The Assistive Technology Blog

I always enjoy presenting information about technology trends and how these involve accessible technologies. In this digital age, this is more exciting than ever before. On October 28, 2009, I joined a colleague for such a presentation at our state education technology conference. We shared our wares - iPod Touch devices, netbooks with free screen readers, compact OCR scanners, and the Livescribe. The audience of IT administrators seemed impressed, especially when we shared the Proloque2Go app for the iTouch and that evolving industry.

As we moved through the day, I was again impressed with a feature speaker who shared some of the emerging technology trends for education. Among them again, netbooks, mobile devices, flexible paper and the future of ebooks. Apparently, next year we may see a new series of ebook readers designed for the K-12 classrooms complete with touch sensitivity and color browsing.

As I returned to my computer and email the following day, there again was a new announcement about ebooks and ereaders, http://followthereader.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/the-day-it-all-changed/. Exciting developments for the future and the opportunities for learning!

Posted by Fran Smith at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kurzweil Technologies will supply digital content for K-NFB Reading Technology, a newly developed e-book reading software created by Kurzweil in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind. The software will be offered to consumers for free. Consumers can purchase books directly through the software. The software will be available for laptops (both PC and MAC) as well as net books, and mobile phones. It's scheduled to be released at the end of November. Keep up with what's happening by logging onto

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the website:

Freedom Scientific's JAWS® 11 screen reading software and Microsoft's new operating system, Windows® 7. JAWS 11 offers a number of feature enhancements to improve accessibility with this new operating system, and Microsoft itself has made many changes. To get a user perspective on JAWS 11 and Windows 7, we are joined by J. R. Westmoreland, an experienced technology user. We discuss what's new in Windows 7 and when might be the right time to consider an upgrade. Find the audio for this podcast at http://podcast.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast035-october2009.mp3

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great question! Take a few minutes to follow this link from the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System to learn more about these assistive technology assessment kits that offer Low Tech Tools for Inclusive Education.

We have an assortment of them in our library that can be checked out for three weeks as you determine what tools your students might need! Great for collaborative special education teachers who are finding their feet in strategizing for students in a new classroom.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have recently been asked by a lot of people, "Where do you find erasable highlighters?" My typical response (which is, "I Google them") has apparently left something to be desired.

Here, therefore, is a link to the Office Max brand erasable highlighter, which is CHEAP!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last month, the Indiana Assistive Technology Blog reviewed the new online "User Assistance Tool" from Macy's for individuals with visual impairments. Read their review here: http://blog.eastersealstech.com/tag/macys-user-assistance-tool/

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Students who have trouble tracking text and transcribing their answers might benefit from this use of highlighter tape as "marginal gloss":

1. Place 1" highlighter tape down the margin of a textbook page.


2. Write one or more questions on the tape (perhaps one at the top or a couple next to two different paragraphs).


3. Have students write responses directly on the tape beside the relevant paragraph. Some students might simply draw a bracket to show where the answer is.

Students can also use thinner highlighter tape to locate and highlight the answer for things like definitions and other identification-level questions.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you remember using a hand-held labeler when you were young with sticky tape that could be used to put your name on all of your special items? Have you wanted to provide access to students who use braille, but don't have access to a Braille machine? I found a portable brailler for $34 dollars that can be used to quickly provide access to print and the environment. The device has regular print as well as braille, so it can be used by everyone.
Check it out!

http://www.independentliving.com

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Did you know that the Livescribe pen, one of our favorite AT devices, was tapped for a bronze award in the recent "2009 Technology Innovation Awards" through the Wall Street Journal (September 14, 2009). We've been impressed with this tool as one that offers a seamless technology that an individual can use to acquire information in multiple formats.

At our summer "Got AT" event from the VDOE Assistive Technology Priority Project, I had first hand experience watching educators try out this tool at our display. Their interests were quickly piqued when they realized that a handwritten note had also been captured as an audio recording in the pen. In addition. touching any point on the handwritten notes brought back a recording of the exact discussion. A wonderful application of using technology to scaffold a learner's acquisition of information.

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Masking tools for reading (often a card with a "window" cut into it) can help people stay focused as they read. There are many commercially available ones, such as the Heads Up reading frame and reading guide, or you can make your own. Try it with a student who is struggling!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so I'm reading through Brian Friedlander's http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2009/09/searching-google-with-context-organizer.html and wondering whether Context Organizer is AT. He acknowledges that this application, which summarizes texts based on keywords, helps anyone who needs to sort through "mountains" of information. I agree; a summary feature (such as the one embedded in MS Word) might be a useful one.

Does it serve a purpose for any of our students or ourselves? What should we think about as we suggest this assistive technology for students who have difficulty with reading?

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Linda Burkhart's website, Simplified Technology provides a wealth of great tips, resources and websites to help simplify technology use in your classroom.
Click on the link to get started: http://lburkhart.com

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so it seems like a good idea for all of us to sign up for the AccessText mailing list: http://www.accesstext.org/students.php. Right now, the site is encouraging students to join the mailing list to receive future announcements on student resources (scheduled to launch summer 2009). The website indicates that they will address questions such as:

• How do I receive textbooks in alternative (electronic) formats?


• How do I use alternative (electronic) textbooks?


• What technology is needed to access electronic textbooks?


• What is the best electronic textbook format for me?


• Where can I get access to reading technology?

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 2:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you in search of low tech to mid tech items you can use in your inclusive classrooms and need help in using them? Click on the link below for the Lottie Kit On-Line Workshop. You will find tools and resources that are appropriate for assessment, evaluation and accommodations in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics and organization.

http://www.fdlrs.leon.k12.fl.us/lottie_kit/intro.html

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AccessText (http://www.accesstext.org) is a new electronic database that aims to make sure students can access electronic versions of textbooks when requested by colleges. The network currently includes 92 percent of all college textbook publishers.

For more information, read http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/28/access.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many apps that are available for reading e-books. Most feature a library of classic books. In addition the apps have the ability to change the size of the font. The Narrator app is the one application that I have found that will also read the text while highlighting. Currently three books are available (Call of the Wild, Anne of Green Gables, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit) with more promised by the creator.

I have also made use of the free Kindle app. This app allows you to purchase books through your Amazon Kindle account and have them available on your iTouch or iPhone. Surprisingly I found that reading a book on the iTouch was pleasurable and did not cause me any eye strain--and I have old eyes. Now I have a book available wherever I am: waiting in the doctor's office, waiting for my children, or while traveling.

Posted by Mona at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Students can scan a single word or a full line of text...the word is spoken aloud and displayed on the LCD screen. Has earphones and a carrying case.
Click on the following link for more information:
http://www.readingpen.com/

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The beginning of the school year is a great time to review the AT needs of your students in the areas of math and reading. Click on the following links to AT that will get your students off to a grand start!

Cool Math
http://www.coolmath.com/graphit/

Elementary Mathematics
http://www.fi.uu.nl/rekenweb/en/welcome.xml?groep=6

Secondary Mathematics
http://www.fi.uu.nl/wisweb/en/

http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/projects/funded/jasper/intro/Jasperintro.html

Reading
http://www.bookshare.org/readingTools

http://www.bookcourier.com/

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) has a website that is full of resources to assist with enhancing literacy experiences for students who have vision challenges. Check out their site to see ideas for "Story in a Box" and "Tactile Units". Many of these are geared toward younger children, however you can take the concepts and use age appropriate materials for older students too.
Explore:

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The University of Washington's AccessIT center has some info you need to read!

If you are teaching online, the course management software may include a whiteboard tool that you can use to write or draw on the board. Sounds great! The down side, however, is that it may not be accessible to users of screen readers. Read more at http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?1236.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you catch the 2009 season of American Idol and the talent of Scott MacIntyre? He created beautiful music with not only his singing but his instrumental talent was amazing. We've seen the talents of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, but can you imagine the challenges they must have faced when wanting to compose music or play printed compositions? I'm sure they had a lot of support from others. Technology is changing all of that and programs are available now to truly make musicians like Scott MacIntyre able to independently compose, arrange, and edit music; proofread it (in Braille when necessary); and produce a print version. Dancing Dots has created several new programs.
Check it out:

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Freedom Scientific has posted an interview between Jonathan Mosen and award winning science fiction author Robert J Sawyer. His latest main character is a JAWS® user who spends plenty of time on the Web. Rob talks about the trilogy, its characters, and some important philosophical questions raised in the books. Find the audio for this podcast at http://podcast.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast031-june2009.mp3

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take the power of Kurzweil 3000 with you! Students can save files to the USB flas drive to use at home or whatever computers they are using. Teachers can access kurzweil tools immediately. Click on the link below:
http://www.kurzweiledu.com/kurz3000USB.aspx

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) has just released "Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health." Here's the down-low:

"Game Changer, a new report from Joan Ganz Cooney at Sesame Workshop, offers a new framework to use games to help children learn healthy behaviors, traditional skills like reading and math, and 21st-century strengths such as critical thinking, global learning, and programming design. It specifies how increased national investment in research-based digital games might play a cost-effective and transformative role and provides comprehensive actions steps for media industry, government, philanthropy, and academia to harness the appeal of digital games to improve children's health and learning."

To download the full report, visit: http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2009/06/25/game-changer-investing-in-digital-play-to-advance-childrens-learning-and-health/.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are a lot of assistive technologies to assist struggling readers. Although they each work a little differently in presenting text to speech, these technologies help to facilitate decoding, fluency and comprehension.
Audio Books and Publications -Recorded books allow users to listen to text and are available in a variety of format such as audiocassettes, CD's and MP3 downloads.

Click on the links to the following products and services:
Audible.com
http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/homepage/AnonHome.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

Bookcourier.com
http://www.bookcourier.com/

Bookshare
http://www.bookshare.org/readingTools

Optical Character Recognition-this technology allows a user to scan printed material into a computer or handheld unit. The scanned text is then read aloud via a speech synthesis/screen reading system. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is available as stand-alone units, computer software, and as portable, pocket-sized devices.

Check out the links to the following products:
Quicktionary 2 Reading Pens
http://www.wizcomshop.com/Readingpen-Basic-Edition-K-12_p_22.html

Wynn Literacy Software Solution
http://www.freedomscientific.com/LSG/products/wynn.asp

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...or those who are new to it!

The most recent AT Show podcast is about where to find audio books. You can access it at http://www.atmaine.com/atshow/ and either listen through streaming media or subscribe/download using the directions posted at the site.

