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http://www.atmatch.com, according to the website, is "a service developed specifically for individuals with disabilities and their families and friends." Categories of AT of materials include Aids for Daily Living, Automotive, Books, Communication, Computers and Peripherals, Environmental Controls, Hearing, Home & Hobby Accessories, Mobility, Positioning Aids, Software, Switches & Accessories, Toys, Vision, and Worksite Modifications.
The latest WATI Monitor reports: "Sign Smith Studio adds an animated character to sign text you type. You may get your animated character to sign directions, ask questions, or have them lead your child on a tour signing the whole way. People who are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) can create a script to change the characters facial expressions, mouthing, and eye gaze. Studio creates web page HTML, script or video output."
Click on http://www.vcom3d.com/Studio6b.pdf or visit http://www.vcom3d.com/index.php?id=signsmith for more information.
Communicate: Webwide from Widgit software, bills itself as "first symbol-supported web browser" and is intended to turn websites into different levels of picture supported text with full speech support if needed. Communicate: Webwide is a subscription-based service which gives users a flexible means of accessing information online. It will help any reader who has difficulty accessing the text in standard English language web pages.
According to the website, "You can choose between the coloured and black & white Widgit Literacy symbols (previously know as Widgit Rebus). These have a vocabulary of over 29,000 words. You can save your favorites through an easy to access manager. You can add an icon or graphic to remind you what the site is about. There is also a web portal that has links to sites that work well in symbols."
Most interesting, perhaps, is that the product is portable: "Symbols are accessed over the Internet, not from your machine. Widgit are constantly updating the online repository of symbols and vocabulary that powers Webwide. Because Communicate: Webwide is a subscription service, the symbols don't need to be installed on your machine. This means that you will get access to new symbols and extended vocabulary instantly. Every time the program is launched any available updates are installed, so you'll never need to worry about upgrading to receive new features."
Visit http://www.widgit.com/products/webwide/index.htm for a 30 day free trial.
Check out another great blog on assistive technology. "All together we can do our best" blog is led by Samuel Charles Sennott, a teacher focused on helping children and adults who have various labels of special needs succeed in school, communication, and writing. His blog contains a variety of resources. Look for the link to his wiki and the power point books and intellitools activities.
Technology doesn't always have to be high tech! There are lots of adaptations and modifications we do to make life easier and more accessible for everyone. I found a neat resource for building easy simple tools that are flexible and easy to manipulate and change depending on the need of the user. Assistive Technology Partners has put out a couple of books called "The PVC Book of Simple Possibilities"---Book 1 and 2 and they have great ideas!
Check it out and let me know if you make anything!
http://www.uchsc.edu/atp/pvcBooks.html
In an April 2007 article, Susan Loesl, an Adaptive Art Specialist, wrote of the many reasons why users may abandon their assistive technology. "According to many professionals in casual discussions, a major reason for AT abandonment is 'looking different,' writes Loesl. "When children are in school, there is an incredible amount of personal and social pressure to 'fit in'. If an educational team doesn’t take the student’s unique perspective about the AT and their lives into consideration, the AT may be quickly abandoned." Read more about AT Abandonment at http://www.wati.org/news/pdf/monitor_april-07.pdf
The following link will provide recorded footage from the 2006 Big Ten Plus IT Accessibility Conference. These videos have been created to playback using the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) CCforFlash Player...offering an accessible playback mode. For more information and review, visit http://wac.osu.edu/conferences/cic_it_accessibility_06
There's a new tool for creating audio files from text and other media! SpokenText.net provides an online tool for converting PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint, RSS news feeds, emails, and web pages into audio files. This provides a wonderful resource for supporting those students who like to "hear" the information and listen to files on their mp3 players. Several options for delivering content to users is provided. For more information, visit http://www.spokentext.net ....and best of all, it's FREE!
The ConnSENSE Bulletin publishes practical resources on assistive technology. They are now featuring podcasts on topics related to assistive technology. One podcast features Mary Lester, president of ATA. Other speakers include representatives from Dynavox, iChat 3, and Laureate Learning. Go to the ConnSENSE website to hear these podcasts or search ConnSENSE bulletin in the iTunes store.
Remember making scrap books with ticket stubs, photos, candy wrappers, pictures and other items to recognize important events in your life? Well this idea can be use with our students with communication challenges for topic setting for conversation or for writing. It's important that the student selects that item that's meaningful to that event, otherwise he/she won't see the connection. The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies has a document that includes how to create and use one of these books and also includes the North Carolina standards addressed making and using these books. I knew I being a pack rat was a good thing!
