AT for access regular education
Theresa e-mailed this question to us regarding types of AT to help her 6th grade daughter access the regular education curriculum. Theresa wrote that her daughter does better when text is highlighted and words are reduced. Her daughters' physician has also filled out a form so she could gain access to enlarged materials.
Theresa, there are many items that are available which might help your daughter. Since you already know that highlighting works, make use of highlighting tape, reading bars or even a small pocket magnifier or magnifier bar. Textbooks can be prepared ahead of class using highlighting tape for focusing on the correct math problem or highlighting the main topic of a paragraph or for defining vocabulary words.
There are also many options available for converting text documents to speech files. Read Please is a free program available for download to a computer it can be found at this web site.
With the NIMAS regulations we will also be seeing more textbooks become available in accessible digital formats.
The Boston Public Schools Access Technology Center has put together a list of a variety of ways to adapt books for students. You can access this information at the following link.
http://www.boston.k12.ma.us/teach/technology/emmanuel/ATAdaptBks.pdf
Theresa, thanks for asking we hope this information has been helpful.