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The Virginia Department of Education has recently announced the debut of the "Accessible Instructional Materials in Virginia" (AIM-VA) website at http://kihd.gmu.edu/aim. This resource helps educators find resources and solutions for creating accessible, digital materials for all students with print disabilities.
Here's a new wiki on assistive technology from our friends at the Center for Technology Innovation,
http://simmonsatshowcase.wikispaces.com/The+Read-Write+Web
Here's a new resource for considering universal design in the workplace, http://www.onestops.info/. A great resource that offers a systems matrix for aligning approaches, links to relevant webcast, and links to important resources.
I know that we have posted this in the past but it is worth highlighting again because this list is kept current with the latest technology that is free. Posted on Karen Janowski's blog "EdTech Solutions Teaching Every Student" this entry is valuable to those of us working to create universally designed instruction.
As Karen state is her intro:
My passion is to remove the obstacles to learning for all students and these free tools offer opportunities for struggling learners that promote academic success. When material is digital or electronic, it is flexible and accessible. It is our responsibility as educators to provide materials that promote success. Please encourage all educators to consider using these free tools.
http://teachingeverystudent.blogspot.com/2007/06/free-technology-toolkit-for-udl-in-all.html
Finally a way to assess students’ use of symbols and monitor progress toward conventional literacy! Sequentially identifies behaviors in Communication, Reading and Writing, from using and understanding symbols to communicate, to using pictures to support reading and writing text. Items describe student behaviors with examples. Each PAL Assessment booklet has four scoring/observation periods. Use the PAL Assessment to monitor literacy growth with or without picture assistance. Perfect for developing IEPs, reporting progress and including in student portfolios.http://www.slatersoftware.com
Wondering how to stay abreast of the latest trends in technology and learning? Wondering how to locate assistive technology resources on a national scale? Visit the Center for Technology Innovation at http://www.cited.org. Several new resources provide:
A virtual space for taking online courses from the American Institutes of Research.
Links to the Executive Brief, Moving Forward with Technology.
CITEd's Tech Matrix for searching technology/ assistive technology tools, http://www.TechMatrix.org
...and much more!
Take a peek, explore this summer!
Here's a neat new resource that offers information support differing ways of learning and knowing. Visit http://allkindsofminds.org
Our friends at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) have recently shared some new resources they have on UDL. Note below and visit http://www.cast.org/:
* The release of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines - Version 1 aimed at helping teachers, curriculum developers, and publishers develop more inclusive curriculum.
* The release of five new free tools to help teachers to meet the challenge of individualizing instruction to meet the diverse needs of students in their classrooms.
The UDL Guidelines will assist teachers, publishers, and others in designing flexible curricula that are more accessible, effective and engaging for ALL learners. They will also help educators evaluate both new and existing curricula goals, media and materials, methods and assessments. Read the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines - Version 1.
Check out the UDL Guidelines Blog -- a forum for educators and other education stakeholders (parents, policy makers, etc.) to offer comments on how to improve the guidelines; share stories about applying the guidelines; and identify new examples and resources that support application of the UDL Guideline options.
Five Free Teacher Resources
Language Arts
UDL Editions by CAST (Ages 10 and up)
UDL Editions by CAST are classic texts from world literature presented in a flexible online interface that provides just-in-time, individualized supports for struggling readers, and added-value features that engage novice and expert readers alike.
Learning features include leveled supports to build reading strategies and help readers understand the elements of the author’s craft; a Texthelp Toolbar for accessibility and language features; context-specific multimedia glossaries and enrichment activities; and multimedia background resources. Developed with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Introduced in partnership with the Google Literacy Project for World Book Day, 2008.
CAST UDL Book BuilderTM (Ages 3 and up)
Free online tool enables educators to develop their own digital books to support reading instruction for children aged 3 and up. Teachers create, edit, and save resource-rich texts. Terry, an animated character, guides educators as they write text, choose images, and develop scripts for the prompts, hints, and models that will help build young readers' skills. Developed with support from the Massachusetts Department of Special Education, NEC Foundation of America, The John W. Alden Trust, and The Pinkerton Foundation. Please send comments or suggestions to bookbuilder@cast.org.
Internet Research and Digital Literacy
CAST Strategy Tutor (Ages 10-and up)
Free online tool to support students and teachers doing reading and research on the Internet. Strategy Tutor helps students read, research, collect and understand information better and more efficiently. For teachers, Strategy Tutor provides a way to easily create web-based lessons embedded with research-based, highly effective learning strategy and vocabulary supports. Developed with generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Improving Teacher Practice
CAST UDL Curriculum Self-CheckTM
Free online tool that helps educators build options and flexibility into each element of the curriculum (goals, methods, materials, and assessments) in order to reach and engage all students. Developed with support from the Massachusetts Department of Special Education. Please send comments or suggestions to UDLSelfCheck@cast.org.
CAST UDL Lesson BuilderTM
Free online tool that teaches educators to customize standards-based curriculum to meet individual learning needs. Developed in cooperation with the Access Center (American Institutes for Research). Please send comments or suggestions to lessonbuilder@cast.org.