Check out the instructions on the web:
http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/documents/RemnantBooks_000.pdf
November 5-6, 2007
Holiday Inn Select Conference Center
Richmond, VA
Registration Contact: Sarah Wright, sswright@vcu.edu, 1-866-465-0412
The 10th annual TechKnowledgy 2007 Conference is now receiving registrations! This conference promotes the use of assistive technology and universal design for learning through presentations from nationally recognized leaders in the field of assistive technology, commercial vendor workshops, and exhibits from leading assistive technology manufacturers and companies. Our keynote this year will be Dan Keplinger, an accomplished artist, writer and subject of the Oscar winning HBO documentary "King Gimp." He will will talk about his education and life experiences growing up with cerebral palsy and will be available to meet individually with families to share his experiences. Come ready to learn and network with your AT colleagues in Virginia. You are also invited to attend a showing of "King Gimp" at 4:00 on November 5. "King Gimp" is open to non-conference participants too at no charge (but please register in advance). Additional information and registration forms are available on the T/TAC at VCU website, http://www.vcu.edu/ttac.
Something cool on the AlphaSmart website http://www.alphasmart.com/k12/solutions/studies_customers.html:
Customer Success Stories and Video Clips These stories and video segments illustrate how AlphaSmart customers have applied our products to improve instructional outcomes and achieve student success. They come from across the country, and reflect how different AlphaSmart products can be part of distinctive implementations, but consistently provide a basis upon which teachers and students can build educational achievement.
Page up and Page pal are both document holders that free your hands to do other things--and free desk space for other things, too! Great organizational and reading tool...reduces frustration when things fall all over the floor, reduces stiff neck while working on the computer from a document, increases focus on a page of directions when surrounded by project materials. What more could you want from a junky little piece of plastic? Ahh, a lower price! How about, "almost free"?
Well, make your own! Head to the craft store for polymer clay that has the ability to harden to permanence in a kitchen oven at 260 degrees in 20 minutes. Make a flat-bottomed, 2" dome of clay. With a piece of plastic-such as the cover of an old notebook, cut a "mouth" part of the way into the dome to hold the paper upright. Be sure to curve the plastic slightly from right to left while making the cut; this curve makes the paper stand up tall. Good luck-send us a picture!
It's been awhile since I ventured into the Crayola section of the store since my children are far beyond that stage, but recently I discovered several Crayola tools that now have that universal design feel. I'm especially excited about the audio ruler. Crayola Total Tools Audio Ruler measures out loud! This talking tool measures in quarter inch increments up to one foot with a thin line of disappearing ink. The ink helps to ensure that the measurement is what you wanted. Choose to hear the accurate measurement or a silly nonsensical measurement just for fun! Isn't this neat.
Also check out the erasable highlighters, ultimate cutter, and glue roller. All of these tools have wonderful grips to accomodate students with fine motor issues. Go to Crayola's website and check them out or go browse the Crayola isle of your favorite store.
http://www.crayola.com/products/splash/tools/TotalTools/index.cfm
Just another reminder of an great event coming up here in Richmond in December
A wonderful opportunity for families, individuals health care and educational professionals is coming to Richmond, December 7-8, 2007. The World of Possibilities Expo, sponsored by www.caringcommunities.org, features products for children through seniors with disabilities, workshop demonstrations, exhibitors, free wheelchair rentals and repairs, shopping opportunities, entertainment and more! If you are in town, come and check it out! For other sites go to http://www.caringcommunities.org
TECHNOLOGY TUESDAYS: Keeping abreast of the latest trends in assistive and instructional technology
These intro level mini-workshops are designed to offer participants an opportunity to practice using assistive technology materials, learn new skills and share ideas with others. All of these workshops are available to professionals and families in the VCU T/TAC Virginia Superintendent’s Regions 1 and 8. They will be held at the VCU T/TAC Office in Richmond, 10 East Franklin Street, Suite 200.
October 2, 4-6 pm, Click and Go: Cheap and Easy Software for Use in the General Education Classroom
See how a handful of widely-available, universally-designed software programs can be used to help students with mild-to-moderate disabilities progress in the general education classroom. Microsoft applications, Inspiration, and a variety of free downloads will be included (grades 3-12).
December 11, 4-6 pm, How Suite It Is!