Some of their highlighted resources include:
Overdrive: http://www.overdrive.com
NLS BARD: http://www.nlsbard.loc.gov
Books Should be Free: http://www.booksshouldbefree.com
Truly Free: http://www.trulyfree.org
Podiobooks: http://www.podiobooks.com
Daily Lit: http://www.dailylit.com

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HD Radio provides more than great digital sound, it can also carry text. National Public Radio is planning on broadcasting closed-captioned text of talk shows along with the audio. Radio receivers with screens will allow folks who are deaf, or those of us who need the visual to understand hard-to hear words or phrases listen and READ radio broadcasts. These receivers are planning to come out in late 2009.
Check out

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The QuickStart Literature Kit includes a durable, laptop-style tote bag, two sets of exciting pre-adapted books with pre-recorded modules, a Jelly Bean switch and the BookWorm literacy tool, complete with an adaptation kit for turning virtually any book into a "talking book." - That's Life Literature Series: Going Places Book Set engages struggling readers and visual learners in developing social skills and the ability to move within the community and the wider world.
Click on the following links:
http://caineassociates.com/products/bookworm-quickstart-literature-p-210.html

http://www.pcieducation.com/store/item.aspx?ItemId=46461#bottomTabs

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, for those of you ready to toss millions (!) of pages on a scanner and get going with OCR (optical character recognition) software, here's one I just found for c-h-e-a-p...

The "XEROX DocuMate 510 XDM5105D-WU 42 bit 600 x 1200 dpi Fast Single Pass Scanner" has a 50-sheet document feeder that scans 10 pages per minute up to legal-sized documents. Included is ScanSoft PaperPort Deluxe 9 and ScanSoft TextBridge Pro 9 OCR (!). You can process double-sided pages (like books) by selecting Process --> Scan Only, then select Auto Process. After the front sides of the pages are scanned, select Other Side from the Add Pages to Scanner dialog box. Once the pages are all scanned, select Process --> Image File, then select Auto Process or Get Page to process the image file you created.

Lots of other scanners are comparable-look around. This one runs about $229 when you price compare online.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on the links below if you are interested in audio recordings for summer reading. Helpful to those who may struggle with reading or who wish to make use of vacation travel time.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Resources/Publishers-and-Retailers/Don-Johnston-Incorporated/621

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the creators,
"Audiopoint's Voice Terminal Service enables those with low or no vision to surf the Internet, read/send email, use Google Calendar and more. With simple voice commands, VTS is accessed via any landline telephone & mobile phone. VTS improves the online user experience of the visually impaired and liberates them so that they can reach greater independence and mobility. Now users can read/send email despite her blindness, use the Google Calendar Interface to listen to their daily agenda, add events, access their address book and more."

Click on http://www.audiopoint.net for more information.

Has anyone used this with students in school? Let us know how it worked for you!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and you want to know more about how folks are already accessing them. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently posted a story about how Northwest Missouri State University is trying to deliver all of its textbooks electronically.

From the article:
Tania Brobst, a junior at the university, is proud of the note-taking techniques she's developed over the years. She crafts typed study guides for each of her courses, and she carefully highlights material in her printed textbooks.
When she ended up in a marketing course this spring that required her to use a digital textbook, she had to adapt her strategies. "It took some experimenting on my part," she said. "I mean, you can easily read it, but if you want to highlight or enlarge the text or share your notes with other people," you have to learn to do that. Initially skeptical, she now says she prefers the electronic version in part because of its search feature and the ability to paste passages into a Microsoft Word document.

Click on http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39a01801.htm to read more.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast030-may2009.asp for Freedom Scientific's podcast about how Twitter (the 140-word entry social networking site) and JAWS screen reading software play together (or don't!). The interestingly-named "McTwit" is also discussed--this is program for Twitter users with visual impairments who use keyboard commands. Other applications are also addressed.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://wac.osu.edu/conferences/emrc08/free_at.html for some links to AT for access to computer content. Links to free solutions like Fire Vox, System Access To Go, NVDA, WordTalk, LetMeType, Power Talk and Click-n-Type are included.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you want your students to focus, changing the color and text around them can be helpful. Read more about using colors to meet special needs by clicking on the link below.
http://www.donjohnston.com/research/articles/using_colors.html

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.assistiveware.com/podcasts.php for "exploring the frontiers of assistive technology." This is a series of vodcasts (video podcasts) with people who are using AT to communicate, express their creativity, play games and just live their lives. There are a few episodes per year, each starring a different person. It's Mac-focused and covers a range of topics.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://blind-students.suite101.com/article.cfm/plustek_bookreader_v100
for a review of the Plustek BookReader V100, and http://www.plustek.com/product/bookreader_v100.asp for the manufacturer's website.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The very cool folks at AT Maine have a new episode out: http://www.atmaine.com/topic/atshow/2009/05/14/now-available-the-assistive-technology-show-for-may-13-2009/

Topics in the May 13th show include: One handed keyboards, Braille watches and other timekeeping devices, adaptive products on Ebay, Amazon and other places, a demo of Moshi, a clock totally controlled by voice, using mobile phones as wireless access points, and OCR software.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46790 to read the comments from folks who have purchased Amazon's Kindle with text-to-speech (TTS). This week, the TTS function on some ebooks has been disabled--a blow to users who rely on the auditory functionality of the device.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Classroom Suite 3 was designed for grades PreK-8.
Preschoolers can use coloring book and puzzle activities; explore shapes, patterns, and counting; and work with cause and effect activities. Primary and elementary students can create their own electronic books and slide shows, practice math concepts with on-screen manipulatives,and develop writing fluency. Secondary students can create time lines, diagrams and outlines, write newspaper articles, and create professional -quality presentations to communicate their learning. Teachers can open instant authoring templates to create curriculum-based activities appropriate for preschool through middle school students. Assessments created are great additions to the student portfolio!

The new Classroom Suite 4 is a unique intervention tool that combines direct instruction with a flexible tool environment to help students in grades Pre K through 5 achieve mastery in reading, writing and math. It provides students with explicit instruction, constructive practice and embedded assessments to allow teachers to gauge progress and individualize instruction for their students. Classroom Suite 4 includes research-based activity templates that can be used out-of-the box, or easily customized to meet targeted needs. Lessons can be sequenced into "intelligent " units to align with district or core curriculum.

Follow this link to take a look at intelliTools Classroom Suite

http://store.cambiumlearning.com/ProgramPage.aspx?parentId=074003925&functionID=009000008&site=itc.

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at UNC Chapel Hill Resources page provides a wealth of information regarding information on the Bridge Assessment, presentations and handouts, OWL book symbols, ERF Grant materials, and other materials. Some of the information is specific to North Carolina standards, but apply across other state standards. Explore and see what you think! It's worth checking out!

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/publications/accessible-publications.php to read about how "Bookshare's new University Partnership Program is uniting universities throughout the United States to increase the collection of accessible post-secondary textbooks. Typically, hundreds of thousands of U.S. post-secondary students with print disabilities wait months after the start of a semester before getting their textbooks in a format they can read. Each year, university personnel engage in a labor intensive process at the beginning of a term to scan books or obtain digital files from publishers to provide accessible text books. Bookshare and its university partners are pooling their scanned books to reduce duplication of effort and ensure equal educational opportunity." Good news for many who are in college or planning to go!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, all of you speech-to-text devotees...an Assistive Technology Blog reader reminded us yesterday about an "old" freeware program: Voice Navigator.

Go to http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Automation_Utilities/LA_Voice_Navigator.html
for a "Speech recognition program that allows users to 'talk and type' emails, word processor documents, power point presentations, and much more. In fact, LA Voice Navigator allows you to type into any application that accepts type. Other features allow you to have any text in any program read to you, define custom voice shortcuts to any executable program, and monitor system resources."

Who is using this? Let us know!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gizmodo (the gadget blog) just posted about a new Braille e-reader.
Here's what they have to say: "Braille books are mighty thick, so while I remain skeptical of standard e-book readers' utility, a braille version would make it much easier for the blind to carry books with them. This particular concept was designed by Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo & Jin-Sun Park, and it uses an electroactive polymer to raise the braille dots when a charge is passed through certain areas of the screen." Click http://i.gizmodo.com/5219669/braille-e+reader-concept-raises-dots-with-e+ink to see the device!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ALL Reading Curriculum, developed by researchers Janice Light and David McNaughton of Penn State, is a unique curriculum designed to teach reading skills to students with a range of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism and developmental apraxia. It is an evidence-based approach that has proven highly effective. ALL was specially designed to meets the needs of individuals who require AAC, as well as individuals with complex communication and physical access challenges. Have any of you used it with students? Let us know about it!

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Overwhelmed answering hundreds of emails everyday? Wish you could type faster when you're creating class materials and research articles?
Know a student who has trouble typing and using a keyboard, but no trouble with ideas? Know a student who could use a little extra support in reading or writing?
YOUR VOICE IS THE ANSWER! Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 for the Education Market. Turn talk into text and go hands free!
Learn how educators across the country are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to be more productive and to meet key learning needs of their students! Learn all about it at Live Webinar: April 22nd, 2:00pm Eastern. To register go to: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/699786007

Posted by at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In November 2008, Kelly wrote about the talking iPod Nano (http://www.assistivetechnology.vcu.edu/2008/11/talking_ipod_nano.html). Now the new iPod Shuffle, like the newest iPod Nano, can read out information such as song titles and playlist names. The VoiceOver feature is enabled by default and helps a variety of users with the screenless device.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an early reading program that is interactive,engaging,motivating and accessible for all students. Highlights: interactive technology, varied reading selections, (some in Spanish) and the teacher management system!
Click on the link below:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/wiggleworks/index.htm

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/dell-inspiron-mini-10.aspx?page=1 for a review.

This computer enters into the $350-range netbook class with the Acer Aspire One, Samsung NC10 and the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE. Weighing in at 2.6 pounds (an Alphasmart Neo is 2 pounds and about $220), they offer a lot of possibilities for high-tech AT users. (Yes, we know that a Neo serves different purposes in different settings, but we want to give you a reference point!)

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Roger Johansson (http://www.456bereastreet.com) posted about the NVDA screen reader last week. Click on http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200903/nvda_a_free_open_source_screen_reader/ and read more...

"NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Providing feedback via synthetic speech and Braille, it enables blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows for no more cost than a sighted person. Major features include support for over 20 languages and the ability to run entirely from a USB drive with no installation." The NVDA download is available here: http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/Snapshots.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you looking for ways to assist your IEP team in making decisions regarding the use of AT and ways to support students in reading, spelling and writing with AT?
Particpants in the Digital Training workshop had the opportunity to do both! Using the links below take a look at the Acer Aspire One netbook and examine the software programs participants used during the workshop. Explore some great ideas to support students with AT.

Acer One 8.9

Techmatrix

TTAC AT

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2009/02/join-joan-green-for-exciting-webinar.html to read about assistivetek's Brian Friedlander's free webinar!

