5. “How can I shift traditional methods of
reading and writing, knowing they are not as
effective to show a student’s full range of
understanding. “
-Cynthia Gozzard
Librarian
GEDSB
6. Jameson Lee
Special Education Department
CDSBEO
“How can I move away from a deficit model of
inclusion, and focus on what students can do.“
7. “How do I ensure I am
providing an inclusive
learning environment that
empowers diverse learners
including those who have
arrived from different
countries?“
Thomas Roberts
Educator
Diversity in the
Classroom
11. EMPOWER STUDENTS TO
DO THEIR BEST WORK
ENABLE TEACHERS TO ENGAGE
EVERY LEARNER
ENSURE EQUITY AND
INCLUSION IN SCHOOLS
12. EMPOWER STUDENTS TO
DO THEIR BEST WORK
ENABLE TEACHERS TO
ENGAGE EVERY LEARNER
ENSURE EQUITY AND
INCLUSION IN SCHOOLS
Offer free, productivity tools designed
to meet global accessibility standards,
with conformance reported
transparently in aka.ms/508VPATs,
aka.ms/EN301549, and
aka.ms/WCAG2.0 reports informed by
DHS Trusted Tester code-based
inspection process
15. Audio Accessibility
Ability to add closed captions for
audio/video in PowerPoint and Sway
Automatic live captions for
PowerPoint via Microsoft Garage
Presentation Translator add-in
Automatic audio transcription in
Skype Meeting Broadcast (preview)
Auto-generated captions and
transcriptions in English and
Spanish for videos in Microsoft
Stream
Visual Accessibility Text Accessibility
16. Visual Accessibility
Ability to add alternative text
descriptions to visual objects in all
apps
Automatic suggestions for alt-text
for images in Word and PowerPoint
Ability to record narrations of
PowerPoint slides and embed audio
recordings in OneNote and Sway
Text AccessibilityAudio Accessibility
17. Text Accessibility
Transform printed text into
searchable Office files with OCR via
Office Lens
Make content easy to navigate with
built-in accessible Styles
Make hyperlinks more readable by
adding display names, auto-
generated for Recent Items in Link
Gallery
Audio Accessibility Visual Accessibility
18. Accessibility Checkers
In Office PC, Mac and Online apps to easily
find accessibility issues
With detailed guidance to fix issues
Accessible Templates
For Word, Excel and PowerPoint to get
started on the right track
Searchable by keyword “accessible”
Accessible Emails &
Export Formats
Export as tagged PDFs from Office
See MailTips prior to sending emails
to those who prefer accessible content
19. “No one should have to ask
for access, it should just be
there.”
Marlee Matlin
Academy Award Winning Actress
Outside In Talk at Microsoft
December 2016
35. “Our pupils all pretty much without exception hate writing.
The learning tools transformed writing for our pupils.”
- Jan Lusty, Head of School at Knowl Hill
36. This is a story planning sheet for a 9 year old boy.
37. The same child then wrote this story based on the plan,
completely independently, on OneNote.
38. This is a story planning sheet for an 11 year old girl.
41. consumption Office 365
Learning Tools
Comprehension,
fluency and
decoding aids
Word, OneNote,
Outlook Web
Access, and EDGE
Office Lens
Take content from
the analog to the
digital world
Immersive Reader
available for Office
Lens on iOS
Dictate
Use voice to get your
best thoughts into
your documents
Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, OneNote,
Outlook
Editor
Write easy-to-read
documents, with more
confidence
Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, OneNote,
Outlook
Read Aloud
Read your content
with simultaneous
word highlighting
Word, OneNote,
Outlook Web
Access, and EDGE
42. Text to Speech and
word/line
highlighting
OneNote
Desktop
OneNote
Online
OneNote
Windows
App
Word
Desktop
Word
Online
Outlook
Web
Access
Office
Lens on
iOS
EDGE
browser–
ePub
Spacing and Font
Size
OneNote
Desktop
OneNote
Online
OneNote
Windows
App
Word
Desktop
Word
Online
Outlook
Web
Access
Office
Lens on
iOS
EDGE
browser–
ePub
Syllables OneNote
Desktop
OneNote
Online
OneNote
Windows
App
Word
Desktop
Word
Online
Outlook
Web
Access
Parts of Speech OneNote
Desktop
OneNote
Online
OneNote
Windows
App
Word
Online
Outlook
Web
Access
EDGE
browser–
ePub
Line Focus OneNote
Desktop
OneNote
Online
OneNote
Windows
App
Word
Online
Dictation OneNote
Desktop
Word
Desktop
43.
