Typing Club is a free typing instruction site that offers some unique features for students and teachers. One of those features that I covered in depth last year is the story-based typing practice activities. In those activities, demonstrated here, students unlock stories as they type. Unlocking the next part of the story provides and incentive for students to type accurately and quickly. That’s not the only way to develop and practice typing skills in Typing Club, but it is the most engaging way to practice.
Recently, I had time to try some of Typing Club’s other features. Specifically, I spent a lot of time learning about the accessibility features that are built into Typing Club. Typing Club’s accessibility features include easily implemented modifications for students who have vision impairments, hearing impairments, dyslexia, and those who have limited use of their hands.
Here’s an overview of the accessibility settings available in Typing Club:
- All activity directions and lesson items can be read aloud to students through Typing Club’s built-in voiceover tool. Voiceover is available in 34 languages and 47 voices. You or your students can pick the language for the voiceover and also specify the corresponding keyboard format.
- When the blind setting is enabled students will be blocked from forward progress until the correct key is used. Students are given an audible alert when they make mistakes.
- The dyslexic setting in Typing Club changes the default font to one that has been proven to improve comprehension. That setting also includes voiceover.
- The hearing impaired accessibility setting provides automatic subtitling of videos in the Typing Club lessons.
- There is a setting for students who have use of only one hand. When that setting is enabled, the lessons are modified to teach students efficient one-handed typing techniques.
