During the first week of an online graduate school class, students were prompted to create a biometric password with BioSig-ID, which would serve as an additional security measure for accessing course websites. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first week of class would include a lesson on BioSig-ID accessibility for visual impairment and handwriting difficulties, as my dual diagnoses of low vision and dysgraphia meant that I couldn’t use the tool with its default settings and had to research solutions with my professor. Here is what I learned about BioSig-ID accessibility for low vision and dysgraphia, and how I requested disability accommodations to use it.
What is BioSig-ID?
BioSig-ID is a web-based biometric authentication tool used at several colleges and universities to confirm the identity of a user participating in an online course, and to ensure that the student who registers for the course is the same student who participates in the course and submits assignments. Every time a student logs into their online course, they have to enter a biometric password that they create with the BioSig-ID tool, which also tracks information like their IP address to ensure that passwords aren’t being shared.
Related links
- BioSig-ID™ – Biometric Signature ID (biosigweb.azurewebsites.net)
- How To Create Secure And Easy To Remember Passwords
- How I Use Blackboard With Low Vision
- Online Safety For Visually Impaired Users: Safer Internet Day
How BioSig-ID usually works
To set up a biometric password with BioSig-ID, students go through an enrollment/practice before completing the student authentication for the first time. The default BioSig-ID enrollment process works as follows:
- Select the device that will be used to input the biometric password: Stylus, Mouse, TouchPad, TouchScreen
- Draw or write a password within the grid lines/draw pad shown, which can be a drawing, handwritten letters, numbers, or similar
- Another prompt will appear to draw or write the same password again, as close as possible to the first attempt
- Once the second attempt is accepted, draw or write the same password for the third time
- A secondary password will be created by prompting the user to click or tap on a picture of a keyboard to simulate typing a combination of letters, numbers, and/or symbols, known as a Click-ID. Students will also repeat this process a total of three times to confirm their password
- Finally, students will draw or write the first password they created one more time to confirm their profile.
Depending on the college/university, students may be prompted to enter their BioSig-ID password whenever they log into the course, when taking quizzes or exams, or at random times throughout the course.
Why BioSig-ID is inaccessible for low vision and dysgraphia by default
I have low vision and dysgraphia, and I faced separate and intersecting accessibility barriers when using the default BioSig-ID enrollment process due to both disabilities. I wasn’t sure if the larger barrier existed because of my vision, dysgraphia, or some combination of the two.
Barriers for low vision access with BioSig-ID
- Difficulty with seeing the location of the grid box on the screen
- Trouble with enlarging keyboard graphic, which is at a low resolution and became blurry when I enlarged it with a magnifier
- Difficulty with drawing items within the smaller grid box. While there is a full screen option, this did not eliminate barriers to drawing in a small space completely
- Students may not notice that their drawing attempts are not consistent with each other, which can lead to getting stuck in the onboarding process
Barriers for dysgraphia access with BioSig-ID
- BioSig-ID has a very narrow window of tolerance that does not account for handwriting difficulties associated with dysgraphia
- Students may not write letters consistently or correctly each time, which can lead to multiple failed login attempts
- Attempting to draw with a mouse or TouchPad may be more difficult compared to a stylus, as it requires fine motor control
- Repeating patterns or multiple straight lines are not permitted
Barriers for low vision and dysgraphia access with BioSig-ID
- Students with low vision who use screen magnification tools may experience more difficulties with providing handwriting input at a consistent size due to the magnification of the input box
- In order to see the screen, students may have to place their face closer to the screen, which can make handwriting more difficult as well
Related links
- Learning To Explain Usable Vision
- How I Manage Dysgraphia In Online Classes
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- A to Z of Assistive Technology for Reading Digital Text
Enabling the BioSig-ID ADA software accessibility methods
After spending over an hour trying to use the BioSig-ID enrollment tool and never making it past my second attempt at drawing, I did some research on BioSig accessibility and discovered the vision impaired and motor skill impaired options. Listed as “ADA software accessibility methods”, these two modes have a different approach to using a biometric password.