44.
45. Research suggest that dyslexia is a difficulty of
processing phonology; the sounds of language
46. dog
“dog”
* Floyd & Judge, The Efficacy of Assistive Technology on Reading
Comprehension for Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities, 2012
Simultaneous highlighting and voicing text is
proven to improve decoding and sustain attention *
47.
48.
49.
Editor is our enhanced set of proofing tools with intelligent services and
user interface affordances to help everyone do their best writing.
50. Spelling check – Challenges for people with Dyslexia
Challenges Traditional Office Spelling menu
1. Difficulty perceiving the differences & determining
which is correct, in a list of similarly spelled words
• Visual attention challenges
• Challenge remembering spelling rules
• Absence of visual memory tracing the correctly spelled word
2. Burdened by too many choices
• Difficulty with reading speed & accuracy
• Slower processing time
3. Unique spelling error patterns
• Letter omission / transposition, phonetic spelling, word
elongation, etc. can cause words to look very different from
the intended word
1. No context or other cues to
help choose the right word
2. Up to 5 different suggestions
3. Prone to show “No
Suggestions” for high edit-
distance errors
51. Editor – Inclusive design to benefit everyone
• Contextual cues help people identify the right choice
1. Synonyms help disambiguate between similar-looking suggestions
2. Read Aloud (of both suggestions & synonyms) aids comprehension
• Better suggestions and significantly reduced incidence of “No Suggestions”
• Improved compatibility with screen readers and other ATs
52. Issue
Categories
Spelling
Grammar + Contextual Spelling
Advanced
Writing
(Style)
Clarity and Conciseness
Formal Language
Inclusive Language
Punctuation Conventions
Vocabulary Choice
2
Issue Category in Context Menu further
disambiguates “Advanced” Gold Flags 3
Approachable Issue Description
guides users how to fix it
1 Flag Color & Underline style indicate major
category (Spelling, Grammar, or Advanced)
53. n the spirit of “plain language” initiatives
Complex or abstract words
Wordiness and redundancy
Hedges (words expressing uncertainty)
Passive voice (obscures who is doing what)
• Checks for Language Learners
Grammar errors frequent among English Language Learners
54. Editor Pane
1. Show issues in-context, for
better accessibility
2. Synonyms, Read Aloud, and
Spell Out help to disambiguate
between similar-looking
suggestions, and aid
comprehension
3. Detailed explanations of writing
issues and how to fix them
Systematically check all issues found in the document, and offer richer context to aid
suggestion choice and comprehension
55. I was working with a student (with dyslexia) last week who was trying to put
together his resume. About 10 minutes in, he felt so defeated because his
errors felt like roadblocks. He knew what he wanted to say, he just couldn’t
get the words close enough and he wanted to give up.
This feature (Editor) opened a door for him, it allowed him to focus on the
content and ideas he was trying to get down. The options and synonyms
gave him independence to not have to ask, or have someone sit by him and
coach him through the entire document.
Robin Lowell
Microsoft Innovative Education Expert, and a special education, science, and mathematics teacher,
as well as teacher of blind and visually impaired students.
56.
57. vision
Make your device easier to
see or use without a
screen.
hearing
Make your device easier to
hear or use without sound.
physical
Make your device easier to
use of you have limited
reach or strength.
cognition
Make it easier to focus and
get things done with
Windows.