"An introduction to the many benefits of how technology can be used to improve talking, reading, writing, listening, thinking, learning and remembering. Friday April 24, 2009 12:30-1:30 PM EST: This 60 minute session will include an introductory discussion of: the benefits of computer use, options for computer access, software and computer selection and setup considerations, and supportive research. Joan Green will demonstrate a few top picks for affordable text readers, online interactive programs, and drill and practice multi-sensory products. While showing you a variety of products and online resources, she will speak about how they can be used to improve communication, cognition and learning. For those who participate in the live session, time will be available after the webinar for questions and answers. If you are unable to attend this webinar at the scheduled time, please go ahead and register and a recorded version will be emailed to you to view within one week after the session. " You can sign up at http://ittsguides.com/store/

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's lots of press these days about e-books and e-book readers. The Kindle is one that we've been reading quite a bit about and the newest version offers speech aloud capabilities. Great news! Here is another article showcasing a program that is worth review, http://www.lexcycle.com/stanza

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Press release: Assistive technology for blind and visually impaired cell phone users

"Mar 13, 2009 (TELECOMWORLDWIRE via COMTEX) -- Verizon Wireless...announced on Thursday (12 March) the availability of TALKS for Verizon Wireless, a new assistive technology that converts displayed text into highly intelligible speech for the company's customers who are blind or visually impaired.The solution will be available initially on MOTO Q 9c smartphones from communications solutions provider Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT) beginning 15 March 2009. According to the company, TALKS for Verizon Wireless is powered by Nuance Communications Inc (Nasdaq:NUAN), a supplier of speech and imaging solutions, and uses ETI-Eloquence text-to-speech software, similar to other screen-reading packages on Windows PC platforms, to offer visually impaired and blind customers familiarity and high intelligibility."

FYI: Nuance is the distributor of Dragon Naturally Speaking

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NFB Newsline® has access to over 250 newspapers including four in Spanish that subscribers can access via a toll-free number from anywhere in the world! Subscribers can request the current days paper, the day before or Sundays news, simply by using the telephone. Using a touch tone phone, individuals can select certain parts of the paper to have read. This service is great for those who cannot read print due to vision issues, language barriers or other challenges. Individual subscribers must qualify for this free service and their state must also be funded. I think this service has great potential for a variety of people!
See what you think!
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp?SnID=1763568373

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don Johnston Inc. recently developed some new professional development
materials that will get school staff maximizing the use of Read:OutLoud.
These materials contain tools that address logistical and classroom
management issues, student goal setting, skills assessment, a
thirty-minute tutorial and homework. And the best part, these repeatable
sessions can be held in under one hour!

Every school in Virginia has already received Read:OutLoud, an equitable and flexible software to access instructional materials; now make sure accessing the program
is seamless!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Andrew Leibs at http://blind-students.suite101.com told his readers about "In Your Ear Shakespeare," a website on which you can subscribe to podcasts that talk about Shakespeare's works "in a way many students may find more appealing and realistic than reading a play alone or aloud in class." Great for students seeking an auditory study guide. Go to the "Chop Bard" section for the podcasts: http://www.inyourearshakespeare.com/.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Overwhelmed answering hundreds of emails everyday? Wish you could type faster when you’re creating class materials and research articles?
Worry about carpal tunnel syndrome with all the computer work you do? Know a student who has trouble typing and using a keyboard, but no trouble with ideas? Know a student who could use a little extra support in reading or writing?
YOUR VOICE IS THE ANSWER! Introducing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 for the Education Market. Turn talk into text and go hands free!
Learn how educators across the country are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to be more productive and to meet key learning needs of their students! Learn all about it at Live Webinar: March 11th, 2:00pm Eastern. To register go to: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/920550936.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10185538-1.html to read about "Amazon's abrupt about-face on Friday. The retailer announced that it would allow publishers to disable the Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature on any titles of their choosing."

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has classroom materials available for purchase to assist with teaching students about Braille. This would be a great awareness activity especially if these students have a schoolmate that is learning Braille or reads with Braille, these students can teach each other.
Let us know what you think!
Check it out
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/Flyer_BrailleIsBeautiful_LPA53P.pdf

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A reader wrote to us about the "small hand held electronic magnifier that could see a few lines of a newspaper column and enlarge the image X3 and increase the contrast to a nice high contrast B/W...3X is much too much because the enlarged line exceeds the screen width."

Here's our response, thanks to our FOB (friend of the blog) Amy:

The reduced field is always an issue...if you are only interested in something to help with reading the newspaper and in increased contrast, I would recommend something less techy than electronic... like a handheld, illuminated magnifier or a dome magnifier. They are easy to manipulate.

BUT, I would also recommend that the person see a low vision specialist. This is typically an optometrist who has a special certification.

In the meantime, if you want electronic, look into these:

QuickLook Zoom (about $945) - by Ash - 3x to 18x; screen size 4.3 in., 8.8 oz.; see http://www.visual-techconnection.com/quicklk.htm
OPAL (about $795) - by Freedom Scientific - 4.5x - 9x; screen size 4 in. diagonal, 10 oz.; see http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/lv/opal-product-page.asp
SmartView (about $595) - by Humanware - 3x - 9x; screen size 3.6 in., 4.9 oz.; see http://www.iltsource.com/SmartView_Pocket_Portable_CCTV_Magnifier_p/smartviewpocket.htm?Click=2&gclid=CIaf8P7jxZgCFRlcagodrjoF2w
Compact+ (about $795) - by Optelec - 5x - 10x; screen size 4.3 in.; 10 oz.; see http://www.visual-techconnection.com/compact.htm
PocketViewer (about $645) - by PocketViewer - up to 7x (don't know why it doesn't say how low it goes...); screen size 4x3 in.; 0.7 lbs.; see http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/low_vision/pocketviewer/_details/id_9/pocketviewer.html

Thanks for the questions-keep 'em coming!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Amazon.com's new Kindle (an electronic portable book reader) has drawn some fire from some publishers and agents. Apparently they are worried that the new Kindle's feature of reading text aloud with a computer-generated voice is a violation of "audio rights" under copyright law. "An Amazon spokesman noted the text-reading feature depends on text-to-speech technology, and that listeners won't confuse it with the audiobook experience. Amazon owns Audible, a leading audiobook provider." To read more about this debate, click http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123419309890963869.html.

For a review of the Kindle 2, read http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340623,00.asp.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

An new partnership allows for more braille library titles:

RHYW is excited to announce the opening of its online braille and DAISY bookshop, offering files for nearly 3,000 titles. Readers can choose from a wide range of titles, including literary classics, history, biography, poetry, and nonfiction. RHYW has partnered with publishers to make their bestselling titles available in braille and DAISY.

Continue reading "Online braille library now open" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Word Talk is a free text to speech plug-in for Microsoft Word. It works within the tool bar of Microsoft Word. I have used eariler versions of Word Talk but just became aware of the new version 4.2 which allows text files to be converted to mp3 or wav files for playing on your portable media players. Yet another free tool to use!

Here's the link to download:

http://www.wordtalk.org.uk/Home/

Posted by Mona at 6:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at UNC Chapel Hill has updated their website to include easy access to great ideas and resources for your classroom. All of the research we have referenced on this blog from Karen Erickson and her colleagues can be seen here, as well as opportunities for you and your students to get involved. Check it out!
http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I clicked on http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/browse/Childrens/Grown-Up-Books-For-Kids and found Alice in Wonderland, Call of the Wild, some E. Nesbit short stories (she is a favorite of mine). Not bad, considering that these are standard stories in many classes. Check it out--for student or to try out yourself.

Same warnings about sound quality of the "free" version being poor...but bearable considering it's free! (I wouldn't throw over LibriVox for this site, though!)

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and I'm not ashamed.

Here's LibriVox in their own words:
"At LibriVox, volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain into digital audio (eg. mp3), and then make the audio files available to the world, for free (through our catalog, a podcast, and bittorrents). We love reading, love books, love literature, think the public domain should be defended and enriched, we like free stuff, we like to hear people read to us, and we like reading to other people. It's fun, it's a great community, it's a rewarding public service to the world. And "nothing" is in it for us, except the satisfaction of participating in a wonderful project."

Listen to some books for free or donate some of your voice at http://librivox.org.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and wanted you all to see it, too!

Click on http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/accessibility/acc-listen-to-this-website.htm and admire their user-friendly directions. Make you want to visit Nottingham, doesn't it?

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been chatting today about text-to-speech and were thinking, "Isn't everybody concerned about keeping kids up-to-date with reading assignments?"

Make sure you're checking out the Read:OutLoud materials...for more information, check out the awesome (!) Tech Tuesday wiki (http://ttactechtuesday.pbwiki.com/Read:OutLoud). You'll be glad you did!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take a look at the website tutorials for Read and Write Gold 8. I've been exploring the many uses for student application...and I've really enjoyed having my emails read to me! Click on http://www.readwritegold.com/read&writeguidedtour.html to read more and to see the videos.

Posted by Lanett W. Brailey at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Melinda Pongrey, an education specialist in the areas of dyslexia, ADHD, language delays, motor-spatial and visual-spatial difficulties, has written an interesting observation of a typical day in the life of a high school freshman--and how assistive technology is and isn't helping him!

She writes:
"Last week I visited a local high school to observe a freshman. Even though the end of school is near, I wanted to see first-hand how the teachers were implementing accommodations and modifications for his severe dyslexia. Before school began in the fall, I had met with this student twice a week to build his reading, writing and study skills. He began the year rating school as a "-1" on a one-to-ten scale. By mid-winter, he had moved his self-assessment of school to a "10." Since then he had become increasingly discouraged. Finally I realized that I better get a first-hand look at what was going on in his classes. So, his teacher kindly let me sit in the back of the class. I spent the hour noting the tasks that he was asked to complete along with the other students in his literature class." Read her observations and suggestions at
http://www.ldawa.org/information/articles-and-publications/dyslexia-and-high-school.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I mentioned that we recently hosted a workshop for teachers of students with intellectual disabilities. Our workshop focused on creating literacy materials. We spent a majority of the session on the Tar Heel Reader website. Our teachers created books, downloaded books into powerpoint, printed and edited books. They left with more than a weeks worth of material for their students. Since May this website has posted almost 2000 books for emergent readers of all ages. The books are accessible and speech enabled. Our workshop participants were thrilled. If you haven't visited Tar Heel Reader, spend some time exploring this fantastic site and spread the word to other teachers.

Posted by Mona at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Several weeks ago we were hosting a workshop for teachers of students with intellectual disabilities. Our workshop was focusing on literacy instruction and finding or creating good literacy resources for our students. We spent a lot of time on the Tar Heel Reader website and even created several books. But we also found several other websites which offered on-line books for students with intellectual disabilities. Our teachers particularly enjoyed the Browser Books website. The books featured great photographs and the reader could click on specific words if they needed help reading the text; otherwise the speech was silent. These books are leveled and geared more to the elementary population. Check it out if you are looking for some material for your students to read. Browser Books

Posted by Mona at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This summer the Virginia Department of Education along with the AIM-VA at George Mason University entered into a 2 year contract with Don Johnston, Inc. to provide Read:OutLoud software to all students with an IEP in Virginia. Ongoing trainings are being offered through AIM-VA. The first trainings were held in September and October. Last week AIM-VA announced another training for next week December 18 at Weyer's Cave, Virginia (near Staunton). Training is free and registration is available at the AIM-VA website. Register today if you are interested in attending.

