Pathblazer is a tool our K-6th grade students will be using during distance and hybrid learning. When K-2 students take their adaptive screeners and diagnostic assessments, Pathblazer will read the text aloud to them! However, students at higher grade levels will not have this option.
The good news is that students have access to a built-in Chromebook accessibility tool called Select-to-Speak! They can use this tool to have almost any text on their Chromebook read to them, including text in Pathblazer. This accessibility tool will not only benefit struggling readers who are below grade level, but also SPED and EL students.
Before students use the Select-to-Speak accessibility option on their Chromebooks, they will first need to turn the feature on. Follow the steps in this video:
Once the Select-to-Speak accessibility setting has been turned on, students can follow these simple steps whenever they want to have text read to them:
Locate the select-to-speak accessibility icon at the bottom right hand corner of the shelf, next to the time.
Click this icon to turn it on.
Click and drag over the text to select it (there will be red box over the text).
The system will read the selected text.
Repeat the above steps as needed.
Take a look at this video to see how the Select-to-Speak tool works with Pathblazer:
There are many more built-in Chromebook accessibility options for students. If you are you interested in learning about these options or Text-to-Speech tools that can be used with our district curriculum, check out this great resource: Text-to-Speech Digital Handout or reach out to your Edtech!
Stay Techie,
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