Resources for Maine Educators Teaching Online
Providing Equal Access to Distance Curriculum
As schools in Maine adjust to the new world of educating their students “from a distance,” Maine CITE offers some resources to assist in the process. Items with asterisks “*” are the latest additions
February 2021 – FCC announces new program to help households struggling during the pandemic to pay for Internet services…
August 2020 – Maine Department of Education – COVID-19 Returning to School Tool-Kit
Please also check our Maine CITE News feed which are categorized around COVID-19 resources
Federal/State Guidance and Resources on Assistive Technology (AT) Accessible Educational Material (AEM) and Special Education
- US DOE Guidance: Questions And Answers on Providing Services to Children with Disabilities During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak – PDF
- US DOE COVID-19 Resource Page
- Maine Department of Education Coronavirus Update
- University of Maine: PreK-12 Resources for Educators and Families
- Video – AT Town Hall: COVID-19, School Closures and AT – What do we do?
- Resources from National AEM Center on accessibility in remote learning
- Supporting Students with IEPs During eLearning Days – edWeb
- Student Privacy Policy Office: FERPA and Virtual Learning Related Resources (PDF) – March 2020
- BULLETIN: Civil Rights, HIPAA, and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (PDF) – March 28, 2020
- MDOE provides guidance on grading during emergency distance learning
You may also use this link to Office of the Governor to sign up for text or e-mail alerts
AT and AEM for Higher Education
- Higher Education Access in the Time of Coronavirus – AHEAD
- Resources for Services for Deaf Students – National Deaf Center
- Tips for Accommodations while Teaching Remotely – University of Cincinnati
Accessible Meetings
- Meeting at a Distance – Maine CITE
- Questions and Answers about Captioning – NDC
- Tips for Hosting Accessible Meetings with Deaf Participants
- Zoom: Accessibility for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (PDF) – ABA – Commission on Disability Rights
Accessible Educational Materials
The Maine AEM Program and Maine CITE Coordinating Center support Maine schools to ensure all of their educational materials and communications are accessible to all.
- Accessible Digital Documents
- Accessible Website Design
- Supporting Accessibility in Distance Education: Practices for Teachers –
- AT, AEM and Universal Design for Learning – Webinar
- Accessible Digital Documents – Introduction – Webinar
- Making PDFs into Accessible Educational Materials – Webinar
- Accessible Materials for All Students – SETDA
- Design for Accessibility using POUR – Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles
- Accessibility Basics – 14 YouTube videos from Luis Perez
Accessible Curriculum Materials
Newslea – Newsela is an online news-as-literacy platform that features high-interest articles on everything from current events to myths and legends and from literature to science.
Bookshare – Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading. Free membership for students with print disabilities.
Learning Ally – Learning Ally is a non-profit volunteer organization that produces and maintains a library of educational accessible audiobooks for people with print disabilities – Paid membership is required.
Accessible Learning Management Systems
- US DOE releases webinar on online education and website accessibility – YouTube
- Why and how to design accessible eLearning – eFrontLearning
- Accessibility in Teaching and Learning – Columbia University
Accessible Videos and Podcasts
- Making Podcasts and Videos into Accessible Educational Materials – Webinar
- Create Accessible Video, Audio and Social Media – Section508.gov
- Free Accessible videos – DCMP
- Checklist for Creating Accessible Video – BOIA
- Audio Description – TechSmith
- Maine CITE – Captioning Video
Other Tools & Resources
- * NMSBVI Virtual Learning Resources – New Mexico School for the Blind & VI
- * Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 – Mapping Access
- Tools and Resources for creating accessible learning for all – Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles
- Useful Resources during COVID-19 Outbreak – Maine Autism Institute for Education and Research
Access to Therapy Services
How will your school replicate the “hands on” nature of many of the therapy sessions?
- National Association of School Psychologists – Health Crisis Resources
- Guidance from the CEC for special education directors
- Crowd Sourced Resources to share for home programs, began by Megan Petersen (shared by Elisa Wern)
- HHS Guidance related to HIPAA compliance during COVID-19
- Resilience in the Face of COVID-19 – Psychologist Robert Brooks, Ph.D.
General Teaching Online
- Lessons from the Field: Remote Learning Guidance – California Department of Ed.
- Apps for Students With Special Needs—As School Buildings Shutter – Edutopia
- The 3 Biggest Remote Teaching Concerns We Need to Solve Now – EdSurge
- Digital Accessibility Resources to Empower All Learners – Nick’s Picks
- Education Response to COVID-19 (in the Caribbean) – UNESCO
- Apple – Learning From Home
- Google “Teach From Home” resource
- ISTE – Online Learning resources
- How to be a successful virtual teacher – eSchool News
- Kami for Accessible Remote Learning – video provides overview of Kami
- TextHelp – resources for online learning
- Remote Learning with Flipgrid
- Accessible teaching in the time of COVID-19
- So You Want to Temporarily Teach Online – Inside Higher Education
- Teach Access
- Access to Remote Instruction for Students and Faculty with Disabilities – University of Michigan
Thanks to several of our colleagues for sharing their resources. We would like to acknowledge the work of Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles, PhD, ATP of RSU 21, Kennebunk, ME and Mike Marotta, Director, The Richard West Assistive Technology Advocacy Center, NJ, and Luis Perez, Ed.D. of the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials.
rev: 09/09/2021