Posted by Mona at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This resource was recently shared at a statewide assistive technology meeting I was attending. Users record individual test questions and export these (using the free program Audacity) onto a 1gb Sandisk and a Sanclip mp3 player. As shared, "this program was developed in consideration of students perceptions of being read aloud to in a regular classroom during testing and with the feeling that students didn't perform to their full potential on tests due to their fear of "holding up" other students while testing". A neat idea!

Posted by Fran Smith at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Switching to Microsoft Office 2007 has been difficult for some of us who don't like change. Having a hard time finding the language tool bar to turn on text to speech and voice recognition? Here's a great handout from our friends at GPAT that explains how in 5 easy steps. THANK YOU!!

Opening toolbar in Microsoft Office 2007

Download file

Posted by Mona at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking back at yesterday's reference to Wired's review of Evernote http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/hands-on-iphone.html got me thinking.

Text recognition in photographs -- you take a picture of something using a webcam, iPhone camera, etc. and it will perform an off-site OCR [optical character recognition-turns it into digital text] of the image. How cool is that for students with print disabilities in vocational settings? It could help more students really become smart shoppers...and make non-computer library research far less daunting! Hmm...how to get this into a classroom...that's still quite daunting...

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have found a new free reader, ArtenSPEAK. It will read webpages, email or any document with text. Similar to ReadPlease, you select the text you want to have read copy and paste it into the ArtenSPEAK window and depress the loudspeaker button to have the text read aloud. Check it out along with a lot of other free software!
http://www.artenscience.co.uk/artenscience/FreeSoftware.html

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dinell Stuckey from Derby, Kansas submitted the following resource list of electronic books to the qiat listserv. It is a very extensive list of a widely growing population of websites offering electronic text to a variety of learners. Dinell created this resource list for a presentation she was giving on teaching literacy to individuals with dual sensory impairments. Check out the list, I'm sure you will find some new sites. I did; I liked the Genie books in Powerpoint.

Here is the list:
Download file

Posted by Mona at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10053201-37.html to read how "Apple will make iTunes U fully accessible to those with visual impairments by December 31, 2008. It will then work to provide full accessibility of the iTunes application and the remainder of the iTunes Store by June 30, 2009."

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://www.leapfrog.com/tag/news.shtml

Well, by now you have probably seen the Leap Frog commercials on TV or played with them while visiting your local toy store. Leap Frog learning materials have been around for a while, but you have got to check out the new Tag Reading System. The Tag is large pen-like device that houses an incredibly small computer processor, a stereo audio system and a small infrared camera. The child holds the pen and taps icons, words, and images on specially created Tag books and the Tag reads words, sentences, pages, and sounds and music associated with the pictures. Leap Frog has partnered with book publishers to provide a growing selection of popular children’s books adapted for the Tag. Check out the activity boards, online tools that track the child’s progress, and try the demo at www.leapfrog.com/tag. Tag creates a fun and independent reading experience for children ages 4-8.

Posted by Sharon Jones at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week Apple announced a new generation of the iPod Nano (4th generation) which offers more accessibility to people with low vision. In conjunction with iTunes 8, people with low vision will now have the opportunity to explore and enjoy the benefits of the most popular portable media player available. The 4th generation iPod Nano features spoken menus,
so users can navigate and select playlists on the iPod without looking at the screen. In addition the release of iTunes 8 is screen-reader friendly for both the Mac and the PC and provides compatibility with VoiceOver in Mac OS X Leopard and Window-Eyes 7.0 for Windows XP and Windows Vista. iTunes 8 also allows for screen readers to navigate the iTunes store as well as iTunes U, thus making educational content more accessible.

In addition the 4th generation Nana introduces a large font size setting and adjustments for high contrast and backlight.

To read more about these new releases go to:

http://www.apple.com/accessibility/itunes/vision.html

Posted by Mona at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm posting this info-sent to the team her by Fran (thanks, Fran!)-because of the importance of using digital text in the classroom. Wikis are a great way to have students access and communicate information; the "creation" level is where we want all students to be on the revised Bloom's Taxonomy!

Wikispaces has just announced that they have given away 100,000 ad-free educational wikis, and that they are going to give away 250,000 more. Classroom 2.0 is going to celebrate the general use of wikis in education and Wikispace's amazing milestone by having founder Adam Frey and the Wikispaces team join us Thursday evening, September 11, 2008, for an open discussion of the use of wikis in education.

If you are using wikis in education, or if you want to learn why you might consider doing so, please join us at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / Midnight GMT in our Elluminate room: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=1101&password=M.8DAFD346DA4B268DC185FED8466556/ . We'll have lots of time for Q&A, which you are welcome to start beforehand in the forum discussion on Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749:Topic:186332

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the start of this school year, I would like to highltight some of my favorite sources for free activities for students with significant intellectual disabilities. I believe that teaching this population requires a teacher to be creative and invest time in creation of appropriate learning tools. In this day and age of the internet and the availability of posting items on school websites and personal blogs, making use of shared resources not only saves time but allows teachers to provide more variety in their lessons. So here goes some of the tops on my list to get you ready (in no particular order).

Special Education Technology-British Columbia has a collection of accessible books in a variety of formats useful for all ages.

Carbon Lehigh Schools has a wonderful collection of cause effect switch accessible activities and sample papers from the Star Reporter program.

Priory Woods School in the UK offers hundreds of online switch accessible cause effect activities.

New York City Department of Education Special Education District 75 offers an adapted book collection of various formats.

Baltimore City Public Schools Assistive Technology site has over 700 adapted books available for download.

Bry-Back Manor has a collection of picture recipes.

Tar Heel Reader has a collection of adapted books for all ages.

Posted by Mona at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We won't bother to try to convey all of the info and buzz about the Acer Aspire that has come out this month. Instead, we'll link you to ANOTHER blog which will link you to other blogs and reviews of this computer that is less that 2 1/2 pounds and less than $400: http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-netbook-now-available.html. Hey, why reinvent the wheel?

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While I was flipping through the "Levenger's: Tools for Readers" catalog just now (in a leisurely way as I sip my morning coffee!), I noticed that the sophisticated folks there have capitalized on our old standby of highlighter tape. They used the wide version-filling a book's margin-in which to write marginal notes. A great idea-and one which could supplement our use of marginal gloss techniques (see http://blog.vcu.edu/ttac/2006/07/marginal_gloss_i_can_read_it_i.html).

To see Levengers' version, called the "Margin Maker," click on http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=17-671|PageID=6310|Level=2-3 (but be warned that this is a temporary link and will disappear).

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The people at AFB AccessWorld recently published an article pertaining to the accessiblity features of portable digital media players. Specifically in this article they were evaluating the popular mainstream devices for their accessbility to the blind or visually impaired population. They looked into the popular players including the iPod, Zune, Kindle, and Olympus Digital voice recorder. They were particularly interested in using these devices for digital music, books and other forms of digital information. Not surprisingly they found that only 3 mainstream digital players were accessible to the visually impaired population, and only 1 player, the Olympus DS-50 had speech output of the menu screen. This is what the article said about the Oympus digital recorder:

This device is marketed as a digital voice recorder, but it also plays MP3 and Windows Media music files and podcasts, as well as Audible.com books. It is the only mainstream player we found that has both tactilely discernable buttons and speech output for navigating menus.

To read the entire article go to:

http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw090404

And watch for Part 2 which will report on the adapted readers including the Victor Reader and PDA's

Posted by Mona at 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When we talk about assistive technology, often people think about computers and the infusion of high technologies. However, as speakers Kelly Fonner and Bob Kellar pointed out last week at the AT and Reading conferences, simple strategies such as highlighting printed or digital texts can make such a difference for struggling readers. Lifting out important words or passages through color-coding can help bring the eyes to a targeted area of text or meaning.

Other low tech AT tools such as a finger writing aid can provide stabilization for those who struggling with handwriting.

Posted by Fran Smith at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week my AT colleague Estela Landeros-Dugourd (VDOE Training and Technical Assistance Center at George Mason University) shared a plethora of e-book readers at the AT and reading conferences. I was impressed with how quickly technology innovations have created these portable and fully functioning tools. For example, the Kindle from Amazon.com provides an electronic book reader that can offer this on-the-go assistance with many of their online books. Other readers such as the Bookeen and the Iliad add additional features for reading electronic books, subscriptions to newspapers, and the ability to write with a stylus. For more information, potential users might consider reviewing information at:

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA

http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/irex-iliad-e-book-reader-gets-reviewed/

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Out of British Columbia comes this great resource. The Special Education Technology-British Columbia (SET-BC) website has an area for free downloads of accessible books. The books are on Boardmaker files, Clicker or Powerpoint. Now all we have to do is find a way to organize all of these great books on our computers!!

Posted by Mona at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This site has great examples of multimedia presentations that you can use to show your students. Some student examples are also included. Different ways that students might show their knowledge of a topic, might be demonstrated using some of these ideas. The authors ask that you give credit to them when sharing with others. Check them out!

Continue reading "Instructional Technology Lessons" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Tuesday, July 22 2008 and Thursday, July 24, 2008, assistive technology consultants/ trainers Kelly Fonner and Bob Kellar presented an array of tricks and techniques on AT for struggling readers. Participants throughout the state of Virginia took this opportunity to learn about best practices, low and high technology tools and devices, and instructional strategies to consider for low performing readers.
Kelly Fonner shared numerous tools and techniques such as highlighters, low tech strategies, electronic book readers and instructional guides. While she kept one group engaged, consultant Bob Kellar took participants on e-tours of several electronic text aloud readers and the newly debuted Virginia Accessible Instructional Materials website, AIM-VA, http://kihd.gmu.edu/aim

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a fun tool useful in a variety of areas. YackPack is an online audio messaging system that allows the user to give comments, messages and feedback to individuals or groups. Messages are stored and listeners can hear the message at their convenience. YackPack is being used by educators for foreign language learning, distance education, collaboration, and providing narrative feedback. You assign members to your Pack and then you can communicate with all members of your pack or select individuals.

Watch this short video that explains how YackPack works. Then give it a try!

Posted by Mona at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are two websites that allow you to record PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, ,RSS news feeds, emails and web pages and convert them to speech automatically. These files can then be used to imbed into a powerpoint file, website, or placed on an mp3 player.

