This semester, I noticed a new tool within my online classes called Blackboard Ally that could transform the way that I access materials as a student with low vision that fluctuates frequently. I’ve been using Blackboard Ally for about a week and a half now,…

Recently, I received a message from a Teacher of the Visually Impaired asking about the most common tech skills for virtual classes that I use in college, as they were helping to prepare their students for taking online and hybrid classes in college by giving…

Over the last five years, I have had the opportunity to take two different online English classes and was able to earn high grades in both of them. While I naturally enjoy reading and writing, one of the challenges I had to overcome in taking…

In my current math class, the professor assigns homework and quiz questions using a tool called ALEKS so that students can practice skills outside of class. Once I found out that we would be using ALEKS, I started researching ALEKS accessibility and playing around with…

As a student with low vision, I am used to requesting and explaining disability accommodations in my college classes and in other testing environments. However, one of the things that surprised me when I started taking primarily virtual classes and exams is that I needed…

Fun fact- all of the history classes that I have taken since ninth grade have been online history classes. I took my first online history class shortly before starting tenth grade because of a scheduling issue, and while I hadn’t planned on taking additional online…

Recently, I was on a video call where someone had enabled a custom video background that was designed to make it easier to concentrate on the speaker but ended up being very distracting for me as someone with low vision. The dim lighting conditions for…

Recently, I received a question from a teacher who was nervous about having their student (who has an unidentified disability) taking virtual classes, as they do not know a lot about troubleshooting assistive technology or supporting students with technical issues. They were wondering what the…

Earlier today, I was working with a new web-based application for one of my classes and discovered that I was having trouble switching between multiple different windows/tabs of the same app, and started thinking of ways that I could solve this problem. In order to…

Recently, I was talking to another college student about different options for using visual assistance apps for virtual classes and how they could use different apps on their iOS and Android devices to help them with accessing visual information. While I frequently use visual assistance…

Whenever I am working on assignments or reading for my online classes at my desk, one of my favorite tools to use to help me with productivity is my Amazon Echo Dot. As strange as it may seem, Amazon Alexa can help with online learning…

As students of all ages begin planning registration for upcoming classes, I have received many messages asking questions about choosing virtual classes and how to figure out whether a class will be accessible or not for students with disabilities or other access needs. As a…

One of the questions I frequently receive from teachers filming videos for their classes is about if there is anything that they can do to create accessible video lectures for students who are blind or that have low vision. While I talk a lot about…

For a lot of students with low vision, spending lots of time on the computer or brightly lit devices can easily cause eyestrain/eye fatigue, especially for those taking a lot of virtual classes. One of the ways that I help to reduce strain on my…

When I was first researching colleges in high school, I spent dozens of hours completing online activities that help prepare for college transition that I found on my own. Since then, I have been able to share many of these resources with other students who…