Providing accommodations for students with special needs is top of mind at Formative. Teachers on a School & District license can provide accommodations to students at the global level, setting up the accommodation once and have it applied for every formative*.
If enabled, students who have the Masking accommodation will have the ability to cover portions of the screen during an assessment, hiding distractions or non-essential content while they read a passage or work through an item.
This means students no longer need to push through a cluttered or visually overwhelming page all at once - they can shield the parts they aren't using and keep their attention where it matters. They can hide a distracting block of text, reposition or resize a mask as they move down a passage, or layer it alongside the Line Reader for added focus, all without leaving the item they're working on.
Set a global accommodation for Masking
Student Management Page Pathway:
Go to your "Classes" tab
Click on the title of the class the student is a member of, to open the "Student Management" page
Click the "eye" icon next to "Accommodations"
Next to the student's name click on the blue highlighted status (this can read "None" or showcase a different accommodation)
In the pop-up window, toggle on the Masking button
Click "Update" to confirm the accommodation
Once a Masking Tool accommodation has been set for a student, the status under "Accommodations" will change to include it on a regular basis.
Student Profile Page Pathway
Go to your "Classes" tab
Click on the title of the class the student is a member of, to open the "Student Management" page
Locate the student and click the carat next to their name, to navigate to the "Student Profile" page
Click on the blue highlighted status next to "Accommodations" at the top of the page (this may read "None" or showcase a different accommodation)
In the pop-up window, toggle-on the Masking button
Click "Update" to confirm the accommodation
Once a Masking accommodation has been set for a student, the status next to "Accommodations" at the top of the page will change to include it on a regular basis.
Set up accommodations in bulk
If you need to set up the same accommodation for multiple students, you can take this action in-bulk:
From your "Student Management" page - check mark the boxes next to all the students you'd like to set up the accommodation for
Choose "Set Accommodations" from the menu at the bottom of the screen
In the pop-up window, toggle-on the Masking button
Click "Update" to confirm the accommodation
Once a Masking accommodation has been set for the students, the status under "Accommodations" will change to include it on a regular basis.
Remove an accommodation
Student Management Page Pathway
Go to your "Classes" tab
Click on the title of the class the student is a member of, to open the Student Management page
Click on the eye icon next to "Accommodations"
Next to the student's name click on the blue highlighted status (this will now indicate the Masking accommodation)
Un-toggle the Masking button
Click "Update" to save
Note: only setting up accommodations in currently available for bulk action. If you need to change or remove accommodations for students, you will need to do so for each student individually
Student Profile Page Pathway
Go to your "Classes" tab
Click on the title of the class the student is a member of, to open the Student Management page
On the "Student Management" page locate the student and click the carat next to their name, to navigate to the "Student Profile" page
Click on the blue highlighted status next to "Accommodations" at the top of the page (this will now indicate the Masking accommodation)
Un-toggle the Masking button
Click "Update" to save
NOTE:
Accommodations are set globally on the student level. This means that once accommodations have been set for a student, they will apply for that student across the board: on all formatives and in all classes!
If a teacher changes or removes an accommodation from the "classes" tab or the student's profile - it will effect the student's accommodations for all classes and other teachers as well.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
🙋🏽 The student's Masking accommodation doesn't apply to my class / subject - What do I do?
If a student has a Masking accommodation, the teacher can disable it for the student on a formative level, i.e. on any specific formative they assign to the student, without affecting the accommodation on other formatives or classes. This can be achieved from the formative's assign settings window, under: Student Management Settings > Accommodations (see full instructions below)
On your formative's assign settings window, you will see the number of students with accommodations (in general) next to the "Accommodations" setting. Click on the carat to reveal the list of students along with their specific accommodations.
Click the carat next to "Accommodations" to reveal the list of students and their accommodations (if applicable)
Click the blue-highlighted accommodation status next to a student's name
Toggle off the Masking button
Click "Update" to save the changes for this specific formative
🙋🏽♀️ I want to give a Masking accommodation on my formative to students without the Global accommodation, can I do that?
Yes! Teachers can grant a one-time, formative-specific Masking accommodation access to students even if they do not have a global accommodation set on their accounts.
When you access the assign settings window, you will see the number of students with accommodations (in general) next to the "Accommodations" setting. Click on the carat to reveal the list of students in your class. Students that have the global accommodation will be listed there along with their specific accommodations. You can add the Masking accommodation to additional students at this time and they will have access to it for this formative only.
Add the formative-specific Masking to students:
Click the carat next to "Accommodations" to reveal the list of students along with their respective global accommodations (if applicable)
Click on the blue-highlighted accommodation status next to a student's name
Toggle ON the Masking button for the student
Click "Update" to save the changes for this specific formative
You can then proceed to assign the formative to the class
The Student's View
When students with a Masking accommodation in place open a formative, they will see the menu of Global Learning Tools on the right side of their screen, and a Focus Tools icon will appear within it.
Clicking on the Focus Tools will open another menu, where the Masking toggle button will be listed.
Students will toggle the Masking button ON to enable it, select "Add new mask" and click on the specific screen area where the masking pane will appear. Students will then proceed to re-size and drag the masking pane across their screen as needed.
Students can add multiple masking panes to cover multiple areas of their screen if needed.