Check out Spokent Text or Read the Words

Posted by Mona at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is so exciting and a wonderful resource. On the Tar Heel Reader you’ll find a collection of easy-to-read books on a wide variety of topics. Each book is switch accessible and speech enabled. You may download the books as a slide show in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format. The Tar Heel Reader is an experimental prototype that is a result of a collaboration between Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and the department of Computer Science on the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The collaboration of Gary Bishop, Karen Erickson, David Koppenhaver, Gretchen Hanser, and more in UNC Chapel Hill's Computer Science Department and The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies is a powerful and amazing example to us all. The website also allows others to write and contribute books thus creating a great open source library for ALL readers. Be sure to visit often and bookmark this page. I see great things coming of this!!

Posted by Mona at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CAST has recently released a new online series entitled, UDL Editions, which provides online texts and embedded digital strategies to assist the reader. In combination with TextHELP tools, the user can add highlighting, activate speech, navigate from the text to the web to search for deeper meaning and listen to the text in another language. To take a tour, visit: http://udleditions.cast.org/

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.readingmadeez.com/products/ktavpod.html to learn more about the Key to Access video player from Premier. From the website:

The Key to Access VPod enables you to take your Assistive Software with you on a portable USB MP4 Player. Connect the MP4 Player to any USB Port, double click the Key to Access Icon, the floating tool bar will appear giving you access to 10 powerful literacy tools. The software NEVER needs to be installed on your computer. All your personal settings are saved on your Key to Access so that no matter which computer you use, your access will be the same.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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).

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here something shared by one of our reading colleagues,

"ReadWriteThink.org is a site designed to help children and teens continue to build their literacy learning outside of school. The site now offers even more activities for children ages 4 to 18. In addition, the site includes booklists, reading logs, book review podcasts, and best practice videos to help caregivers and tutors make the most of summer reading and writing opportunities. To see all of these features and more, please visit http://www.readwritethink.org/beyondtheclassroom/summer.
ReadWriteThink.org is a nonprofit website maintained by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, with support from the Verizon Foundation and in association with the Thinkfinity.org program."

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was surfing Teacher Tube (www.teachertube.com) the other day and found the motherlode of student-created PhotoStory talking books! Click on http://www.teachertube.com/uvideos.php?UID=51495 to see "Professor McGonagall's" students' books-from No David to The Giving Tree! She even has a TeacherTube video about how she had the students make them! Got to love her...

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One school is offering a "learning strategies course [that] provides each...student with one Computer on Wheels (COW), essentially their own laptop complete with up-to-date software and programs. The computers allow the students to gain access to an online source of learning tools. That source includes about 40 titles in the board's online library, though they hope to compile more....Since January, eight students, four from Grade 10 and four from Grade 9, have been meeting for one period a day to work on the COWs. 'We spent the first six weeks working with text-to-voice software.' ." Click on http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=976146 to read more.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a new cool tool for reading the text online. Readthewords provides the ability to enter text and have audio reading for the user's listening pleasure. To read more, visit http://readthewords.com

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don Johnston will be partnering with Benetech/ Bookshare.org to provide their Read:Outloud reader as the text reader for providing access to reading materials. This is in conjunction with the recent $32 million U.S. Department of Education OSEP award to Bookshare.org and providing access to reading materials for students with print disabilities. For more information read the link below:

http://www.donjohnston.com/products/rol_bookshare/index.html

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don Johnston Partners with Benetech/Bookshare.org
To Provide FREE Technology Access to Thousands of Online Educational
Materials for Students With Print Disabilities

As part of their $32 million U.S. Department of Education OSEP award, Bookshare.org chose Read:OutLoud by Don Johnston Incorporated as the text reader that would best achieve the goal of providing access to reading materials and enabling students to read texts with comprehension.

Beginning at the start of the 2008-09 school year, students who qualify under Chafee will use Don Johnston’s Read:OutLoud® Bookshare.org Edition text reader to access thousands of electronic books, educational materials and resources in NIMAS and DAISY from the Bookshare.org website. The program’s goal is to eliminate barriers for students with reading disabilities and to provide the necessary tools to ensure access to the general curriculum, materials and textbooks.

For more information about this partnership follow the link below:

http://www.donjohnston.com/products/rol_bookshare/index.html

Posted by Sharon Jones at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard an interesting presentation from a company who prints books in a format that is individualized for each reader. It’s made to order reading material, available in five days! Their website http://www.readhowyouwant.com provides various different print formats and samples are available. Do you need large print, easy read print, specialized print or print to help with English language learning? All of these options are available! Check out their website for more information!

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Noted researcher Dr. Ted Hasselbring recently shared his message at the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) conference. As Dr. Hasselbring noted, helping students to build mental models through supporting their background knowledge and anchoring instruction can enhance their fluency and understanding. Technology can play a central role in this process. To read more on his contributions, visit http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/The_Peabody_Difference/Reflections/Ted_Hasselbring.xml

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found a great blog that explores reading and writing technology tools for people with more significant disabilities. David Koppenhaver from Appalachian State University, has done years of research in the area of literacy development for this population, shares some great resources.

Continue reading "A cool blog to review" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meville to Weville from AbleNet and Start to Finish Literacy Starters from Don Johnston have combined their literacy efforts to create lessons that meet the needs of older students with significant disabilities. What makes the MEville to WEville with Literacy Starters Program different is that it offers extended lessons and age-appropriate content for older students, including three sets of Start-to-Finish Literary Starters books and switch accessible computer books, written specifically for MEville to MEville curriculum — all in one convenient package. You can see it for yourself and download a sample lesson. Go to:

Continue reading "Curriculums converge to create a great tool" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although we're usually frustrated because our teaching travels faster than and beyond the reaches of technology, sometimes our teaching does not keep up with the tech we have!

With free, easy-to-use computer-based test-to-speech programs increasingly available (Reading Bar and Read Please from www.readplease.com; Natural Reader from www.naturalreaders.com, the Apple/Mac text-to-speech enabled operating system, etc.), we just need to have interesting, frequently changing digital text for our students to read!

Classroom blogs are ideal for this: http://epencil.edublogs.org is an example of a "living" blog from a 6th grade teacher and students. Text-to-speech programs help students access the vocab of the week on this site as well as their peers' own writing; other materials on the blog are visual in nature.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s even at the beach! Check it out!
http://www.mybeachwheelchair.com

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this new concept in portable reading devices!
This electronic device is the size of a paperback book with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. It uses electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, to provide a screen that is sharp and easy to focus on in bright and dim light. Text can be enlarged with the click of a button and pages are turned using switches located on the left and right of the page. It’s easy to “save your place” and book mark pages. Kindle holds over 200 books. It’s available at www.amazon.com for $399.00. Visit Amazon to view the video demonstrating Kindle.

Posted by Sharon Jones at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) has information on their site about how to create and implement electronic books. Check it out!
http://www.wati.org/Curriculum/Literacy/EC/create_implement.html

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Caroline Musselwhite, nationally renowned AT specialist, was in Richmond last week at the 10th annual TechKnowledgy conference. She shared with the audience a lot of wonderful information and ideas for working with students who are emergent readers and writers. She quoted research that says the good first grade teachers, who have successful readers, include a classroom with over 1500 books that can be read by students. I can’t imagine 1500 books in a classroom…how much would that cost? How is that possible? Well, she shared wonderful ideas such as: purchasing books at yard sales; used bookstores; ask for donations from the community; AND making your own books. This is where the calendars come in! Before winter break, make an announcement or put a box in the teachers lounge to collect all of the old calendars from your colleagues. Using the pictures you can add text/caption that applies to the photo and create a story. Who knows how many you could create! Involve your students, get them to contribute to calendar, either by filling in one word or writing short phrases…the possibilities are endless! And you could have 25 or 30 books that your students will really enjoy!

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EASI will be hosting an upcoming free 2-part Webinar in on Etext Advances
DIGITAL BOOKS & PLAYERS, AN UPDATE

By Robert Lee Beach, Assistive Technology Specialist, Kansas City Kansas Community College. This will be hosted on Thursday November 15 and 29 - 2PM EST.
The presenter will discuss some of the sources of books and provide an update on
what is happening with these. He will review software and hardware players for digital books and
update you all on what is currently available.
For more information, please visit, http//easi.cc/workshop.htm

Posted by Fran Smith at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic has a new short video, Building Confidence, Building Lives demonstrating the impact RFB&D has on the lives of students with print disabilities. Click on http://www.rfbd.org/teacher_training.htmand find the link at the bottom of the page or click directly on http://www.rfbd.smugmug.com/gallery/2587806#136380509.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/ have posted directions on how to tactualize some of the Don Johnston Inc.'s Start to Finish Beginning Literacy Starters. Just when I thought they couldn't make them any better! Tactualizing is designed for students with deaf-blindess to help them understand the content being presented. This site includes step by step instructions and a shopping list of materials with the stores that carry the items! I can't wait to make one! Let me know if you try one too.

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Checkout the Visual Search Mode of the VCU T/TAC online library. Icons are used as search buttons for categories or subject areas. Selecting the Assistive Technology search button opens up several other search buttons for easy “one-touch” searching for AT items, software or helpful links. If you would like to checkout AT Library items call us at 800-426-1595 and ask for our library, or come by the VCU T/TAC at 10 E. Franklin St in Richmond.

Continue reading "Using Visual Search Mode for Assistive Technology on VCU T/TAC Online Library" »

Posted by at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a gold mine hidden in Caroline Musselwhite and Julie Maro’s web site, www.aacintervention.com! The May “Tip of the Month” talks you through 10 reasons why learning to use iTunes can simplify your life. Each reason is supported by an explanation of why you need to know it, and how to accomplish it. In most cases, there are references to on-line tutorials that can cover the topic in greater depth. Check this out and dig deeper into her site for lots of other practical information! We gotta love Caroline and Julie for the creative ideas that go into their web site!

Posted by Sharon Jones at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of us have supported symbol users with the use of Boardmaker® products for years now and if you have cruised websites for free symbol downloads and new products you might have come across Widget software, www.widget.com. There are plenty of products to purchase here such as Writing with Symbols, a word and symbol processor, and Communicate: In Print 2, a symbol creating program using new Widget Rebus Symbols. You will love the free downloads on this site and links to other resources. Free downloads include beautifully illustrated stories using words and symbols for easy reading. While you are browsing the site, check out Communicate: Webwide, a web browser that allows the user to view web pages with symbols. If you are working with older students try out eLive, a symbol based monthly magazine that includes games, trivia and news! Where else can you find text and symbol supported versions of health related educational materials such as Diabetes Symbol Resources? If you are supporting symbol users, visit this site for free downloads and creative teaching ideas!

