Sunday, October 30, 2011

Weekly Diigo Links (weekly)

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

ATIA-Chicago 2011

I am excited to again be attending and presenting at the ATIA conference in Chicago.  This conference taking place on November 2 - 5 at the Schaumburg Convention Center, is a great opportunity to learn and network with many AT professionals.  I have the opportunity to present in 2 different sessions.

ET-02 - Independence for All
Utopia B, 8:00 - 9:00 am

Mobile devices are the perfect platform to help students be more independent in the classroom, school, community and beyond. Apps on mobile devices can be used to help students access learning, scheduling and information at job sites and more. Let’s take a look at the major mobile devices and see how and when they can be used.

P2P-08 - Providing ALL Students with an EdCeptional, Accessible, & Universal Education
Schaumburg A, 9:15 - 10:15 am

Participate in a community forum on use of technology in special education with the crew of EdCeptional! EdCeptional is a weekly podcast that highlights access to learning for exceptional students of all abilities. During this session, the EdCeptional crew will lead an informative yet fun roundtable discussion on a variety of topics related to special education & technology. Topics will be chosen based on the interests of the audience. We are open to discussing anything - from accessibility to UDL, from apps and iPads to Web 2.0 tools like QR codes!

If you are attending ATIA please take a moment to introduce yourself!

Patrick


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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Weekly Diigo Links (weekly)

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

More Keyboard


What do you get when you make a keyboard with wider keys, but not higher?  You increase the font size 3 times a standard keyboard? And include a multiple leg system with tons of options?

The More Keyboard

The More Keyboard was designed for persons of a larger stature (large fingers, etc..), but it is easy to see how this keyboard is perfect for anyone with a disability.  Having larger keys is great, but not having to change the distance you go from front to back would great decrease fatigue in many individuals.  The size of the letters and durability of them seems like a perfect match for a classroom.

As you can see from above it takes up no more space than a standard keyboard, but does move some of the keys around to accommodate the wider keys.   The More Keyboard retails for $69 and is available from the More Keyboard website.

Thanks to Wade Wingler (@indataproject) for featuring this innovative new product on the Assistive Technology Update podcast.




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Monday, October 17, 2011

INData Project & Podcast



Jeremy posted recently about using podcasts to Listen & Learn, and I found at least one that I had not hear of before.  Wade Wingler (@indataproject) hosts a weekly podcast about AT, answering questions & interviewing leaders in the field.  This podcast has become one of my favorites!

Wade always starts off the podcast reviewing a ton of AT news and products, and there is so much that I learn just for those few short minutes.  He typically answers a few questions and does an interview.  One of the most recent was with Claudio Guigliemma of the Lucy Environment project.  A project whose aim is to create an accessible computer environment available anywhere you use a computer (based in the cloud), what a fantastic idea!!!

There is tons more information shared on the blog - http://blog.eastersealstech.com - so make sure you check that out too!  You can download the Assistive Technology Update from the blog or via iTunes.

Patrick


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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Weekly Diigo Links (weekly)

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Hear and There podcast #a11y



Here's an interesting idea, make a podcast and describe visits the places that many person's with visual disabilities might not get a chance to visit.  The Here and There podcast does just that.  Dave Uhlman is a visually impaired Accessibility Consultant who visits and gives his unique perspectives on things like museums, nature, animals, art shows and much more.  One of the most recent episodes was a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo to pet Cheetah cubs. 


It's very interesting listening to the visual descriptions (especially as a sighted person).  They are very detailed and I find it very interesting.  Many of the episodes have pictures to accompany the descriptions.  Just listening to the episode while visiting the Cheetahs it was very fun to hear the purring as they pet the animals.  I would be very interested in hearing the episode about the "Tac Tiles" tour for the blind at the Chicago Art institute.


Check out this innovative and fun podcast out at http://hearandthere.net


Patrick


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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Symbol Resources (@SymbolResources) #spedchat #complexneeds #assistivetech #slpeeps

Symbol Resources (@SymbolResources) is an online resource created and managed by Tina Voizey to help teachers, speech-language therapists, parents, and others  who are interested in creating and using symbol-based materials to support the language development and learning of individuals who have special needs.  This site features information about best practices in using symbols, guides on how to use popular symbol software, & FREE resources supporting monthly themes as well as life skills and academics.   The resources that are available on Symbol Resources are created in Boardmaker, Communicate: In Print and Matrix Maker.

This site is one of a few activity shares geared towards special education that I have recently discovered.  It's great when we don't have to recreate the wheel when it comes to creating adapted/modified instructional materials!

