Yearbooks are a fun end-of-school-year tradition that allow students to celebrate their accomplishments and friendships that they have made during the year and provide opportunities for documenting memories. My school yearbooks are the only books I own that have a small/standard print size, and it’s always fun to flip through the pages with friends and share stories from the school year. Here are some tips and strategies for making yearbooks accessible for low vision and participating in yearbook signing traditions with dysgraphia/poor handwriting.
Creating an accessible yearbook for low vision/blind students
I didn’t receive an accessible copy of my school yearbook, but I’ve had several blind and low vision friends tell me all about how their school helped them get a copy of the yearbook they could read on their own. Options for creating an accessible yearbook for blind students/students with low vision include:
- Ordering a digital copy of the yearbook, which can be in the form of a tagged PDF, HMTL page, or EPUB. If the school has a yearbook class, the students can create an accessible copy of the yearbook for students with print disabilities by adding image descriptions for pictures from events and ensuring text can be resized in digital reading applications.
- Scanning a copy of the physical yearbook into an accessible file format— I share an example of what this process might look like in my post on how Bookshare books come to life, though Bookshare does not create accessible yearbooks.
- Some schools have created braille yearbooks for students with visual impairments by converting the yearbook into a Word document and having it printed with a braille embosser. I recommend reaching out to the school district or a NIMAC organization for state-specific resources on printing braille yearbooks.
- Recording an audio version of the yearbook with narrated features from students, similar to a visual podcast.
For yearbook classes that use Adobe InDesign, there are several accessibility tools that are available to make it easier to export a digital accessible yearbook for students with visual impairments and other print disabilities. I have linked information on InDesign accessibility from the Adobe website below.
Related links
- File Formats For Low Vision and Print Disabilities
- A to Z of Assistive Technology for Reading Digital Text
- Adobe InDesign Accessibility
- How Bookshare Books Come To Life
- Receiving Accessible Educational Materials With NIMAC and AIM-VA
- Creating Audio Narrated Images For Low Vision
Reading yearbooks with assistive technology
When I read through my yearbook with low vision, I typically use some sort of video magnifier, either a desktop video magnifier with an X-Y table for positioning, a handheld video magnifier, or a digital magnifier program on my iPad or Android phone. Digital magnification tools provide more flexibility when it comes to enlarging images or text in different sizes, and also offer high contrast color filters to improve readability.
Other options for using assistive technology to read yearbooks with low vision include:
- Visual assistance applications can be used to read text out loud or get basic descriptions of pictures. Applications that use human visual interpreters can provide more detailed descriptions of images (especially images of people)
- Placing books on a slanted display or book stand to help with positioning, instead of holding the yearbook or laying it flat on a table
- Scanning pens can be placed over text and read information out loud or copy text into another application for reading out loud, in large print, or with other text settings.
- If more than one student wants to see the book at once, a video magnifier can be connected to a TV or larger monitor so that more people can view the display at once.
- Magnifying glasses or optical aids can be worn or held by the student to enlarge information on a page.
Another strategy for reading yearbooks is to use a line guide, typoscope, or index card/cardstock to block out text or images so that it is easier to focus on items of interest on the page. For example, I might use an index card when reading to block out surrounding text so I only read one line at a time.
Related links
- A to Z of Assistive Technology For Low Vision
- iOS Magnifier and Low Vision Accessibility
- Magnifying Glasses For Low Vision
- High Contrast and Low Vision
- ScanMarker Air for Print Disabilities
- How I Access Historical Documents With Low Vision
- Adapting Page Layouts: Math Problems and Low Vision
- Upcycling Music Stands into Assistive Technology
Underlining names of friends
In my middle and high school yearbooks, I would underline the names of my friends with various colors so it would be easier for me to locate them, or I would ask my friends to choose a color and underline their own name. It’s made it easier for me to find my friends in the yearbook when I go back to read it over the years. I use ultra-fine Sharpie pens for underlining names because they come in a lot of colors and don’t bleed through yearbook pages. Another option is to use highlighters that are designed to not bleed through pages— I share more about highlighters in my post on highlighting information with low vision below.