Posted by Sharon Jones at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

RFB&D's Learning Through Listening® (LTL) program offers tips on using audiobooks in the classroom(http://www.learningthroughlistening.org/Teaching_with_Audiobooks/Using_RFB_D_s_Audiobooks_in_the_Classroom/Tips_for_a_Successful_LTL_Program/119/):

Have your program administrator's contact information handy. If you run into a problem with equipment or books, you can contact him or her and solve it quickly.

Be aware of your RFB&D membership level and the number of books you can order. Keep a record of the titles you have ordered, or if you have an online account at www.rfbd.org, you can check your order limits under "My Account."

Place your book orders as soon as you know what you will need for the school year. You may call the LTL member services toll-free number or use RFB&D's Online Catalog and Ordering Center to place your order or check the most current information regarding book availability. RFB&D's peak season is August through mid-October and December through January.

As soon as you receive your equipment, choose a place to store it. To avoid any problems, you should store your equipment securely in a locking cabinet or closet and away from dust and debris.

Clearly designate for your students the times during the day when it is appropriate for them to use their RFB&D players. Consider creating a schedule that defines the specific subjects and days when they can use the players.

Continue reading "Tips for Success with Books on Tape in the Classroom" »

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ablenet has partnered with Weekly Reader to offer adaptations for the special education students to receive the same content of their grade peers. This subscription based product is available for the elementary, secondary and current health series. Included in the subscription is 10 copies of the weekly reader and downloadable Ablenet strategies for students with moderate and severe disabilities.

A couple years ago it was hard to find age appropriate content for students with moderate to significant disabilities. It is nice to see many more products being produced for this often neglected but challenging to teach population. Check out the website and download a sample weekly reader at: http://www.ablenetinc.com/weeklyreader/

Posted by Mona at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D®), the nation's educational audiobook library for students of all ages who cannot read standard print effectively because of a learning disability, visual impairment or other physical disability, incollaboration with the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), announced the launch of its new educator support website at www.learningthroughlistening.org.

The Learning Through Listening website provides free resources to assist all educators seeking to integrate listening skills into their classrooms. The site provides easy-to-use, research-based information developed by educators, targeted at the K-12 classroom. A special customized Curriculum Builder allows users access to lesson plans and other downloadable materials that are grouped and searchable by subject and grade level.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) and the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) have made available two databases that present evidence for the use of products and technologies that support the instruction of reading and mathematics for students with special needs. Click on http://www.techmatrix.org to reach both of them.
A few of the categories used to rate products: Adjustable Difficulty, Customizable by User Profile, Font Control, Response Time, Prompt Time, Input Mouse/Touchscreen, Switch, Text to Speech Reads the Problem, Corrective, Approximate Grade Level.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here I am again talking iPod's. However, I was sent this link regarding iPod recording and it's use with reading fluency. I thought it was a great resource but also realized that there are other programs out there that cost no money and can accomplish the same goal for your reading lesson. If you haven't discovered audacity check it out at this free download from this website.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Check out this link for how iPod's are being used in the classroom for reading fluency.

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=10804

Posted by Mona at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Special Education Technology-British Columbia's website is full of great resources for the k-12 classroom. There are too many parts to hightlight here, but I wanted to bring your attention to the area on the site that highlights premade accessible books. The books were created using different programs including, Boardmaker, Intellitools Classroom Suite and PowerPoint. As you are thinking about the topics and areas of instruction you might be teaching next year, you might find a book that would supplement the materials you already have.
Check it out and see what you think!
http://www.setbc.org/setbc/accessiblebooks/freebooksforyou.asp#top

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I was looking through our entries on the blog I noticed we had neglected to hightlight some free resources that can be really valuable for student with reading difficulties. There are 2 excellent text to speech software programs that are available for a free download.

Word Talk allows text that is entered into a word document to be spoken. This feature can be set to open as a tool bar in the Microsoft Word window. The speech quality is OK for being a free feature. It is available at the following web site:

http://www.wordtalk.org.uk/

The other program that speaks text is Read Please. In order to use this feature text must be copied and pasted into the Read Please window. Like Word Talk the voices are robotic but clearer voices are available for a small price. Download Read Please at:

http://www.readplease.com/

Check them both out and let us know which one works best for you!!

Posted by Mona at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've recently been apprised of a new online resource that does a fine job at determining text readability. Visit, http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interested in exploring text-to-speech in Microsoft Excel? Click on http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word/HA102223271033.aspx to see info on
- Using text-to-speech commands in Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Using text-to-speech commands in Excel 2003 or 2002
- Playing back worksheet data

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The other day, we linked to Darrell's comments on the need for more consultation with/decisionmaking made by people with disabilities related to assistive technology companies (his blog focuses on visual impairments). Here's some related news:

In the last month [Microsoft] has begun to work more closely with an organization whose employee mix includes both visually impaired and blind people. {They will be looking at questions such as] can the application be fully navigated and/or accessed without a mouse? Does it work out of the box with third party screen reader applications like JAWS?

Read more here: http://navintmicrosoftcrm.blogspot.com/2007/05/assistive-technology-and-microsoft-crm.html

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While I was looking for information about the Early Literacy Skill Builder program I came across some other items that Attainment Company has available. I was particularly interested in the Curriculum Resources section. They have a lot of adapted materials designed for older students in formats that meet the needs of those with beginning literacy skills. You need to explore their sight for yourself. I am sure you will find things that would be of interest to your students!
http://www.AttainmentCompany.com

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attainment Inc. has introduced ELSB (available Fall 2007). It is a research based literacy curriculum designed for students with moderate to significant cognitive disabilities and for students with autism. ELSB is recommended for ages 5-10 years and includes phonics and sight word instruction. This looks like it’s is yet another great curriculum resource for teachers of this population!
If you would like to see the research check it out at UNC Charlotte.
http://education.uncc.edu/access/RAISEProject.htm

Continue reading "Early Literacy Skill Builder (ELSB)" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First, click on www.mypageup.com to see what I'm talking about! Once you're done thinking "Why didn't I invent that? Another chance to make my million--lost!", let's think through a few ways to use this nifty tool.
#5 You physically can't look down at the paper lying on the desk--due to motor or range of motion concerns or even the fact that you have a crick in your neck!
#4 You're working at the computer while referring to paper resources and need to reduce the motion and stress of looking back and forth between the vertical monitor and horizontal paper.
#3 You need a consistent place to post task instructions/checklists for collaborative or cooperative groups, but find that the task lists get lost in the shuffle of project materials and once it's out of sight, it's out of mind.
#2 You need a way to focus a student who has the typical "desk swamp"--papers everywhere, things flying off of the table surface, and no good way to focus on one set of instruction, task sequence, or text while working on a worksheet, essay, project or other task, so you set up a PageUp as a reserved location on the desk to maintain task directions.
#1 You are looking to add another cool, flexible AT tool to your toolbox and see that the PageUp can help everyone, not just those of us with disabilities!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're looking for an inexpensive text reader with more functionality, you might consider Text Aloud, http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/index.html a>. This robust product will read email, internet pages, assist while you're writing, and allow one to create Mp3 files for portable storage. The product is inexpensive ($29) and offers a free 30 day download.

Posted by Fran Smith at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don Johnston, from Don Johnston Inc., has written a book detailing his personal struggle with reading. The book is called Building Wings. He would like to know how you would use this book to build self-advocacy skills in your students. Your story will be entered into a drawing and the winner will receive a visit from Don Johnston to your school and he will talk with you students. The contest ends Sept. 3, 2007. So check out the website and start writing!
http://www.donjohnston.com/building_wings/index.html

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

#10: "Text on paper" is a fairly common teaching and learning tool in your classroom.
#9: You assign students reading during classtime.
#8: You assign students reading outside of classtime.
#7: You have ever lost your place in the text when looking away.
#6: Your students have ever lost their place in the text when looking away.
#5: You have a student who cannot easily scan to find a portion of text.
#4: You assign tasks that require students to move back and forth between a text and a worksheet or other source (perhaps a dictionary or speller).
#3: Your students share textual materials (directions sheets, books, etc.) during group work.
#2: It's written into a student's IEP, 504 plan, or student assistance plan.
#1: You haven't tried using reading frames before--and you'd like to have another tool in your bag of tricks!

We have several classroom sets of Reading Helpers and Heads Up Frames available in VCU T/TAC AT lab-email or call us and we would be happy to lend them to you for 3 weeks! (We can also show you how to make your own, home-made versions!)

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Universally designed curriculum is the hot topic in education these days so that we can to reach all learners and improve educational outcomes. Learning Magic, Inc. has several books available for free to download including a player that will read the book aloud. Several topics are covered and may meet some of the areas your students are currently studying.
Check it out on the website under “Goodies”.

http://www.learningmagicinc.com/

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Description from topshareware.com:

IM Speak! is a tool that adds speech and personality to incoming messages from your favorite Instant Message program. By using the program, you can assign 'voices' to each one of your buddies allowing them to speak to you in any voice you choose along with many other features.

Click on Topshareware.com's website http://www.topshareware.com/IMSpeak!-download-2781.htm for the free download (if you like it, it's kind of pricey--$24 at last check...).

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From http://www.axistive.com/18746/robobraille-eases-web-use.html: Read about a "site [that] now processes 400 requests a day-a free service that provides automatic Braille conversion is proving popular despite still being in test phase."

According to the article: "Anyone wanting to use the service, which is partly funded by the EU, can send plain text, rich text, html or Word documents by e-mail. Within a few minutes they receive their document either as an MP3 audio file or as electronic Braille. Electronic Braille can be read by a tactile display - a device connected to the computer with a series of pins that are raised or lowered to represent the Braille characters - or sent to a Braille printer."

Visit RoboBraille at http://www1.robobraille.org/websites/acj/robobraille.nsf.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who's got the new Windows Vista? (I don't.) But if you do, or are curious about how the new Vista operating system will interact with consumers who use assistive technology, here's another source of info: http://blogs.msdn.com/ptstv/archive/2007/02/15/partner-tv-saqib-shaikh-talks-about-assistive-technology-for-windows-vista.aspx

The blog also provides some other accessibility links, to remind us that Bill and friends have AT users in mind:
The Accessibility home page: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Accessibility in Windows Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/default.aspx
Accessibility features in other Microsoft products: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/default.aspx

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click on the attachment here to read the Learning Disabilities Association of Minnesota's newsletter issue on Adults, Literacy, and AT. Download file

Visit http://www.ldaminnesota.org/news for a great series of newsletters on a range of topics:
LDA Newsletter: Teenagers & Stress
LDA Newsletter: Motivation & Academic Success
LDA Newsletter: Learning Disabilities in Adults
LDA Newsletter: Dyslexia a Reading Disability
LDA Newsletter: Toxic Chemicals & Child Development
LDA Newsletter: School-to-Work Transition
LDA Newsletter: Learning to Read
LDA Newsletter: Information Processing
LDA Newsletter: Attention Deficits
LDA Newsletter: Writing Disabilities & Focus on Attention

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.kirstenhaugen.org/ask/ask.html and explore Kirsten Haugen's ideas.

