Learning online can unlock the academic potential of your students by delivering a truly multi-sensory experience - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and reading. Added to this, EdPlace harnesses the power of online learning further by delivering detailed data and analytics for every student, plus personalised settings to use as students prefer. To learn more about these general learning settings, please click here.
We understand that every child learns differently and has their own personal learning style and preferences; particularly those students who may find traditional learning models more challenging to engage with. Our SEND accessibility toolbar has been specifically designed so that every child can learn on EdPlace in the way that best suits them while improving attainment and building confidence. Let us tell you more about how this revolutionary tool works.
There are two ways of accessing the toolbar. Students can access the toolbar by logging into their account and clicking on the 'Accessibility' tab which is located on their dashboard:
If they make changes here, then they will be saved and applied every time they log in to the EdPlace website.
Alternatively, they can access the toolbar while in a specific activity by selecting the accessibility icon that appears in the middle on the right-hand side of the screen:
Doing this will only customise the view for the single activity they are currently working on.
When they load the toolbar, your students will be provided with these options:
Below is a summary of each feature and how they can use each to help achieve their best:
Adaptable font size
Learners can decrease and increase the size of the font to make it easier to read which is particularly helpful for students with any kind of visual impairment.
9 different font options
Learners can choose from 9 different font types to select the one they find easiest to read (including our specific dyslexia-friendly font which has been recognised by the British Dyslexia Association).
Ability to change the background colour
Learners have the ability to change the colour of the background and fonts presented to reduce visual stress.
Reading ruler
The reading ruler function underlines text to enhance reading fluency and remove the issue of missing lines while reading.
Reading window
This feature allows students to focus on a specific section of the page in isolation which encourages greater focus.
Dictionary
Students can highlight and click on any word to find out its definition.
EAL Translate
All text can be translated into more than thirty different languages. This can be really beneficial for students if English is not their first, or most familiar, language.
Plain text mode
Students can remove the images in an activity and view just the questions, without any distractions, if they prefer.
Magnifier
By using the magnifier, students can click and drag the magnifying glass to magnify any element shown on their screen to provide greater support for children with any type of visual need.
User guide
This is the user guide button that will give you and your students an overview of the toolbar and how to use it.
Read aloud and volume
With these features within every activity, learners will be able to always customise the audio so that they can have text read to them at their preferred volume level. This can be very useful for students with a lower reading age, while also assisting students that are visually impaired. Children in Key Stage 1 who are just learning to read can use this feature too, as they may need additional help to complete activities successfully and independently. These buttons are located alongside the accessibility icon on the right-hand side of every page and question within every single EdPlace activity.
* Our annual summary from 2020 (before our teacher account was launched) showed that over 62,000 users accessed our accessibility toolbar. 78% of users implemented the read-aloud function, 16% utilised the styling features and 6% employed the translation tool.
Please note, some of these features are only available when accessing the student account via our website, and all of these features will work best in this mode. For this reason, we recommend that students log in via our website rather than our apps if these accessibility features are important for their learning.
We hope that these features will enable your students to personalise their learning on EdPlace to improve their confidence and promote independent learning. If you need any help with this or have any more questions or suggestions, please contact our friendly Customer Support Team at help@edplace.com.