58. applications
Applications that make it easier
to see, hear, interact with, focus,
read and write… to create,
consume, collaborate and play
hardware
Hardware that makes it easier
to interact with Windows
support
Experts that address
accessibility questions about
Windows, Office and more
59. 01
Color Filters
Differentiated color filters for those with
color blindness 02
Narrator
Our screen reader, updated with intelligent
image description for pictures lacking
alternative text
03
Magnifier
Magnifier and narrator integration will have
a new experience through the combination
of zoom and text read aloud capabilities
04
Eye Control
Investing deeply in new features like eye
control allowing people with ALS and other
physical disabilities to control Windows
with their gaze
60. Our vision
Windows strives to enable
the creator in everyone,
dynamically adapting
to our changing abilities,
situations and devices
61. 5 free things to try today
1. Communicate in new ways and collaborate seamlessly with Office 365
Aka.ms/OfficeEducation
2. Engage your diverse audience by presenting with subtitles
Aka.ms/TranslatorForEducation
3. Create assignments that are accessible by design
Aka.ms/AccessibleTemplates
4. Go paper-less with Office Lens and OneNote
Aka.ms/OfficeLens & OnenoteForTeachers.com
5. Encourage independent reading and writing
Onenote.com/LearningTools & Dictate.ms
62. 5 links to bookmark and share
1. Educator Training on Inclusive Content
aka.ms/accessiblecontenttraining
2. Educator Training for Personalizing Learning
education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/accessibility
3. Office 365 Accessibility Support Documentation
aka.ms/OfficeSupport
4. Answer Desk for Accessibility Support
aka.ms/Edad
5. Microsoft Accessibility Overview
Microsoft.com/Accessibility
63. 5 ways to learn more this week
1. Discover Office 365 reading and
writing tools with proven outcomes
for dyslexic students
10/18 10:35-10:55am
10/19 1:35-1:55pm
10/20 1:00-1:25pm
2. Special Educators, try Microsoft
Teams, OneNote & Office Lens for
collaboration and data collection
10/18 12:05-12:25pm
10/19 3:05-3:25pm
10/20 9:05-9:25am
3. Enhance productivity for blind &
low vision students with intelligent
Office 365 services and Seeing AI
10/18 1:35-1:55pm
10/19 4:35-4:55pm
10/20 10:35-10:55am
4. Discover free, built-in AT in
Windows 10 to personalize
learning and create in new ways
10/18 3:05-3:25pm
10/19 10:35-10:55am
10/20 12:05-12:25pm
5. Create accessible & engaging classroom
content with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint & Sway
10/18 4:35-4:55pm
10/19 12:05-12:25pm
10/20 12:30 -12:55pm
Editor's Notes
I’m Martha Jez,
My journey for inclusion began in Kindergarten, Jenny C was my best friend in Kindergarten – she was in a wheelchair by grade 1 she left her home school to go to a special school
In high school I looked to include my peers with disabilities into the centre of our student activities and planned student council events (With Mr. Eckler I made sure that many of my friends made the journey down the hall to the end of the school where the special education classroom was, there we built relationships and friendships with the students in the ‘specialized’ classroom)
Today I continue to be an advocate for inclusive education and believe it is a fundamental human right for students to be welcomed into their community school with their friends, neigbours and families.
Professionally I started my career as a Learning Disabilities Program Manager at York University serving 800 students annually, I have my Master’s in Criticial Disability Studies and am the co-founder and CEO of Fair Chance Learning. Everyday we work passionately with Education leaders and School Districts providing consultation and direction to scale inclusive learning environments that support National mandates and line up to international standards. We partner with Microsoft because of their commitment to building an inclusive culture and believe in their mission to empower everyone on the planet to achieve more.
When people with disabilities are at the center of your design experiences you are creating wonderful experiences for all students.
Focus on the ability rather then the disability- we are seeing the example that Microsoft employees are setting for us everyday when they take the time to understand and are curious e
empathetic and creative in designing solutions that meet specific needs that re having a far reaching impact –
Took the time to understand…
One of the largest shifts I have really focused on in the last 8 months is towards universal design and I am using many Microsoft tools to help to do this. Long gone are the days of taking 2-3 students out of their homeroom and delivering mini lessons. There are too many students who need my help, currently I am assisting about 45 students. UDL is made possible with Microsoft O365 as boards move to have O365 accounts for all students and not simply one expensive license for Kurzweil on one computer.