- Motor-skill impaired uses the keyboard graphic (Click-ID) as the primary login tool, where students are prompted to “type” a password on a keyboard graphic image. A secondary login tool is a complex security question, where students are expected to type an answer before being granted access. BioSig-ID will use both logins interchangeably.
- Vision-impaired uses only the typed complex security questions, which are keyboard accessible. Students will need to type the answer to a question before being granted access. No secondary login tool is used.
As a student, I couldn’t enable one of these accessibility modes on my own, and my professor indicated that students with disabilities would need to contact Disability Services for further information. I sent an email to my professor to let them know what was going on and to ask if they could enable the accessibility mode, and they confirmed that was not possible. However, they did give me more specific instructions on what to send to Disability Services and what would happen next and asked me to report back with any information I learned.
Related links
- ADA Software Accessibility Methods (biosig-id.com)
- How To Explain Disability Accommodations To Professors
- Ten Templates For Emailing Professors
Requesting BioSig-ID accessibility for my student profile
My professor could not submit the accessibility request on my behalf, even though their class was the only one using the BioSig-ID tool out of all of the classes I was taking. I sent an email to my Disability Services counselor, who approves my classroom accommodations and makes referrals to university offices as needed. Here is what my email said:
Hello! I’m currently enrolled in (course name/number) and cannot use the BioSig tool either due to low vision, dysgraphia, or some combination of the two, both of which I receive accommodations for through ODS. My professor instructed me to contact someone in Disability Services to ask for them to enable the “ADA Accessible” option for BioSig and notify IT Services. If there is any additional information you need, please let me know. Thank you! (student name)
Since I already have a Disability Services file, my counselor was able to quickly forward my email information to IT Services, who enabled the accessibility mode on my user profile later that afternoon.
Related links
- How To Create A Disability Services File
- Why You Should Get A Disability Services File
- How To Get Disability Accommodations In Community College
- Seven Unexpected Disability Accommodations For Virtual Learning
Requesting BioSig-ID accessibility for my student profile, take 2
IT Servies was very quick to enable the accessibility mode for BioSig-ID, and I assumed they had enabled the vision impaired option. I realized when I went to log in that they had enabled the Motor-skill impaired option based on my dysgraphia diagnosis. Here is what the Click-ID keyboard looked like:
While this is theoretically easier to me to use than the handwriting input option, the tilted keyboard is more difficult for someone with low vision to tap/click on and made it more difficult to use motor memory strategies, which is where I memorize the location of items rather than what they look like. Since someone had contacted me from IT Services to confirm my student profile was set up, I could reply to the email and request that they enable the vision impaired mode instead, which is compatible with screen readers and keyboard input, though would still require the user to use a screen magnifier to enlarge text if they prefer to read information visually.
I had assumed that IT Services would enable the vision impaired mode because I had disclosed that I had low vision, but this was an example of why self-advocacy is important. Instead of mentioning just the “ADA Accessible” option, I should have specified whether I needed the motor skill or vision impaired option so that IT Services could enable what I needed.
Related links
More resources on online course accessibility for low vision and dysgraphia
- Want to read more about taking online classes with low vision? Browse Virtual Education Archives | Veronica With Four Eyes (veroniiiica.com)
- BioSig-ID is used in addition to other multi-factor authentication tools for logging into my classes, but is only used for my course website and not any other university services such as email
- Looking for more resources on going to college with low vision? Browse College Resources | Veronica With Four Eyes (veroniiiica.com)
- To learn more about how I navigate other parts of my online courses, check out How I Use Blackboard With Low Vision
- Read more posts on dysgraphia by browsing Dysgraphia Archives | Veronica With Four Eyes (veroniiiica.com)
Published June 7, 2024. Updated November 2025