Assistive Technology

Distance Learning AT Resources and Tutorials Link

This site was created to support staff, parents and students who may be using specific assistive technology tools for the first time during Distance Learning.

PACER's Simon Technology Center  
The PACER Center is a Minneapolis-based parent training and information center for families of children with disabilities. The Simon Technology Center is just one of PACER's programs and it provides a variety of services for children, their families and professionals. These include services such as technology consultations, a lending library, individualized training sessions, and inservices and workshops. 

To look at the items available for check out to trial, follow this link:  STC Lending Library Inventory

Bookshare
Bookshare is an accessible online library for individuals with qualifying print disabilities. If your student has a visual impairment, a physical disability, or a severe learning disability that significantly impacts their use of printed materials, they may qualify for membership. Qualifying members have access to over 400,000 titles (including textbooks) and these digital books can be read to students on computers, tablets and smartphones. 

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials 
The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) provides resources and technical assistance to anyone interested in the implementation of Accessible Educational Materials. These are print and technology-based educational materials that are designed or converted in a way that makes them usable for the widest range of students possible.
 

IPAD BUILT-IN ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES

The iPads provided as student devices in grades K-8 have many accessibility options built right into their operating system. These options help many students with disabilities gain access to the curriculum and perform tasks with greater independence. Please use the link to explore these tools in greater detail.
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/

Speak Selection
One tool frequently used is Speak Selection. Speak Selection is often recommended for students with disabilities in the area of reading. When this feature is enabled, the student can select text that is presented above their reading level and it will be read aloud, reducing or eliminating that barrier to the curriculum. If your child's special education team recommended text-to-speech when considering assistive technology and use an iPad for instruction, Speak Selection can be used.

How to enable Speak Selection:

1. Select> Settings
2. Select> General
3. Select> Accessibility
4. Touch the Speak Selection slide control to green
5. When your student touches and selects text, they will now have a "Speak" option

This technology does not work with text presented in image-based PDF formats. Additional applications and technology is needed to make this print accessible.

Dictation

Another frequently used iPad tool is Voice Dictation. This can be a powerful built-in tool for students who struggle with writing. This is often considered and encouraged for students who struggle with writing and also have clear speech. 

How to use Voice Dictation:

1. Tap the microphone icon on the iPad's onscreen keyboard. This tells the iPad you want to start dictating.
2. Talk. The iPad will listen to your voice and turn it into text as you talk. 
3. Tap the "Done" button that appears onscreen to stop dictating. It may take a few seconds to turn the last words into text on the screen. Be sure to read it over. Voice dictation isn't perfect, so you may need to make a few adjustments using the keyboard.

APPS USED AS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Using the Assistive Technology evaluation and consideration process, your student's special education team may have determined specialized apps are needed in order for them to successfully access the curriculum and meet their IEP goals. These are some of the more commonly used apps and information on how they are used. 

SnapType for Occupational Therapy iPad App - Writing Technology
Snaptype for Occupational Therapy is an app that is used to take a paper handout and change it into a digital version that can be typed on instead of completed by handwriting. It is assistive technology considered for students with significant fine motor impairments impacting their ability to produce legible handwriting. 



 

Camscanner App (often used with Notability)  - Writing Technology
For students with fine motor impairments and handwriting difficulties, completing worksheets can be very frustrating. Often, the student's written output does not match their knowledge or ideas. Camscanner is sometimes considered for some students to use which enables them to use their iPad to take a photo of a worksheet, convert it to a PDF and then send it to another app, such as Notability. When opened in Notability, the student can then type on it or use the iPad's dictation technology to complete it. Notability has organizational supports where documents can be stored in color-coded folders.




Clicker Sentences App - Writing Technology
This app is sometimes considered by special education teams for students who do not have writing skills commensurate with their reading abilities. It is intended for students struggling with writing at the basic sentence level. It features a lowercase alphabet keyboard, picture cues, customizable sentence grids, and speech feedback.
 

Clicker Docs App - Writing Technology
Clicker Docs is another app considered for students with writing skills that are not commensurate with their reading abilities. This app provides customizable word prediction, subject-specific word bank support, and speech feedback.
 

Co:writer App - Writing Technology
Co:writer is another app considered by special education teams to meet the writing needs of students struggling to produce writing that reflects their knowledge and understanding of content. This app provides grammar-smart word prediction with topic dictionaries. It will also read writing back to check for accuracy.
 