I have a tech class that focuses primarily on communication and collaboration which to me really gets at the roots of accessibility. We use tools such as SWAY, One Note Learning Tools and Skype to collaborate with one another and communicate our understanding. I find our identified LD kids benefit this most from this instruction because of their average intelligence ability. I find that the knowledge that these students have is trapped and looking for a way out and traditional methods of reading and writing are not as effective to show their full range of understanding.
I also have two MID students using the O365 tools on iPads (board pilot program), they enjoy the dictate and predictive word features in Microsoft word and SWAY. As well they feel included in what the class is doing because they are using the same suite of software. Before this pilot our board did not support SEA equipment for MID students or they would give them an iPad with a DD image (apps), which to me was too low and didn’t suit their learning profiles.
My struggling students use One Note immersive reader to have questions (across the curriculum) read to them which assists in comprehension of the question even for students who are reading at grade level. As you are aware, LD students will often have needs in the areas of working memory and executive functioning. Having information repeated while they are completing a task is essential for them to work through multiple steps and higher order questioning. This is something that I directly teach students because they often think that because they can read the question they may not need the computer read it to them. Having the question read to them is a listening comprehension task, as opposed to a reading comprehension task and often the two tasks produce different results.
We are using SKYPE virtual field trips as an alternate way of communicating with experts and experiencing deep learning beyond the classroom walls. Many of my struggling students could sit in a classroom for weeks learning from a text book/lecture type and seemingly not absorb any of the information. This experience is frustrating for both students and teachers who may spend weeks teaching & learning a concept. When my students individually researched their elephant of choice, created structured questions (using One Note Learning Tools - collaboration space) and then were encouraged to voice their questions to the Elephant Sanctuary through a Skype field trip, this experience seemed to deepen their understanding. Students were able to individualize their own learning through inquiry and were then able to seek answers to their questions. It is this type of deep learning experience that lasts well beyond the unit test date for not just our struggling students but all of our students.
Hope that helps! I hope that I get to catch your presentation but if not please do share the slide deck with me (or SWAY). I’d love to see it!
Too often my first encounter with students is because of something they can’t do.
The impact of Microsoft’s accessibility tools extends beyond settings and adjustments, it is also about learners being able to discover a new type of independence. Too often, my first encounter with students is because of something they can’t do, constantly relying on the assistance of a teacher or peer to read or write. As soon as the conversation includes the potential of Microsoft’s accessibility tools such as Office Lens and its newly added Immersive Reader or OneNote’s Learning Tools, the conversation immediately shifts to focusing on what students can do.
In January a grade 5/6 teacher was struggling to make class readings accessible to a group of three struggling readers. I reminded her of Office Lens, but highlighted the newly built-in feature – Immersive Reader. Immediately she saw the potential. Upon showing her boys, it became in her words, “an immediate HIT”. These students could now read anything and participate in learning alongside their peers. A couple months later, when I was speaking with the teacher, she mentioned the boys had become "experts" and were showing other students how to use the app.
I think it’s only natural for students to want the success they are experiencing in the classroom to extend outside of school. When they learn the same Microsoft apps and tools they use at school are available at home, for free, they are so excited and often I hear, “You mean I can do this at home? I can’t wait to show my parents”. It’s that type of excitement, passion, and empowerment that is helping to create lifelong learners because they now have the tools to succeed anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
In a classroom with diverse talents and skills, OneNote helps to bring out the very best in All Students. I will always remember working with another grade 5/6 teacher and looking at how OneNote Class Notebook Collaboration Space allowed every student in the class to contribute in their group during a brainstorming session. When working together in a shared space, students can use the tools that best suit their strengths. Many students type their ideas, while some used the built-in Learning Tools’ Dictate and even a few students recorded their ideas with the Audio Recorder. It is exciting to see how OneNote has become that can’t live without app. The accessibility features end up being necessary for some students, but are good for All.
Jameson Lee
Assistive Technology
Special Education Department
Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario
One of the largest shifts I have really focused on in the last 8 months is towards universal design and I am using many Microsoft tools to help to do this. Long gone are the days of taking 2-3 students out of their homeroom and delivering mini lessons. There are too many students who need my help, currently I am assisting about 45 students. UDL is made possible with Microsoft O365 as boards move to have O365 accounts for all students and not simply one expensive license for Kurzweil on one computer.