There is a growing surge in the market to make laptops more portable and durable. In April HP announced the release of their HP Mini priced around $500. This computer is being marketed for educational purposes so that all students can have access to a computer at their desk and at home. Read more about this product at:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2008/080408xc.html
If you want to view the HP Mini. Here's a you tube clip:
This video presentation shows strategies for fully including students with disabilities in science and math activities. Science and math teachers who view this video will become better prepared to create an inclusive learning environment and accommodate students with disabilities.
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Video/winequ.html
If you've been irritated about how PC users are the only ones who can take advantage of Premier's low-cost AT tools, you can now stop complaining: a press release this week announced that Premier will now offer its software for both PC and Mac platforms.(Click on http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb934344.htm to read more; click on http://www.readingmadeez.com/products for Premier's website).
One Rochester, MN local paper just featured an activity in its "local life section":
The PACER Center will present a free workshop sponsored by Ability Building Center, Inc. from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on May 22. The workshop, titled "What Parents and Professionals Need to Know About Assistive Technology," will provide parents and professionals with an introduction to AT and the relevant legal requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Tips will be given about selecting appropriate AT devices, and attendees will be introduced to the "Minnesota Assistive Technology Manual." Participants will also hear about state and local resources for trying and acquiring AT.
Sometimes we forget that just getting the word out about AT in schools-regardless of who comes to the two-hour session-will help us raise awareness in both the professional and family populations. Plus, I bet that they'll have cookies! But seriously, this kind of event is worth keeping on the school calendar once a year-especially for those schools/divisions with AT Teams!
Click on http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080509/LOCAL180201/805090496/1274/LOCAL06 to read about how one Indianapolis-area public library offers patrons "such features as magnification software, screen reading software and a video magnifier for printed materials. The workstations include an advanced document scanning/reading system and a large print keyboard."
Now, how great would it be if these were features of ALL workstations?!
Math Type is a program that creates mathematical notation for word processing, web pages, desktop publishing, and presentations. It contains more symbols and templates that the standard equation editor. Math Type appears to be very appropriate for high school level math and chemistry classes.
For sample templates and activities that have been created using Math Type go here:
http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mathtype/samples/index.html
You can get a free 30 day trial at:
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/default.htm
For those of you who love PixWriter---Slater Software has updated it to 3.0 to include even more really cool, fun, and accessible features.If you already own PixWriter, you can upgrade to 3.0 for only $79. These are some of the cool additions:
• PixWriter ToolBar for easy access to several functions
• Punctuation, Speak and Erase are active in the tool bar and may be moved to the word bank based on students’ needs
• Easily color code or arrange toolbars to fit the preferences of the student.
• Over 9,000 newly drawn Literacy Support Pictures (LSP)
• Speak button reads and highlights word by word
• Auditory scanning available with single-switch and two-switch step scanning.
If you want to see more go to: http://www.slatersoftware.com
Click on http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=924 to read "Can Assistive Technology Save Computing," which addresses accessibility and talks about a center for disability support whose projects include:
- DISCO, which uses light, sound, and tactile stimulation to create a learning environment with positive feedback for people with significant disabilities
- BUTTON MAKER, a computing interface for people with significant disabilities aimed at enabling learning.
- VAPP, a videoconferencing system for people with physical disabilities aimed at distance learning.
- Nexus, a home controller with a visual programming language to help people with physical disabilities control their environment.
Cool!
So take a look at http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/287846 to see what's up with technology that helps voters with disabilities maintain their right to a secret ballot.
This just in from Jennifer, a friend of the blog:
"How a non-verbal student can participate during a verbal class activity"
Lately there has been a lot of discussion about accessible instructional materials. This article is great because it highlights the challenges that are faced for making sure that math texts are accessible by all. As you know, math equations are not always easily recognized by text to speech programs. Here is an excerpt from the article by Steve Noble, Director of Accessibility Policy Design Science:
The use of digital texts, however, has been largely focused on providing access to standard literary materials, rather than to math content. Higher level math access with assistive technologies is particularly problematic, due to the fact that common scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies used to convert print materials to digital form cannot process complex math symbols, and publisher created digital resources commonly use inaccessible graphical images of math equations.
Read the entire article at:
Click on http://southcountyjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/05/05/news/sj2tn20080505-0507aff-atfair0.ii1.txt for "Technology helps the disabled find recreation: A consumer fair for demos and devices."
From the article:
Assistive technology equipment has also helped Kerri Morgan, an instructor in the occupational therapy program at Washington University School of Medicine. She uses a manual wheelchair for everyday use and work. For a while she was using crutches, but that wasn't doing the trick.
"It took to much energy," said Morgan, 33, of the Loft District. Besides her manual wheelchair, Morgan has one she uses for rugby. She is paralyzed from the chest down as a result of being diagnosed with transverse myelitis at age 1. "Technology really helps make things possible for people with disabilities," Morgan said. "I use assistive technology so I tell people we may not do it like everyone else, but I do it with the appropriate assistive technology."
OK, so a million people have told you that you just HAVE to download ReadPlease, a free assistive technology tool that reads aloud digital text-anything that you type into the reading window or copy-and-paste into it. The problem is that you just haven't gotten around to figuring out how to do it. No problem! Click here and the nice folks at ATRC will help you: http://atrc.utoronto.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125&Itemid=48.
Have you visited the Wikipedia entry on assistive technology? Lots of other people have! Consider taking a look at it and picking up some new knowledge, correcting or augmenting what's there, or just exploring some of the links...click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology to see the entry.