not be attractive to the ethically minded consumer. Consumers will appreciate a brand which makes a demonstrable commitment improving the experience of customers with accessibility needs.

Accessibility measures are not just ‘nice to have’.’ They are essential if we are to strive towards a society that is accepting and accommodating of everyone, regardless of ability, illness, or special educational needs. Your website is now your shop window - you should make sure it’s as inviting and inclusive as possible. 

Accessibility is not only the ‘right’ thing to do in terms of making the lives of people with accessibility needs easier. It is also the ‘right’ thing to do in terms of maximising your businesses’ revenue. If a website is not easy to navigate and understand, dwell time on that website will drop, consumer engagement will decrease, and thus fewer sales will be made.  

As more and more vendors double down on a digital-first approach, people with accessibility needs such as visual impairments have struggled to As more and more vendors double down on a digital-first approach, people with accessibility needs such as visual impairments have struggled to access online services. To keep customers engaged and provide an inclusive approach for those shopping online, businesses need to focus on accessibility.  

Window shopping: drawing people in to your online store

Improving your online store's user experience with accessibility 

In the past year, lockdowns have meant we are spending more time online. This has forced many people to become more tech-savvy, but there are some who have been left out in the cold.

As we reflect on the last 14 months in the education space, we all understand the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has had on students, teachers, and schools in the U.S. and around the world. With this understanding, we must look for ways that we, the EdTech industry, can add true value to these groups in order to help get them back on track in the current and post-pandemic worlds.

Although there are many areas where the EdTech industry can help, I have identified a few areas in which EdTech leaders, including myself, can make an immediate and meaningful difference:

PD to support in-person, hybrid, and remote learning

One of the first steps we should take is to ensure technology and remote learning pedagogy are critical areas of professional development (PD). As a number of today’s EdTech products could be used in a brick-and-mortar or online classroom environment, it’s key that their PD programs focus on the broader subjects of technology, not solely just on a product. Without the right training or understanding of the overarching concepts, those products will not be as successful.

Technology to seamlessly facilitate effective teaching and learning

Another key step for the EdTech industry is to ensure that all EdTech products currently in the market, or being developed, work across different learning environments and solve the challenges students and teachers are facing.

Seamlessly fit into the classroom workflow no matter where it is

Allow for easy transition from different classroom environments

Solve a particular problem that either students or teachers face currently in the classroom

Meet the needs of students and teachers of all abilities

If these criteria are not met in the technologies in the market today or coming down the pipeline, they could bring on more challenges than opportunities for students and teachers. And, unfortunately, not every piece of EdTech follows these guidelines.

The ability to address new challenges and changing needs

Lastly, as an industry, we must be there to support our educators and students. We must be ready and able to address any problems that arise within the education space as they work to get back on track. This means EdTech companies must remain agile and be able to adapt current or upcoming products to the changing needs of users and the overall market.

In order to understand what challenges may arise, it is critical that EdTech companies remain in contact with education leaders, teachers, and students. A few effective ways to stay in touch could be through:

Short monthly or quarterly surveys that gauge thoughts or feelings on certain subjects

In-product feedback mechanisms that allow for users to immediately provide commentary on how the technology is performing or how it could be improved

Close contact with tech support to know what questions or technical issues customers are contacting companies about the most

Attendance at local and national events (when able) to hear first-hand from customers

Customer focus groups (virtual or in-person, when able)

My team and I have done this ourselves regularly throughout the pandemic. Most recently, we surveyed English teachers to understand how the subject of writing and how the cultivation of writing skills were prioritized since school was disrupted in March 2020. In addition, we plan to also survey math teachers to determine how the pandemic has impacted their teaching of math concepts.

As we continue to deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic now, and even down the line—it could be months from now or in a year or two—the EdTech industry will continue to play a supporting role in efforts to help students and educators. And because of that, we must maintain a firm grasp of the landscape and be able to provide near-immediate assistance as challenges arise and changes occur.

With an eye on professional development and high-quality instruction, the EdTech industry plays a vital role in post-pandemic education.

How EdTech can help get education back on track

With an eye on professional development and high-quality instruction, the EdTech industry plays a vital role in post-pandemic education. 

Blog

7 Effective tips for optimizing your accessible website

Celebrating National Thank a Teacher Day

Once the domain of SEN learning, assistive technology is now for everyone

8 ways WCAG 3.0 will improve digital inclusion

Window shopping: drawing people in to your online store

How EdTech can help get education back on track

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