I have a tech class that focuses primarily on communication and collaboration which to me really gets at the roots of accessibility. We use tools such as SWAY, One Note Learning Tools and Skype to collaborate with one another and communicate our understanding. I find our identified LD kids benefit this most from this instruction because of their average intelligence ability. I find that the knowledge that these students have is trapped and looking for a way out and traditional methods of reading and writing are not as effective to show their full range of understanding.
I also have two MID students using the O365 tools on iPads (board pilot program), they enjoy the dictate and predictive word features in Microsoft word and SWAY. As well they feel included in what the class is doing because they are using the same suite of software. Before this pilot our board did not support SEA equipment for MID students or they would give them an iPad with a DD image (apps), which to me was too low and didn’t suit their learning profiles.
My struggling students use One Note immersive reader to have questions (across the curriculum) read to them which assists in comprehension of the question even for students who are reading at grade level. As you are aware, LD students will often have needs in the areas of working memory and executive functioning. Having information repeated while they are completing a task is essential for them to work through multiple steps and higher order questioning. This is something that I directly teach students because they often think that because they can read the question they may not need the computer read it to them. Having the question read to them is a listening comprehension task, as opposed to a reading comprehension task and often the two tasks produce different results.
We are using SKYPE virtual field trips as an alternate way of communicating with experts and experiencing deep learning beyond the classroom walls. Many of my struggling students could sit in a classroom for weeks learning from a text book/lecture type and seemingly not absorb any of the information. This experience is frustrating for both students and teachers who may spend weeks teaching & learning a concept. When my students individually researched their elephant of choice, created structured questions (using One Note Learning Tools - collaboration space) and then were encouraged to voice their questions to the Elephant Sanctuary through a Skype field trip, this experience seemed to deepen their understanding. Students were able to individualize their own learning through inquiry and were then able to seek answers to their questions. It is this type of deep learning experience that lasts well beyond the unit test date for not just our struggling students but all of our students.
Hope that helps! I hope that I get to catch your presentation but if not please do share the slide deck with me (or SWAY). I’d love to see it!
Good luck,
Cynthia
Office 365 reduces barriers across by covering authoring of accessible content across the disability spectrum
Important feature that showcases a great example of Inclusive Design, when you consider the benefit to people in noisy environments, those who can’t raise the volume on their device (e.g. at the library), people consuming in a different language, etc.
Another inclusive design example in how narrations of slides can help people with sight and learning disabilities, in addition to helping the presenter practice!
Accessible links are also readable links, which again showcases inclusive design principles that magnify accessibility impact onto mainstream scenarios.
Marlee Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God in 1986 and is the only deaf performer to win the award.
Learn more at https://blogs.microsoft.com/jobs/qa-actress-author-producer-marlee-matlin/
I’d now like to show some demos of learning tools. I’ll start with a video showing Office Lens and the Immersive Reader on iOS.
You start by opening Office Lens on your phone and taking a picture of the piece of paper you want to read
It will guide you by voice to center the paper on screen. It doesn’t matter if it’s upside down or not
You then select to open in Immersive Reader
The content is now digital so you can use read aloud to read the text with simultaneous highlighting
You can also zoom in or space out the text.
Some case studies:
Our pupils all pretty much without exception hate writing.
The learning tools transformed writing for our pupils.
As you can see the teacher has scribed for him because writing is a tortuous task for him. It is pretty illegible and a very slow process. He then used the learning tools to actually write his story.
This child was able to write this entirely independently, removing the embarrassment of having an adult looking over his shoulder.
He could type and then use the immersive reader to read it back to himself. If he chose the wrong word from the spellcheck menu, he would realise his mistake when he had it read back to him again.
His output increased dramatically. He said “Using OneNote has made me work quicker.”
“No-one has to tell me when I have written something wrong. The computer does it by showing me or when I listen back using Immersive Reader.”
It is very difficult to develop the higher thinking skills needed for creative writing if you can’t write your thoughts down.
Fluency in transferring thoughts to written word is improved – pupils have found it easier to transfer thoughts to typing/computer
Using Immersive Reader increased independent working so pupils were able to hear their own work whilst the words were highlighted
Increased self-confidence with creative writing
Immersive Reader was able to read their work to the rest of the class. This meant they could share work without being embarrassed about own reading skills.