Note: this is an updated link! Thanks, Fiona, for letting us know.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, if you took our advice and went to the Woodlands Junior school yesterday, but did not poke around on the rest of the website, be sure to visit their literacy game site: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html

They have writing and text/reading games for students ages 5-11. I was able to amuse myself (significantly older than age 11) for quite some time.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this article from WestEd: Using Flexible Technology to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners: What Teachers Can Do by Julie Duffield and Lisa Wahl

Many general education teachers are turning to differentiated instruction to help them meet their students' diverse learning needs. This Knowledge Brief explains how some standard technology resources already available at most schools — talking text, web resources, graphic organizers, and word processors — can be used to support more tailored instruction. It also tells readers where to find more technology tips.

Keep reading at: http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this article fron Schwab Learning: Resources for Locating Electronic Text on the Internet: A Valuable Tool for Students with LD .

Electronic (computer-displayed) text can be an important resource for students with learning disabilities (LD), because it can be altered to meet their needs. A child with LD may benefit from changes to the appearance or organization of electronic text. These and other strategies are described in the article, Making the Most of Standard Technology to Enhance Learning.

If you and your child are looking for a specific piece of literature or information on a particular topic related to a school assignment, you will find the Internet is a rich resource. You may also search the Internet to locate high-interest material that appeals to your child. There are thousands of books and a growing collection of electronic texts on the Internet, including books still in copyright. Some websites have been enhanced with sound, images, and text that can support struggling readers.

This article details some particularly useful Internet resources for electronic text that may be helpful for your child.

Click here to keep reading: http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=1117

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The web is becoming a great resource for finding ready made materials for students needing extra support. Slater software, publishers of PixWriter and Picture It software, has a free stuff section of their website. A quick browse through this website I found stories that were created using Picture It Software. The stories have been saved into a pdf document that can be downloaded and printed. Numerous stories and activities are available and added monthly. Check it out!!

http://slatersoftware.com/document.html

Posted by Mona at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can't put your hands on that Boardmaker disc?? Have no fear, now available on the Slater Software web site is a free seach of literacy support pictures. Type in a word and a picture becomes available that you can copy to your desktop and use right away. Be sure to credit them with this great gift!!! What a find. Thanks to Slater for making our life so much easier.

Here's the link:http://slatersoftware.com/PixLibrary.html?PINETREE.GIF=Pine

Posted by Mona at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The IPOD, and other Mp3 players, are growing in popularity

Continue reading "What's in Your IPOD?" »

Posted by Fran Smith at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most students (and people) balk at reading literary analysis--in high school and in life! Rocketbooks are a highly stylized and interactive companion to reading for students with and without disabilities...from our AT lab, you can check out a Rocketbook for Frankenstein, Macbeth, King Lear and Romeo & Juliet. You get an interactive DVD that discusses plot, summary, and applies the componenents of literary analysis on a late MS/HS/early college level. And, they're fun to watch!

More info at: http://rocketbook.net/index.html

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the website (http://www.tomsnyder.com):

Thinking Reader is an innovative, research-validated program that systematically builds reading comprehension skills for students reading below grade level. The program presents core, authentic literature—the books your whole class reads—in a highly motivating and supportive environment. It embeds prompts, hints, model answers, and instant feedback into the text to provide individualized instruction. Students practice and master 7 scientifically proven reading comprehension strategies while they read. Thinking Reader also includes comprehensive support materials that make it easy for educators—including classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers—to integrate the program into a variety of instructional settings.

Research-based and validated
The only software program to use the unabridged text of award-winning core literature
Provides instruction on 7 proven reading comprehension strategies:
Summarizing Questioning
Clarifying Predicting
Visualizing Feeling
Reflecting
5 levels of embedded reading comprehension support for individualized instruction
Quizzes within the literature test recall, inference, and vocabulary skills
Tracks specific student performance and general class progress; view, print, or export 6 reports to monitor improvement
A contextual glossary aids vocabulary development and includes Spanish translations for ELL students
Human voice narration feature with synchronized highlighting helps build fluency

Meets the latest guidelines on universal accessibility
- Adjustable font size
- Keyboard navigation
- Text captioning
- Screen reader compatibility

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking for Boardmaker or picture recipes for your students to follow during measurement and cooking units? Look no further, as Cindy Glew, Autistic Support Teacher, Karen Conard, Paraprofessional, Lorie Schwartz, Paraprofessional, and Katy Bruno, Speech Language Pathologist, have highlighted their classroom's recipes on their class website. (Don't go here if you're teaching nutrition and healthy eating right now, though!) Their classroom is "a highly structured setting dedicated to supporting students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders" and has students in grades 3-5.

Click on http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/cooking.html to see the following recipes (and a lot more):

Cookie Snowman (Made with Boardmaker, PDF file)

Microwave Fudge (Made with Boardmaker, PDF file)

Valentine's Day Oreo Cookie Dessert (PDF file - Made with Boardmaker)Will be uploaded during the month of February!

Valentine's Day Parfait Dessert (PDF file - Made with Boardmaker)Will be uploaded during the month of February!

Monster Crisp Snacks (PDF file) You will need butter (witch fat), mini marshmallows (ghost toes), Rice Krispies (werewolf toenails), candy corn (infected vampire teeth), mini chocolate chips (frog warts), red food coloring (vampire blood), and yellow food coloring (yellow spider blood).Will be uploaded during the month of October!

November Pumpkin Pie (Made with Boardmaker)

December Cookie Wreaths (Made with Boardmaker)

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Many of you are regular visitors to www.ldonline.org, a well-know website loaded with information for students, families and professionals regarding a variety of issues related to serving students with learning disabilities. It was originally started by Richard Wanderman, a well known educational consultant, presenter and successful adult with learning disabilities, who also happens to be a technology wiz. The site now contains lists of tools, schools, organizations and professionals and other resources for the LD community as well as new articles and commentaries. Richard has now developed a blog with his colleague David Clark, a well-know web accessibility consultant and successful adult with cerebral palsy. Richard has presented several assistive technology workshops for our TechKnowledgy Conference and is an amazing source of information. His creative and practical use of technology is helpful to students and adults with learning disabilities and the families and professionals who support them. We suggest that you check out his new blog at www.ldresources.org!

Posted by Sharon Jones at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you know about Webwide from Widget Software? This program has two amazing features. First, with the click of a button it will convert any website to a text only website (removing all graphics, photos, videos, etc.). Second, and best of all, with the second click of a mouse it will convert the text on the website to words with picture symbols, similar to Writing with Symbols 2000. Use this software to create a talking symbol web browser. Now all of your students can have easy access to relevant information on the internet. Visit widget.com for a free trial of this software and to learn more about widget products and services!

Posted by Sharon Jones at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out the "Introduction to the Screen Reader" - a short video demonstrating how screen readers assist people who are blind to navigate the web and more. Produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Information Technology, featuring Neal Ewers of the Trace Research Centre.

http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/video/intro.asp

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know that Boardmaker will create a symbol if you provide them with an idea or graphic? If you have a need for a symbol that is not included in the Boardmaker library, click on the link below and submit a request. Any new symbols that they create are also available on the monthly tips section of their website.

http://mayerjohnson.com/SymbolRequest.aspx

Posted by Mona at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our library now has Attainment's WordRule Set!

"Teach word meanings and spelling for high priority words with an engaging hands-on tool! Students practice learning defi nitions, then self-check their spelling. Users simply slide the insert up or down until the desired word is located. Alphabetized words include number, calendar, direction, math and high frequency words plus homophones and synonyms. Set includes two durable laminated 91/2�? x 5�? WordRule sleeves and 9 color-coded laminated inserts."

Contact our library to check this out, or see the Attainment website:
http://www.attainmentcompany.com/

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 4-in-1 Activity Center from SuperDuper Inc. is a great tool that includes a magnetic board, card holder, mirror, and write-on/wipe-off board. Click this link to see a full-sized flyer with the many uses of this tool:
View image

Interested in checking out the 4-in-1 Activity Center for 3 weeks and trying it with your students? Contact our Region 8 AT lab toll-free at 866-465-0412 and let us know!

Need a link to our library and AT lab? Click here: http://www.vcu.edu/ttac/Library/Library.htm

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bookshare.org is part of Benetech, a company that is always looking for technology solutions that empower people and change their lives. Bookshare is a subscription based digital library of books, magazines and newspapers designed for people with print disabilities.You may join as a yearly subscriber with access to all of the material for download or you may purchase individual books/magazines/newspapers for a fee. Copyrighted material is protected and certain rules and restrictions apply. It is a wonderful opportunity for people who have not been able to access latest best seller or participate in book groups at the local coffee shop. Has anyone seen any other digital libraries that contain material beyond the classics? How do your students access novels and other reading materials required in core subjects?
Here is the website.
http://www.benetech.org/literacy/bookshare.shtml

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr. Karen Erickson and The Center for Literacy Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, is collaborating with Benetech and they have developed Route 66 Literacy. This is a internet based educational service designed for adolescents and adults with significant learning disabilities in the areas of reading and writing. The content is current and of high interest to adolescents and adults. Because it is online, the content can be updated to reflect current topics and new storeies. The service provides a Teacher Tutor that supports the instructor as they are working with their students. The program has built-in access features that are accessible by the most challenged learner. Contact the company to learn more about this innovative approach to teaching literacy to adolescents and adults:
http://www.Benetech.org/literacy/route66.shtml

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The TTAC library at VCU has just received 11 new Start-to-Finish titles, including The Red Badge of Courage, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein, the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Jack London Short Story Collection. Why use Start-to-Finish books with your students?

Familiarize students with formal literary language and help them make the transition to grade-level text.

Grade 4-5 readable text

Lower ability can read with support

Syntax and vocabulary of more formal English

Complex or abstract vocabulary

More ideas introduced into longer sentences

Varied sentence structures

Auditory support for key words

Sentence-by-sentence highlighting

10,000 to 12,000 words
150-200 words per page
10 to 12 chapters
900-1,200 words per chapter
Illustrations, vary in size and placement
Two pages viewable on-screen

Computer quizzes let students demonstrate comprehension and vocabulary development. Recording their own reading, students master fluency with repeated reading. Students get instant feedback and teachers get detailed reports on accumulated student performance and time-on-task. Completed and blank quizzes can be printed for off-computer activities.
Questions quiz poses inferential questions to demonstrate comprehension.
Meanings quiz reinforces new vocabulary and idioms introduced in the chapter.
Optional speech in quizzes allows for additional support, if needed.
Fluency practice activity uses short, manageable passages to allow students to practice fluent reading through repeated reading.
Fluency readings are recorded for students and teachers to assess the quality of rate, intonation and accuracy.
NEW! Completed and blank quizzes and fluency activities can be printed by students for off-computer activities.