-  Jeremy


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Monday, October 10, 2011

Visual Strategy Templates (Boardmaker, Word/Excel, PDF) #spedchat #assistivetech #complexneeds


You have to check out these awesome collections of visual strategy templates shared by the Autism Department of the Hamilton-Boone-Madison Special Services Cooperative:

For Staff

For Parents

NOTE:  The templates are available to download for FREE in several formats (Boardmaker, Word\Excel, or PDF).  For the Boardmaker files, right-click the file and select "Save Target as" and save the file to your desktop, then right click and select "Rename" and change the .htm or .html to .bm2.

-  Jeremy

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AT Manual by Hope Technology School (@Hopetechschool) #assistivetch #spedtech #spedchat #inclusion

I am excited to share one of my new favorite assistive technology resources with our readers today!


This resource has been developed by Hope Technology School (HTS).  HTS is a not-for-profit school in Palo Alto, California established in 2001 with the mission of providing an exceptional learning experience for typical and special needs children in a fully inclusive, technology rich environment.  HTS educates over 100 children from preschool through 8th grade.  They also have a Vocational Education Program for middle and high school aged students.  

At HTS, they utilize technology in innovative ways to provide students with an exceptional inclusive education and to help them attain his/her personal goals.  Their hope is to use technology, particularly computers, to include students with special needs and their typically developing peers into the same classroom environment.  As a result of a decade of hard work by a team of therapists, teachers, and parents as well as ongoing development, innovation, and collaboration,  the folks at Hope Technology School have written an AT Manual.  


The HTS AT Manual begins with a discussion of Assistive Technology (with a focus on communication), who can benefit from assistive technology, examples of High-Tech Tools, and the Building Blocks, or foundational skills, for communication (pointing & typing/speaking).  Next, readers are provided with an overview of technology resources (websites & FREE downloads) for Academics as well as the HTS Technology Toolbox.  The HTS team also shares helpful Technology Hints.  The most valuable section of the HTS AT Manual has to be the collection of Activities.  For each activity, the manual outlines the objective, rationale, technology tool, basic instructions, things to consider, & progress for the activities.

In a recent entry on the Hope Technology School blog (The Secret to Success with Assistive Technology), Morgan Brown explained how this entire document could be summarized in 2 basic secrets of success:
  1. Believe each student has something valuable to communicate.
  2. Just go for it - whether you're an expert or not, just try, who know what you'll discover.

As the Hope Technology Group is constantly developing new opportunities and evolving in their approach, the team at HTS will continue to update this manual.  Their hope is for this evolving document to be used to assist individuals and families to communicate, discover new methods of learning, and inspire others.

Exciting things are happening in the classrooms at Hope Technology School!  Current technology projects at HTS include use of the HP TouchSmart, Android tablets, and iPad apps.  I recently have had the pleasure of interacting with several staff and parents at HTS on Twitter.  You can follow the school on Twitter, @hopetechschool.  They are truly innovative group of professionals and parents who are totally open to discussing assistive technology and sharing what they have learned.  I look forward to learning more about their innovative uses of technology.

-  Jeremy

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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Jeremy's Weekly Diigo-coveries (weekly)

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Do-It-Yourself Document Camera Solutions #edtech #spedtech #assistivetech


How to Create Your Own Document Camera from A Mercer on Vimeo.


Using an iPad as a Document Camera by Lainie Rowell

-  Jeremy

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Patrick's Weekly Diigo Links (weekly)

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Saturday, October 8, 2011

The Accessible Instruction Pledge - It's OUR Responsibility! #edchat #spedchat #complexneeds #accessibility


As educators, we impact students, but do we effectively reach ALL of our students?  Anyone working with disabled students who fails to provide accessible instruction and materials is inadvertently building barriers to learning.  Join Atomic Learning and pledge to do your part to bring accessible instruction to all students by completing the Accessible Instruction Pledge.

After you complete the pledge, you will be directed to a series of video tutorials to help build your understanding of accessible instruction as well as reference tools.

-  Jeremy

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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Meet Jennifer Schultz & her SLP Resources wiki #SLPeeps #SLPchat #iTherapy #CommonCore



Meet Jennifer Schultz!  Jennifer is a speech language pathologist with the South Central Education Cooperative in South Dakota.  Her SLP Resources wiki is an amazing treasure chest for SLPs!  Jennifer's wiki is full of resources related to speech-language therapy.  See the topics she covers below:
  • Common Core Standards
  • Documentation
  • Progress Monitoring
  • iStuff (using iOS devices in speech therapy)
  • Therapy Games
  • Vocabulary
    • Children's Books and Vocabulary Targets
  • Online Therapy Stimuli Resources
  • Online Student Resources


-  Jeremy


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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

R.I.P. #SteveJobs #ADEdu #Apple



In my eyes, Steve Jobs was a true leader & great force behind revolutionary, accessible, classroom-friendly technology.