Understanding words helped my write stories. OneNote has given me confidence in writing. I like the talk back.”
“It is easier to type that to write. It is less stressful than writing on paper.”
“OneNote helps me to notice my spelling mistakes when it talks back and highlights the words at the same time.”
Thanks
Office Lens on iOS, allows users to take a photograph of printed text, in a textbook for example, and convert the printer text to digital content that they can view in an immersive reader with increased spacing and have that content read aloud.
Learning Tools, which is in Word and OneNote on various endpoints helps people improve their reading skills, including gifted learners, students with learning differences.
It's been shown to improve learning outcomes associated with:
Comprehension
Decoding
Fluency
Dictate, is a free add-in available for all Office apps, that users can install on their device, and use for speec-to-text.
Read Aloud, is a feature that exists within Learning Tools and as a standalone feature in Word’s Review tab, which allows anyone to easily have their content read aloud to them.
Editor is our enhanced set of proofing tools that helps people of all abilities to write easy-to-read documents, with more confidence. It does this by
Reducing the energy spent on low-level processing like spelling
To free up mental “desk space” for the higher-level cognitive tasks in writing (such a conceptual work, composition, structure)
Learning Tools is available across a wide variety of applications, as this table highlights.
Before we look at Read Aloud, lets look at normal reading.
Research suggest that dyslexia is a difficulty of processing phonology; the sounds of language
The letters b and d are often confused for one another. While they obviously similar shapes, they are also very similar in sound.
Confusions for users with dyslexia don’t occur with their vision directly, but instead confusions happen when accessing the sounds needed for naming.
When people with dyslexia both see and hear a word being spoken, it aids decoding. For some, this raises their ability to decode text to the same level as their peers.
Decoding is the ability to sound out words, including sound segmentation and discrimination
Simultaneous highlighting and voicing text is proven to improve decoding and sustain attention *
* Floyd & Judge, The Efficacy of Assistive Technology on Reading Comprehension for Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities, 2012
[Slide with GIF showing Read Aloud in Word Desktop]
Slide with video of Learning Tools in Word Desktop.
Editor has been available in Word and Outlook on PCs since last fall, for Office 365 subscribers.
Editor goes beyond the old Spelling and Grammar checks, bringing intelligent services and user interface affordances to help you:
Write with Confidence - by
Helping you spot the errors & issues,
Help you know which is the right suggestion
Providing coaching guidance on writing issues
Write Easy-to-read documents - by
Introducing new checks for Clarity, Conciseness, Inclusiveness, Formality, etc.
Now, as we'll see, this turns out to be a classic Inclusive design opportunity, where making Spellcheck friendlier for people with Dyslexia can make spellcheck easier for everyone.
Let's take a look at some of the challenges people with Dyslexia face, when trying to spellcheck a document.
Spelling check software typically shows a list of spelling suggestions, when you right-click or tap on a flagged word.
Now, there are several different reasons why people with dyslexia have difficulty selecting a correctly spelled word from that list.
Firstly, they have difficulty perceiving the difference between similarly spelled words, AND, determining which of them are correct.
This can be due to
Visual attention challenges
Challenge remembering spelling rules
Absence of visual memory tracing the correctly spelled word
It hasn't helped that Office spelling menus have only shown the suggestions themselves, without any context to help choose the right word.
Secondly, having too many choices slows decision-making, & causes decision fatigue. This is known as Hick's Law, and applies to everybody; but it's especially pertinent to people with Dyslexia, who have more difficulty with
Reading speed and accuracy
Slower processing time
In the past, Office spelling menus has shown up to 5 different suggestions
And thirdly, people with dyslexia have some unique spelling error patterns that cause words to look very different from the intended word.
Historically, Office spell checkers have optimized to show a smaller number of highly likely suggestions, for the most common error patterns. Therefore, it often didn't have suggestions for unusual error patterns such as these.
The new Editor Context Menu - Designed from ground up to be accessible
Inclusive design to help everyone; but affordances are especially effective for people with dyslexia.