Related links
- School Pictures and Low Vision
- Highlighting Information With Low Vision
- What’s In My High School Backpack As A Low Vision Student
Encourage people to write large, adding additional pages if needed
When people would sign my yearbook, they would ask me if I needed them to write in a larger size since I have trouble seeing. I would tell people that I appreciate large print, but they don’t need to take up an entire page when writing a message, and had them use an 18-point font size as reference for what I could see at the time. In order to fit all of the notes from classmates and teachers, students with low vision may want to purchase additional signing pages for their yearbook to accommodate for the larger handwriting sizes.
One of my friends created a grid on their yearbook pages so that other students each had their own “zone” to write something, while another friend paid for lined signing pages so that they could more easily read messages on their own— having a bunch of signatures scattered across a page was impossible for them to see.
Related links
- Reading Handwriting With Assistive Technology
- Choosing Greeting Cards For Visually Impaired Recipients
- Tips For Writing Letters To Visually Impaired Recipients
Use brightly colored, high-contrast pens
I love colorful pens and regularly used Sharpie pens for completing assignments, so I had people use these pens when signing my yearbooks as well, choosing colors that provided adequate contrast against the colored paper in the yearbook- in other words, making sure that people didn’t use the orange pen to write notes on yellow paper. Some students may prefer larger-tip high contrast pens, though I recommend checking to make sure the ink color will not bleed to the other side of the page.
Related links
- Writing Aids For Low Vision: My Personal Superlatives
- Paper Colors And Low Vision
- Paper Sizes and Low Vision Accessibility
- High Contrast and Low Vision
Tracing signatures/adding tactile decorations
One of my friends had students and teachers sign their yearbook with larger-tip high contrast markers, and their mom traced over the messages with glue and let it dry so that my friend would be able to feel the signatures/notes. Another option for tracing is a High-Mark tactile pen, though it’s critical that users ensure that the tactile ink has time to “set” before closing the page.
I strongly recommend having people sign on single-side pages and avoid writing on the backs of pages since this can make tactile information difficult or impossible to read.
Related links
Signing yearbooks with dysgraphia
I have poor handwriting as a result of dysgraphia, and would often write much slower than other students so that I could ensure whoever was reading my message could decipher what I wanted to say. Some other strategies friends with dysgraphia have used for signing yearbooks include:
- Drawing a picture
- Asking another friend to write on their behalf
- Using a stamp
- Having a line guide to assist with writing in a consistent size
- Getting custom stickers made and adding them to the pages of a person’s yearbook
- Giving friends a typed message and having them tape it into their yearbook
- Embracing less-than-perfect handwriting and sharing a short message anyways!
Related links
- Assistive Technology For Dysgraphia
- How I Use Technology To Improve Handwriting
- Dysgraphia Accommodations In The Classroom
What if someone writes something negative/mean in the yearbook?
One year, a student in my class wrote several negative and mean things in my yearbook, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it initially, since I couldn’t erase it, use white-out, cover things with stickers, or otherwise remove the messages due to where they were written. I reported the issue to my teacher and parents, who in turn worked with the principal to get me a new copy of the yearbook and helped me with copying over a few messages, as well as getting students to sign my yearbook again. I’m not sure if the other student was disciplined for what happened, as I wasn’t interested in getting them in trouble, I just wanted my yearbook fixed.
Related links
Other tips for making yearbooks accessible for low vision
- A fun yearbook alternative is to create an end-of-year physical or digital scrapbook with school mementos. My friend created one of these and took pictures of all their friends and teachers, and included other photos from throughout the year, tickets from school performances, confetti from a dance, and other cool things
- Another option is to have a blank notebook that students and teachers can write messages in, with each student/teacher getting their own page. This can be decorated with school colors and other fun designs
- Students can add bookmarks to the pages where their picture is featured or where they are mentioned in the yearbook, i.e bookmarking pages for club photos or other school events that they attended
Published April 6, 2018. Updated January 2025