-  Jeremy
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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

#iPhone4S, #Siri & #iOS5 - #a11y #accessibility #assistivetech #spedchat

iPhone 4S

Earlier today, Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S at their "Let's Talk iPhone" event.  While this new model is not much different than the iPhone 4 on the outside, its inside has been completely overhauled.  The iPhone 4S features the A5 dual-core chip as well as a better camera (8MP, 1080p).


Pricing:  $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), & $399 (64GB).  
Pre-ordering for iPhone 4S begins online on October 7 and in-store purchasing on October 14.



Siri

The most revolutionary component of the iPhone 4S with regards to accessibility would have to be the "intelligent agent", Siri.  Siri not only performs speech-to-text translation but also recognizes complex voice commands!


  • Siri understands what you say.  Have a conversation with your iPhone as you would another person!
  • Siri knows what you mean.  It is proactive and will ask you questions until it finds the information you are looking for.
  • Siri can help you easily accomplish a variety of daily tasks, such as set reminders, schedule appointments, find directions, find locations near by, perform web searches, and much more!
  • Siri can read & dictate notes, text messages, or e-mails.  Dictation also works with third-party apps.  Anywhere you see the keyboard, you'll see a microphone too!

This breakthrough software upgrade makes the iPhone more accessible for individuals with special needs, who benefit from the ability to interact with their smartphones using natural voice.  The potential benefits of an "intelligent agent" like Siri for students who have special needs are mind-blowing!  Let's think about a simple daily task like maintaining a planner.  How cool would it be if a student (or teacher) could easily setup reminders for assignments by simply speaking into the student's device?  There are many more possible uses of Siri for students with special needs.  I will write another post soon to share the ideas I have.


Unfortunately, Siri will only be available on the iPhone 4S. The reason for this limitation being that the voice activation features are processor intensive (requiring the A5 chip).  Additionally, Siri relies on the integration of Apple's new iCloud service, as voice commands are processed on a remote server.  To activate Siri on the iPhone 4S, just hold down the HOME button for a few seconds.

Siri will be a beta for the time being, as it only supports English, German, and French voice input.  There are more language add-ons and tweaks to come.  Furthermore, there has not yet been any mention on whether or not Siri will be available for the iPad 2, which also sports an A5 processor, or Mac laptop and desktop computers.


iOS 5

Apple also announced iOS 5 will be released to the public and available as a FREE download via iTunes next Wednesday (10/12).  iOS 5 will be compatible with iPhone 4S/4/3GS, iPad 2/1, and iPod Touch 3rd/4th generation.  Accessibility features of iOS 5 include flashing LED alerts, custom-vibration alerts for phone and SMS messages, an interested split keyboard interface, multi-touch gestures, and voiceover “element labeling” to enhance the screen reader user’s experience.

I can't wait to hear what everyone in the field of special education has to say about the new accessibility features of iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S, especially Siri!


-  Jeremy

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Speech-to-Speech

Recently I have heard about a new service similar to TTY (for persons who have trouble hearing) called Speech-to-Speech for persons with speech difficulties.  This service can be best explained by it's founder, Dr. Bob Segalman.
Speech-to-Speech is a service for people with speech disabilities. 
If you have a speech disability and live in the USA, you can now use a free† telephone relay service, available 24 hours a day. This service is similar to the TTY service available to the hearing disabled except that it does not require typing. 
This service, called Speech-to-Speech (STS), provides communication assistants (CA's) for people with difficulty being understood by the public on the telephone. It is available for business, medical, and personal communication. 
STS is easy to use, available from every phone and no registering is required. 
Just pick up the phone and dial 711 and request a Speech-to-Speech Operator. Your family, friends and business acquaintances can call you and use the STS services just as easily.
While I have had no opportunity to try out the service, it seems very needed.  I can only imagine the difficulty and frustration some of my students would have using a telephone to make a simple order or ask a question.  Trying to get the receiver to understand that they are using an AAC device, that they have speech difficulties, truly frustrating.  I'm excited to see a service like this available.
Now that Dr. Segalman has gotten the voice Speech-to-Speech (STS) running he is asking for help to get a video (vid-STS) service approved by the FCC.  His premise is that many persons with speech difficulties can make themselves understood when they are seen by a person they may be calling.  I think this would be a great addition to the STS service and encourage everyone to sign the petition below:


Video Speech-To-Speech

-  Patrick


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Sunday, October 2, 2011

Jeremy's Weekly Diigo-coveries (weekly)

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