Many of the students I have met over the years haven’t been motivated to participate in summer reading programs because they aren’t excited about the prizes being offered. Many summer reading programs hosted at libraries offer copies of books as prizes, which are inaccessible to…

I rely a lot on color for labeling information, so highlighters and colored overlays are a helpful tool for locating text or making it easier to see, especially when it comes to making information stand out against a bright white background. Here is a list…

In order to streamline the digital workflow process, my second high school suggested implementing shared folders for accessible materials so I could get copies of digital assignments more easily. This worked well from the teacher perspective, since they could easily add documents to a folder…

Some of the students I’ve worked with find the feature-rich layouts of applications like Microsoft Word or Notability to be visually overwhelming and prefer a simpler layout for authoring and editing text. Many of them prefer the VDWrite application for iPad as it provides several…

When I first started using graphs and charts in math classes, I decided that I hated them. As a student with low vision, I often encountered charts that featured low resolution images, black and white or grayscale color schemes, blurry text, or hard-to-read keys that…

When watching science experiments or participating in science labs, I would constantly find myself thinking or saying “what just happened?” after every step of the experiment. Since I have low vision, I often have trouble noticing subtle changes in science experiments or focusing in visually…

As a student with low vision, I sometimes have trouble reading the PowerPoint slides that my instructors post on the course website or share with me so I can follow along with class. Things like small font sizes and multi-column layouts are great for presenting…

My first introduction to Padlet accessibility features was when I was in high school and realized I couldn’t see any of the text or images that my instructor had just shared for a virtual class, and they told me I had to figure out how…

When I was in middle and high school, many teachers and school staff members encouraged me to develop strong self-advocacy skills so that I could feel comfortable talking about my low vision and what accommodations I would need in the classroom. Talking to a substitute…

When I was shadowing an elementary school teacher, they asked me to help them design an accessible classroom library for their students with print disabilities, after we noticed that students seemed to be avoiding the library area or looking at the books in general. While…

A list of free apps that I used in my science classes as a student with low vision to access information, take notes, and make things bigger

Here are the accommodations I request for accessible print materials