◄ Accessibility Notes

Literacy activities in this textbook are designed to support multiple pathways to learning, including visual, auditory, and text-based access, so that students can connect pronunciation, meaning, and written form in accessible ways. Particular attention has been given to accessibility for learners who use screen readers. Because the materials frequently alternate between English and Japanese, the text and underlying HTML have been adapted to help screen readers recognize changes in language and apply the appropriate pronunciation and reading conventions. The materials have also been tested with commonly available assistive technologies to improve the accuracy and naturalness of screen-reader output across the two languages. The following Screen Reader (SR) settings have been verified to work effectively with this textbook:

You can start the screen reader called "Narrator" with Ctrl-Window-Enter while any application window is open.

Keyboard layout showing Control-Windows-Enter keys to start the screen reader

To change the screen reader preferences, type Ctrl-Window-N. The following are the recommended settings:

  • Keyboard shortcut: ON
  • Voice: Microsoft Zira - English (United States) -- This is a slightly "robotic" voice.
  • Verbosity level: 1-Text only
  • To navigate to the desired content quickly, use "H" (go to the next header) or "Shift-H" (go back to the previous header).

This textbook contains explicit language-setting codes on every Webpage. This allows Narrator to detect the language of the text and switch the voices correctly. ⚠ Caution: If you select a "natural" voice within the Narrator's preferences, this voice switching capability will be lost. As a result, a natural Japanese voice will ignore English text and a natural English voice will ignore Japanese text.

Chrome’s Reading Mode allows you to select part of the text on the screen to be read aloud.

Screenshot of the Reading Mode in Chrome browser
  1. Highlight any portion of the visible text on a webpage.
  2. Right-click the highlighted text to open the pop-up menu.
  3. Select “Open in reading mode.”
  4. A sidebar will appear on the right.
  5. Click the Play button ▶ to have the text read aloud.

You can choose your preferred voice by clicking the Reading Mode icon (the open book icon) in the browser menu bar. Then click the ear icon in the sidebar on the right to select a voice. ⚠ Caution: Chrome’s natural voices read both languages in a mixed-language text without switching voices. That is, if you select an English voice, the Japanese text will be read with an English accent. If you select a Japanese voice, the English text will be read with a Japanese accent.