Microsoft Office tools have a built-in accessibility checker. Under the Review tab is a Check Accessibility button. 
Selecting the button checks the document for accessibility errors and considerations displaying suggestions about how to rectify or resolve the concerns. Consider checking every document for accessibility before publication.
Example of suggestions from the Accessibility Checker
Not all web pages are created equally. Some provide information in a clear and concise manner. Others are cluttered including extensive text, numerous graphics that might or might not add to the understanding of the content, or advertisements that detract from the content. This can be frustrating for any user, but especially so to those who are working on limiting distractions, focusing on goals around decoding and comprehension of text, and people with certain visual impairments.
TextHelp’s Read&Write for Google Chrome extension is available to all LCPS staff and students and has a tool that can help alleviate these issues called Simplify Page. It reduces visual clutter from Chrome web pages, simplifies the text on the page, and has features to make the web page even more visually accessible.
When on a Chrome web page, select the purple puzzle piece icon 
on the menu bar to open the Read&Write for Google Chrome toolbar.
Then, select the Simplify Page 
tool. A new tab will open showing a simplified version of the page and the available features.
Simplify: The amount of text displayed on the page can be summarized or shortened by selecting the minus (–) icon. If you’ve decreased the text too much, you can select the plus (+) icon.
Discover: This feature underlines key words in purple. When the words are selected, a brief description or graphic appears, similar to a dictionary.
The visual contrast can be modified by changing the text and background color. Choices include Black on White, White on Black, Blue on Yellow, and Yellow on Blue.
The font size and style can be changed, including the Open Dyslexic font.
The spacing between the lines can be also changed to Single, 1.5, or Double.
Check out this video for more information and enjoy exploring this amazing tool!
Sometimes individuals encounter hard copies of documents, such as a paper-based form, that need to be scanned and converted into a digital format. Some individuals might need or prefer to annotate a digital version of that document.
If the individual has an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS version 10.0 or late, the iOS Notes app can be used to scan documents. Here’s how:
LCPS staff and students have access to TextHelp’s OrbitNote Chrome extension. If your scanned PDF is uploaded to Google Drive or Schoology, you can use OrbitNote to edit the document by adding text, drawings, and more.
Check out the following videos for more information on using the Notes app for scanning, including some advanced features.
Happy scanning!
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) maintains a website on Inclusive Practices which provides an overview of inclusion along with an K-12 Inclusive Practices Guide available in both Microsoft Word and PDF. This guide provides information on the definition of inclusion, benefits of inclusive practices, the role of the IEP Team, common characteristics of inclusive environments, a quality standards inclusive school self-assessment tool, and much more.
Virginia Department of Education K-12 Inclusive Practices Guide
A strategy to help individuals learn language using augmentative/alternative communication (AAC) is to provide Partner Augmented Input (also known as Aided Language Stimulation). This means the communication partners model language by using the same form of AAC as the student with whom they are communicating. This short video explains the idea.
When participating in literacy experiences, like reading a book together, it can be difficult to model every word in the story. Focusing the modeling on words which are used most frequently is a way to target meaningful vocabulary. However, for a communication partner who is just learning about AAC, it can still be difficult to know which words to model.
The free webtool UpGoer6 invites users to input text which is then colorized based on how frequently the word is used. Bright green text indicates the word is used frequently. Dark red indicates the word is rarely used. Clicking on a word provides a numerical ranking of how frequently the word is used. Educators can copy and paste the colorized text into adapted books to provide communication partners reading with the student a visual cue of which words are the priority to model. Strategies like these make it easier for someone who is new to modeling on AAC know which words to prioritize when modeling.
Screenshot of the Up-Goer Six Text Editor