Using Accessibility Tools for Students

Roadmaps has Accessibility Tools available for students! Have them click on "Accessibility Tools" along the bottom of any page in Roadmaps, and a toolbar will pop up. Click here to download a quick printout guide for all the tools and here for a nifty cheat sheet for students!

Students can move the toolbar around their screens by clicking on the four arrow icon, shown below.

Students can partially hide the toolbar by clicking the "Close" icon, shown below, or by clicking on Accessibility Tools at the bottom of their screens again.

Here are the Accessibility Tools your students can use!

Text to Speech!

Students can click this tool to read text aloud with dual color highlighting at a word or sentence level.

While using the Text to Speech tool, students can use the above buttons to play, pause, or stop the read aloud and highlighting. They can use these tools either to read highlighted text, or to read an entire Roadmaps webpage out loud.

Dictionary!

Look up the dictionary definition of any word with the option to have the definition read aloud. Multiple definitions are given to provide context. Just click the Dictionary icon in the Accessibility Tools toolbar, then click and drag or double click to highlight the word you would like to define.

To hear the word spoken aloud, or to hear one of the definitions, click on the play button icon next to the word or the definition.

Picture Dictionary!

Use the Picture Dictionary to view the definition of a word in the form of an expressive illustration. Just click the Picture Dictionary icon in the Accessibility Tools toolbar, then click and drag or double click to highlight the word you would like to define in pictures.

To hear the word spoken aloud, click on the play button icon next to the word.

Screen Mask!

Use the Screen Mask to focus on a specific section of the screen, or to reduce the screen glare! Just click the Screen Mask icon in the Accessibility Tools toolbar, then move your cursor around the screen to move the mask. Here's a picture of what it looks like in action:

Annotation Pens!

Use the Annotation Pens to highlight or cross out text on any page in Roadmaps. Just click and drag or double click to highlight the word(s), then click the Annotation Pens icon and choose one of the options in the Accessibility Tools toolbar to highlight the word(s) in your chosen color or cross them out.

You can see all of the words that you've highlighted on a page in one place by clicking the circular four arrow icon. Here's what that window looks like!

To erase the highlighting and crossing out that you've done, click the broom icon.

Single Word Translation!

Allows single words to be translated and read aloud. Multiple definitions are also given to provide context.

Frequently Asked Questions

The icons are grayed out and I can't click them - what's going on? You might need to clear your cache - ask your teacher to clear your cached images and files in your browsing data, and then try again. If you're still having trouble, reach out to the Help Center. Here's an article from Google's help center about clearing your cache and cookies - feel free to ignore the instructions relating to clearing cookies.

Can I turn the Accessibility Tools toolbar's availability on and off? Yes, you can. Ask a user with Site Administrator access to Roadmaps at your school to navigate to the Permissions page under the Manage tab, and select or deselect the checkbox next to "Enable accessibility tools for students."

Can students define bad words? No - the dictionary only defines whole words that already appear in the platform, and the platform is necessarily clean. The dictionary cannot read words that students write in answer boxes or in the Help Center.