Come explore Classroom Suite from IntelliTools. We will show how to adapt existing templates and activities from the activity exchange website to create your own individualized lesson. Share your created lessons with others, leave with a CD of prepared activities. (appropriate for PK-elementary and teachers of students with significant disabilities)
February 5, 4-6 pm, Text-to-Speech Computer Software
If only the computer could talk! Well it can! Many of our students can benefit from hearing their writing read back to them, listening and reading along with electronic books, having websites read aloud, recorded study guides and lectures…the possibilities are endless. Come explore the variety of programs available and learn some exciting new ways to reach your students! (grades K-12)
April 15, 4-6 pm, Show me the Money: Funding Opportunities for AT, presented by Joey Wallace, Executive Director of the Assistive Technology Loan Fund Authority
Locating funding resources for all those great AT tools is often a challenge. Creativity is the key—recognizing where the sources are and understanding the potential resources within your local community. Come join us for a discussion and review of potential local, state, and national funding resources for AT.
Please feel free to contact one of the assistive technology specialists at the T/TAC at VCU with questions about the workshop content, (804) 828-6947
Send Registration to Rose Eanes, VDOE T/TAC at VCU, P. O. Box 843081, Suite 200
Richmond, VA 23284-3081, Phone: 804-828-6947FAX: 804-828-7495 E-mail: reanes@vcu.edu. Registration will close one week prior to the workshop. Workshop space is very limited. NO WORKSHOP FEES
"Metallica, John Mayer, Tom Waits and Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) are the latest artists signed up to play Neil Young's annual charity gig, the Bridge School Concert. The event will take place on October 27 & 28 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View, CA, just outside of San Francisco. The annual gigs will benefit the Bridge School, which according to their website, 'The Bridge School is an educational program dedicated to ensuring that children with severe speech and physical impairments achieve full participation in their communities through the use of augmentative & alternative means of communication (AAC) and assistive technology (AT) applications.' Neil Young's children once attended this very school."(from http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=2766)
Want to support the Bridge School? Consider purchasing the CD "Various Artists - Bridge School Concerts Vol. 1." Like the idea of supporting AT through having a benefit concert? Some UVA folks have their own steps in planning that might get you started (www.virginiaservice.org/docs/how_to_plan_a_benefit_concert.doc?PHPSESSID=2cadc5693e76d8f44a2a6b3ea109c533) or try the MIT folks' idea checklist: (http://www.ashanet.org/uiuc/new/Public/www/Resources/concert_guidelines.html)
Good luck! Tell us if you plan one-we'll come!
The new Windows VISTA operating system has expanded the range of accessibility options. The new Ease of Access Center provides a central location for accessibility tools such as a magnifier, on-screen keyboard, contrast adjuster, and narrator. Users who wish to customize settings are further provided links for making the computer easier to see, using the computer without a mouse or keyboard, making the mouse easier to use, or using the computer without a display.
Reading text aloud can be accomplished through the VISTA Narrator and speech recognition is setup from the beginning...to easily interface with other programs. This new operating system seems to offer a more universally designed interface...for all users!
Google.com has been expanding its' repertoire of technology tools that support learning. For example,
Google Calculator, provides an online calculator that can perform a range of numerical operations.
Google Definitions, allows users to see a definition for a word or phrase. Simply type in define:, followed by a space, and then the word (define: technology).
Google Docs and Spreadsheets, http:/docs.google.com, offers a free web-based word processing and spreadsheet program for users to collaborate online.
Google Lab, http://www.google.com/options, allows users to play with a range of tools and services.
Explore the world of Google.com!
Blogs, wikis, instant messaging, social bookmarking, video sharing spaces, and many others constitute what is defined as social networking tools. Student often use these to stay connected with others, share information, make plans with friends, communicate, and dialogue with their peers. As a technology, many of these tools provide a "virtual community of practice", allowing students and educators to share information and enhance learning. For some learners, this may offer an easier medium to exchange information -- allowing the flexibility of digital media and tools. For example, students who rely upon assistive technologies to read and write (such as text aloud programs and voice activation) can use these tools while reading and responding with others through a blog or wiki. According to the 2007 New Horizons Report, http://www.nmc.org/horizon/2007/about social networking was ranked as one of the top two technologies to watch in the immediate future. Social networking tools may offer some new opportunities to engage learners!
Technology use is growing among students, across K-12 and higher education environments. Several research reports have continued to confirm this trend such as the Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/ and NetDay, Project director Julie Evans of NetDay reports that their is a "spectrum of digital nativeness" among many of these students -- often among the younger users. To peruse several national reports on technology use of K-12 student users, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_reports.html