In our library, Start-to-Finish book sets come with a large-print paperback version of the text, computer book, audio cd, teacher guide and extensive options for the teacher to track student fluency and comprehension. Stop by or call us at the library to check these out!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a great resource for your students. An online subscription to a newspaper for beginning readers and those with disabilities. News-2-You is a weekly newspaper related to current events and the subscription runs from September to June, providing a resource for you throughout the year. Picture symbols and print are used together in articles that pertain to current world events. The text is written in three levels: regular, simplified, higher level and includes communication boards that relate to the content of the newspaper. You can use the material throughout the week for different purposes---be creative...the time consuming work has been done for you! I know many of you have used this resource. Tell us how you use it in your classroom!
The website has a sample you can download and try with your students.
Have fun!
http://www.news-2-you.com/index.aspx

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the need to assess ALL students comes the need for tools that reach ALL students. Don Johnston Inc. along with researchers in the field of literacy have teamed up to create books that meet the literacy needs of students who need enrichment, transitional or conventional text. The series includes history and science topics like early settlers, volcanoes, Cival War, as well as sports and life skills and many others. The book sets also include teacher materials for tracking student progress and creating supporting materials. Check it out on Don Johnston's website: http://www.donjohnston.com/catalog/stflsfrm.htm

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Virtual Vine is a great website for teachers of students in preK-2 or any of us focusing on early learning skills. The webmaster, Cindy, has 19 years experience as a Special Education Resource Teacher, teaching range of students with mild to significant cognitive disabilities. Hew website, http://www.thevirtualvine.com, is full of great ideas for centers using no tech and low/light tech manipulatives.

Here's an example of one:

Counting by 2s, 5s, & 10s: I use my number chart and "highlighter tape" to help my students see the patterns of counting by 2s, 5s, & 10s. The highlighter tape is actually cling on bookcovers that I purchased by the box at Office Depot. You just cut the film to the size you need, then it easily sticks and and can be easily removed without any sticky residue. Eventually dust and grime will get stuck to the back, so you just throw it away and cut new pieces. I've been using the same box for years!

Click here to visit the math section of her site and see her hundreds chart with "highlights" http://www.thevirtualvine.com/math.html
A great way to prompt any and all students during choral response counting activities!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click here to hear this entry read aloud: Download file

Highlighter Tape is a transparent tape that looks like a fluorescent highlighter pen, but the removable adhesive means you don't make permanent marks.

Who uses it? From a recent advertisement:

Pilot, Musicians, Knitters, Attorneys: use highlighter tape for expensive navigation charts, sheet music, knitting patterns, and legal documents! Removable highlighting tape is a great way to mark your route on all aeronautical charts. Easily change and remove the route without marking or damaging your charts.

How else can we use it?
Now you can highlight word parts, words, phrases, or sentences on any surface without damaging it! Use different colors to break words. Highlighter tape is easy to remove, and you can even write on it.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Palm Beach County Schools Dept of Exceptional Student Education has posted the SETT framework questions as a considerations document that can be completed and shared by IEP team members. Check out http://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/Records/PDF/1859.pdf.

The areas of handwriting, reading, math, learning/study skills, and computer access are included in the considerations form, with a multitude of suggestions for students and their IEP teams to try (Magic Rub erasers, highlighter tape). A column in the document is provided to evaluate effectiveness.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard while simultaneously turning the scroll key on your mouse and one can easily enlarge screen text.....in any application!

Posted by Fran Smith at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tech4Learning has a wonderful resource, Recipe4Success, for supporting teachers and students using technology in the classroom. This resource includes software tutorials and guides for particular features, tools for creating graphic organizers or rubrics, as well as a multitude of many other resources available for free once your subscribe. This resource will save you lots of time and will allow your students to become more self-directed learners and better cooks! You need to check it out! Go to http://www.myt4l.com/

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

School's about to start and now is the time to stock up on things that will cost more later!

For students (and any of us) who lose their place when distracted from reading and completing worksheets and forms, have pads of inexpensive sticky notes around the room. Model for students the use of a sticky note to "hold your place" while reading out of a book or off of a printed overhead. "Think aloud" about how you are using the sticky note not just when you walk away from the book or material, but because at any time there may be a distraction (knock at the door, buzzing fly, polite question interrupting, need to scan a list of questions for which one to answer next from the text) that would break your concentration. Think aloud for your students also about the amount of time you are saving by having the placeholder (not having to scan the whole page again when your eyes return to it) and how it serves double duty as a secure bookmark in a textbook (won't fall out).

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We like the Savvy Technologist enough to wander through his old postings--and struck gold!

In a 2005 posting, the Savvy Technologist interviewed Earle Harrison, an assistive technology consultant and owner of Triumph Technology, a source for adaptive technology and adaptive media solutions. They talked about universal design, assistive technology, and accessible Web design. Earle mentioned many different hardware and software products during the conversation, including:
* macvisionaries.com
* FreedomBox products including the Key To Freedom
* BrailleSense notetaker
* Kurzweil Educational Systems
* Mobile Speak
* StreetTalk GPS software
* JAWS for Windows screen reader
* Windows-Eyes screen reader
* Building Accessible Websites (With CD-ROM) by Joe Clark
* Constructing Accessible Web Sites by Jim Thatcher

Interested? Click on the link to hear the podcast of their conversation (http://technosavvy.org/?p=298)

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interested in browsing the web with speech support. BrowseAloud from TextHELP, http://www.texthelp.com provides a user follow along speech access anywhere the mouse pointer resides on screen. This can be especially helpful to any user with a reading difficulty....or for some of us who just have tired eyes :>) VDOE's TTACOnline, http://www.ttaconline.org and TTAC @ VCU, http://www.vcu.edu/ttac provide this access free to any user browsing these sites. What the user must do however is download the BrowseAloud plugin to their computer. The link to this resource is available on both TTACOnline and VCU TTAC. Enjoy speech enabled surfing!

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thunder, a new talking screen reader is available free for personal home use by people who are blind or have limited vision from http://www.screenreader.net. Organizations that wish to enable this service for users must pay a modest subscription fee.

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting posting on the website for Sabine Parish, LA: A quick checklist for determining student-specific modifications (http://www.sabine.k12.la.us/standards/CSmchecklis.htm). Some good ideas for us AT-minded folks!

Only one note: many of the "modifications" they list are things I would see not as modifications, but as accommodations or simply differentiated or alternate instruction...

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several companies provide downloads of a free read aloud software program. ReadPlease, http://www.readingbar.com will read any text on your screen and simply requires the user to cut and paste the text into the reading window. Variety of voice, voice speed, and font size are also included. Natural Reader, http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm offers a free onscreen reader that will read selected text from a document or from the web. The Professional version of both these products is available for a small fee and provides additional features. For example, Natural Reader's professional version provides conversion from text to MP3 and a toolbar to read all Office products. Premier Assistive provides a third free read aloud program known as The E-Text Reader, http://www.premier-programming.com/elib/etext_reader.htm.

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you have students who can read information in a text when you point out where it is ("It's in this paragraph" or "look at this heading, it has this word in it, too"? Scanning is a skill many students struggle with; in digital environments they can use the "Find" tool and search for the word, but with traditional print on paper they have great difficulty. Marginal gloss is a low tech tool to build independence in those students.

To add marginal gloss (which many of us think of as the notes written down the side of the page in a classic text or a dictionary) to a textbook or novel without permanently defacing the book, simply fold a piece of paper and line up the top of the paper with the page, then use arrows to point to the important parts. Now the student can see which section you want her to focus on and answer the question that goes with that section.

This is what the folded marginal gloss sheet looks like:

This is what it looks like when you get ready to answer the question:

Click here for an alternate view: View image

You can have the students answer the questions right on the marginal gloss sheet! Added bonus: later on, they can refold the paper and quickly backtrack to the place where they found the information.

Interested in some research on marginal gloss? Check out:
Stewart, Roger A., and Cross, Tracy. A. (1993). Field Test of Five Forms of Marginal Gloss Study Guide: An Ecological Study. Reading Psychology,14 (2). 113-39.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006 Presenter: Karen McCall, Sponsored by EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information).

Register at http://easi.cc/forms/tablet.htm

This web seminar will demonstrate the ability of students with disabilities to use tablet technology and Microsoft OneNote. The tablet offers tool for task accessibility such as handwriting, speech recognition, the use of screen magnification, and screen reading software. With the new smaller models of tablets, you have “big Windows�? applications on a small Windows XP Pro based computer. Add Microsoft OneNote and you have a powerful digital notebook. OneNote is a free form digital notebook tool that can be used with adaptive technology. Tablets can be used by people with dysgraphia, learning disabilities, visual disabilities, or who are blind. More academic institutions are moving to tablet technology and this seminar provides an overview of how it can be used as an inclusive tool.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vison Connection, founded by the non-profit Lighthouse International, is a leading resource worldwide on vision impairment and vision rehabilitation dedicated to helping people who are blind or partially sighted lead independent and productive lives. From their website, http://www.visionconnection.org/Content/Technology/AssistiveTechnologies/AccessibleMedia/AccessibleMedia.htm :

One of the common reactions to losing one's sight is a feeling of being isolated. Avenues of information — books, magazines, computers — are...closed off...However, several organizations...have addressed this growing need by making books and periodicals available for blind or print disabled individuals, often at nominal or no cost to the user.

The website offers ideas of how people with low vision can continue to access text such as newspapers even after they leave a classroom. Additionally, the website is well-designed, with clear fonts and adjustable font sizes to meet the needs of all people.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The importance digital media brings to an instructional situation is central to the recently adopted National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), which offer national guidelines for K-12 electronic book publishers on universal file formats (NIMAS, 2006). For more detailed information visit, http://nimas.cast.org/. When electronic books are developed under NIMAS standards, digital formats are usable across an array of assistive and technological devices (NIMAS, 2006). Several websites provide electronic book respositories that may be useful to teachers and students including Read Print http://www.readprint.com, The Accessible Book Collection
http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org/FAQs.htm, and The Digital Book Index http://www.digitalbookindex.com/about.htm. When using digital texts, we have can provide a wider range of options for students in using assistive and instructional strategies such as embedded speech-to-text assistance, clickable enlargement, text notes, and reading/highlight aloud.

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you are unfamiliar with SchwabLearning.org, it is a useful site for parents of students with learning disabilities. Financial giant Charles Schwab and his wife began the non-profit organization and website because of the challenges of raising their own child with a learning disability (LD), specifically dyslexia.

A current posting on the website regards AT tools that assist with reading, including audio books & publications, optical character recognition, speech synthesizers/screen readers, and variable speed tape recorders. Check out the AT tool descriptions and links at http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=1071.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)