Help users choose the right suggestion.
Previously, we simply offered 5 different spelling suggestions (i.e. letter strings) without contextual or other cues. But people with dyslexia often have several different reasons for having difficulty selecting the correctly spelled word from a list of similarly spelled words, including challenges remembering spelling rules, absence of a visual memory tracing of the correctly spelled word, and visual attention challenges. All of these make it difficult to either perceive the differences between various alternatives, or to determine which is the correct alternative. Providing additional “meaning level” context through synonyms, definitions, or uses of alternatives will greatly improve the dyslexic reader’s ability to identify the correct choice.
Offering too many choices is known to increase decision time logarithmically and cause decision fatigue – something known as Hick’s Law. (see ref: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-hick-hyman-law-an-argument-against-complexity-in-user-interface-design). This is especially pertinent to people with dyslexia, who have slower processing time and more difficulty with reading speed and accuracy. We decrease the maximum number of spelling suggestions from 5 to 3, with marginal drop in the likelihood of offering the correct spelling suggestion within these top 3.
Synonyms vs. Definitions: We’ve chosen to show synonyms as opposed to definitions or usage samples for the following reasons.
First, they are the most efficient at the level of reading: the fewest words are required to convey enough information to make a decision; and of course less text should help dyslexic individuals because visual crowding (more text) and impaired visual search would be less of an issue.
Secondly, people with dyslexia often have strengths in analogical reasoning, and broader semantic maps, so creating a “word cloud” through listing several synonyms is likely to be a highly efficient.
Showing synonyms alongside each suggestion adds somewhat to the visual clutter of the user interface. But in fact, research indicates that dyslexic reading issues are actually worsened by extreme brevity and the lack of context. Having extra context provides clues to word identification and “second chances”.
We've also improved the spelling suggestions themselves. We leverage an online spellcheck engine which provides a larger language model and a phonetic spelling component that gives us better suggestions, when checking high-edit distance errors typical of people with dyslexia.
Improved compatibility with screen readers: Office and Windows have worked closely to ensure that the additional context provided in the Editor context menu is properly exposed in UIA, where they can be accessed by screen readers and other Assistive Technologies.
Editor aims to make Writing Issues more approachable, so more people can act on them to improve their writing.
We hear from teachers that many (if not most) students actually ignore a lot of the squiggles in their documents today, either because they don’t know what the suggestions mean, or because they’re overwhelmed by the number of squiggles, and the thought of fixing them isn’t approachable.
Educators* want tools that would enable students to:
actually pay attention to the errors in their writing
care about addressing the errors in their writing
understanding HOW to improve their writing
understand WHY their correction is better.
Editor introduces Bite-sized explanations right in the context menu, to convey the Issue Category and explain how to fix it. This helps make unfamiliar checks more approachable, and serves to coach users over time.
*K-12 Language Arts teacher interviews, 2016
Again, writing clearly and concisely is useful for everyone, it’s especially helpful useful for people with cognitive disabilities, and people aiming to create accessible content
We take the recommendations of the “Plain Language” initiatives seriously; because they can help both writers and readers… and it’s becoming the norm for government documents that are published.
This is an area we are starting to build up.
These are examples recently added checks – and youcan expect more in the months ahead.
And we saw the feature updates in the new Editor Pane, which
Lets users scan the whole document, and
Offers even richer context and explanation than we have in the context menu.
I’ll close out with an anecdote from our colleague Robin, who is a Microsoft Innovative Education Expert, and teacher for kids with various disabilities.
Robin was recently helping one of her students, who has dyslexia, to put together a resume. After about 10 minutes, the student was on the verge of giving up, because even though he knew what he wanted to say, but just couldn't get the words right close enough.
Robin let him try Editor, and it was a revelation for him. By easing the spelling task, it let him focus on the CONTENT and IDEAS he was trying to get down. And most liberating was the independence it gave him; of not having to ask someone to sit by him and coach him through the entire document!
And those of you who've worked with these students know how precious this independence is!
We have affordances for a variety of disabilities out of the box at no additional cost
We are addressing hidden disabilities like dyslexia with learning tools in Edge and dictation anywhere
We are investing deeply in new features like Eye Control