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Welcome to our Accessibility Toolbar! Committed to inclusivity, our team at Educational Networks designed this feature specifically to enhance the user experience on school and school district websites. Whether you're looking to change text attributes for better readability, adjust the screen's contrast and saturation for clearer visuals, or want an audio narration of content blocks, our toolbar is here to ensure a seamless and accessible experience for all users. We understand that everyone interacts with web content in their own unique way, and with this toolbar, we aim to cater to a diverse range of needs.

Activating the Accessibility Toolbar

Starting Up: Initially, the toolbar is in a disabled state. To enable it, simply click on the small "accessibility toolbar" icon situated at the bottom right of the screen. Upon clicking, a control panel will slide in from the bottom, offering you a series of user-friendly options.

Hide Toolbar Option: Once you've made your desired adjustments and prefer a more unobtrusive view, you can click on the "Hide Toolbar" button. This action causes the control panel to slide back down and disappear. The "accessibility toolbar" icon will then display a green checkmark, signaling that while hidden, the toolbar functions are still active and can be operated using keyboard shortcuts.

Turning Off the Toolbar: If you decide you want to completely deactivate the toolbar, locate and click on the "Turn off" button within the control panel. The control panel will slide away and the green checkmark on the "accessibility toolbar" icon will be removed, indicating that the toolbar is fully deactivated.

Reactivating the Toolbar: Even after turning off, you can reactivate the toolbar at any point by simply clicking the "accessibility toolbar" icon. This brings back the control panel, allowing you to customize your experience once more.

Font Customizations

Font Style: Browse through different font styles to find one that's most comfortable for your reading experience. Use the keyboard shortcut "1" to quickly switch between different font styles.

Font Size: Adjust the text size to your liking. Use the keyboard shortcut "2" to swiftly toggle between different font sizes.

Line Height: Modify the space between lines to enhance readability. Use the keyboard shortcut "3" to increase or decrease the line height conveniently.

Text Alignment: Choose how you'd like your text to be aligned. By using the keyboard shortcut "4", you can effortlessly change between left, center, or right alignment.

Visual Adjustments

Our toolbar allows you to personalize your visual experience by adjusting contrast and saturation levels. These adjustments are designed to cater to a wide range of visual preferences:

Contrast Adjustments: Enhance or decrease the difference between text and background colors. This can be particularly helpful for users with visual impairments like low vision, color blindness, age-related macular degeneration, or cataracts, as the difference between text and its background becomes more pronounced.

Saturation Modifications: Adjust the intensity of colors on the webpage. Modifying saturation can significantly benefit individuals with color vision deficiencies or color blindness, as it can make certain hues more discernible or reduce confusion between colors. This feature also supports those who experience visual discomfort from overly vibrant colors.

By tweaking these settings, you can ensure that the content presentation matches your visual comfort, making the browsing experience both accessible and enjoyable.

Cursor Enhancements

By activating the "cursor" function, you can modify and enhance the mouse cursor's visibility for a better reading experience:

Enlarged Cursor: Click the "cursor" button once, and the mouse cursor will increase in size, making it easier to track on the screen.

Reading Bar: Click the "cursor" button a second time to introduce the "reading bar." This feature emphasizes an area spanning the full width of the browser window, covering just a few lines of text, with shaded areas above and below to reduce distractions. The reading bar is particularly beneficial for individuals with challenges such as dyslexia, visual processing issues, or ADHD, as it helps isolate text and reduce visual stress, making navigation of large text blocks more manageable.

Audio Narration

Engage with content through two effective auditory methods:

Direct Text Highlighting: Highlight the specific text you're interested in and press "r". The system will promptly read the selected text aloud.

Block Selector Feature: Activate the "Block Selector" by clicking its designated button. Once enabled, the system will visually emphasize content blocks by drawing a rectangle around them as you hover. This gives a clear indication of the content block currently selected. To hear the content within this block, press "r". If you wish to halt the narration at any point, simply click the Escape button.

Enhanced Menu Navigation

To offer users an alternative, simplified navigation experience, our toolbar provides the "Enhanced Menu Navigation" feature. You can activate this feature either by clicking its dedicated button in the control panel or simply by pressing "m" on your keyboard.

Once activated:

Dialog Box Display: A dialog box emerges over the website content, showcasing menu items in an enlarged format. For quick navigation, each menu item is paired with a unique number.

Audio Assistance: For those who benefit from auditory cues, pressing "r" allows the system to read out the menu items and their associated numbers aloud.

Intuitive Navigation: By inputting the number of a menu item via the keyboard, users can seamlessly explore deeper into submenus. Items are displayed in the same user-friendly manner, and if a chosen item is linked, the system immediately directs users to the relevant URL.

This feature serves as an alternative method to traverse the website, catering specifically to users who might find this format more comfortable or efficient based on their individual preferences or needs.

Keyboard-Only Operability

Recognizing the importance of an unobtrusive browsing experience, our Accessibility Toolbar has been meticulously designed to function without the need for the on-screen control panel. By mastering the keyboard shortcuts, users can seamlessly engage with all the toolbar's features, allowing them to enjoy the original website design and content with minimal visual disruptions. This approach ensures that everyone can access the enhanced features while preserving the intended aesthetic of the website.

Click here for the complete list of keyboard shortcuts.

Thank you for using our Accessibility Toolbar. We hope this guide assists you in navigating our website effortlessly. Should you have any feedback or require further assistance, please reach out to our support team. Your feedback helps us improve and cater to the needs of all our users better. Enjoy your browsing experience!