Voice Dream App - Reading Technology
Voice Dream Reader is an app considered for students with severe reading disabilities. It reads articles, documents and books out loud with customizable text-to-speech technology. It supports many document formats including PDFs, Google Docs, Web articles, Bookshare books and audio books.




Prizmo App - Reading Technology
Prizmo is an app considered for students who struggle significantly with reading and have academic tasks that require them to read grade level text on worksheets or handouts. While our teachers are working to present material in multiple accessible formats to meet the needs of all students, there are some situations where this app is needed. It provides Optical Character Recognition technology to convert images of words into words that can be read by reading technology. 
 

Inspiration Maps - Writing/Organization Technology
Often students with Learning Disabilities have difficulty organizing their ideas for the writing process. Inspiration Maps in a mind mapping tool that is sometimes considered for students who need help visually organizing their ideas. Diagrams, maps, organizers, brainstorms and text outlines can be created It can help students with organization as they add information to their graphic organizer. Speech to text (Dictation) can be used to add ideas as well as keyboarding.

iPad's Calendar App - Organization Technology
For students who struggle with distractibility and require frequent reminders from adults, reminders can be programmed into their Calendar app that pop up and alert them. For example, alerts can be programmed to remind a student to turn in an assignment, check their agenda, etc.




MyHomework App - Organization Technology
This app is a digital planner that can replace paper planners for students who struggle with handwriting. The account created in the app can be accessed from any computer, tablet or smartphone.
More information about this digital planner can be found here: https://myhomeworkapp.com/

Our 9-12 grade students have access to laptop computers or Chromebooks through the district BYOD policy. Using the Assistive Technology evaluation and consideration process, your student's special education team may have determined specialized software or cloud-based applications are needed in order for them to successfully access the curriculum and meet their IEP goals. These are some of the more commonly used tools and information on how they are used.

Mac Computer Built-in Accessibility Features

Mac laptops and computers operating Mountain Lion or higher have built-in speech recognition capabilities for students who significantly struggle with handwriting, but have clear speech and organized ideas. This dictation function can be enabled in the system preference settings by selecting Dictation and Speech

1.  Select the Apple icon in the upper left of the main screen  

2.  Select System Preferences.  

3.  Select Dictation and Speech  

4.  Enable Dictation  

Mac laptops and computers also have built-in text to speech for students who significantly struggle with reading. This reading function can be enabled in the system preference settings the same way. Simply enable Speech instead of Dictation for step 4.

Windows Computer Built in Accessibility Features

Windows laptops and computers also have built-in speech recognition capabilities for students who significantly struggle with handwriting, but have clear speech and organized ideas. This dictation function can be enable by:

1. Select the Start button, select All Programs, select Accessories, select Ease of Access, select Windows Speech Recognition.
2. Say "start listening" or click the Microphone button to start the listening mode.
3. Open the program you want to use or select the text box you want to dictate text into.
4. Say the text you want to dictate.

Windows laptops and computers also have built-in text to speech capabilities for students who struggle with reading. This reading function is called Narrator and can be enabled in different ways depending on your operating system. 

These are a couple of ways:

1. On a keyboard, press the Windows logo key + Enter
2. On the Sign-in Screen, select the Ease of Access button in the lower-left corner and choose Narrator

Cloud-Based Apps and Extensions for All Computers

Snap and Read Universal - Reading Technology        
Snap and Read Universal is considered for students who are reading significantly below grade level and this is a barrier to class content. The following video demonstrates how students can use the Snap and Read Universal extension to read accessible and inaccessible text (such as Flash or image-based PDFs).

Co:writer Universal - Writing Technology                                                                   
The following videos demonstrate how students who struggle with written expression can use the Co:writer Universal extension to produce writing with word prediction, topic dictionaries, and dictation technology.



Readability -  Reading Technology  
Readability is an extension students can obtain from the Chrome Web Store. This extension is a reading and organizational support that removes visual clutter from web articles that interfere with content and provides the student with a more comfortable reading view.



MyHomeworkApp.com - Organization Technology

Please note, as district teachers move towards using Canvas as our Learning Management System, soon students will be able to keep track of all homework and assignments within that platform. MyHomeworkApp.com can be a tool to consider until this transition is complete.

The Tech Talk Assistive Technology Newsletters are publications written by the Region 11 MN Regional Low Incidence Projects-Assistive Technology Community of Practice. Funding for these publications are made possible through a grant from the MN Dept. of Education.

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