No Limits to Learning

Ed Tech Trends to Look for in 2012: AT Connections and Accommodations

2012-01-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

I read this article "12 Education Tech Tends to Watch in 2012" today and thought it was an important list of trends to consider in the assistive technology field. One trend in particular caught my attention, the BYOD trend (Bring Your Own Device). More and more, students have iTouches and iPads, Smart phones, laptops and tablets. If we want them to accommodate their learning with tools, text to speech, online dictionaries, research sites, etc. the issue of schools allowing the students to bring these devices to learn is going to have to be addressed.

Fortunately in my region and districts, the students who have laptops or iPads and need them at school are allowed to bring them. They are on IEP's and have the need for support with this tools for accommodating learning. I want to know what will happen when regular student populations want to bring them as well and they are declined the opportunity to use them because of mis-use fears by school administrators and school boards. It will be a growing issue and full of heated debate!

This article from 2010 in Toronto Life: "Why Smart phones in the Classroom Equals Smarter Kids" addresses some of these fears. http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2011/12/20/jesse-brown-gadget-goes-to-school/

There are some interesting trends to think about and I hope you read and enjoy. I would like to explore some of these trends and share thoughts over how they might impact AT. I welcome your thoughts and comments as well.

All the best in 2012!

Lon

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Get to Know Nook Study for PC and Mac

2011-12-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

On the journey of researching e book readers and tools for print disabilities, I stumbled across Nook Study, a free download from Barnes and Noble for PC and Mac only - it is not in an app version (yet) for tablets and the iTouch, iPhone and iPad. I downloaded it and put it through the paces this past week. Here is what I came up with:

Pros:

It is free.

It has a key-stroke shortcut, Ctrl -Alt-S, to activate text to speech. Using the space bar starts and stops the reading of any text you highlight and starts and stops continuous reading.

The voice it used seemed pretty natural and you can speed it up or slow it down by accessing the settings in the Library home page under settings and the accessibility tab.

You can highlight text in various colors and add sticky notes.

Highlight a word and add a tag, note or website link.

Books you purchase can be set up into folder categories, i.e. history, literature, science, etc.

You can set up media stacks for newstand purchases in chronological order.

There are many college and professional trade textbooks in e format.

The Nook Study syncs with other Nook apps; i.e. books I purchased on a Nook App on an iPad show up on the computer on Nook Study.

There are many free classics and public domain books available. (Check out Calibre for formatting pdf's and other documents and managing/adding to your e reader libraries)

Cons:

Textbooks available in a Nook format are limited. You are not going to find a fourth grade social studies textbook.

Not yet available for portable devices.

I would check out this free download if you are looking for a text to speech accommodation and want some study helps. I am loving it.

Lon

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14 Apps for AAC, Part Two

2011-12-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Here is Part 2 on the AC Apps for the iPad. I am going to be getting my hands on all of them and writing reviews of each to kick off 2012 in January/February so check back as those are posted!

8. ICommunicate: $49.99. Low to mid user, single hit communication maximum board is 4 X 10 cells. Board view and schedule view. Can email boards to print them off. Has recordable voice, text to speech and has 10,000 image library included. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icommunicate-for-ipad/id364186415?mt=8

9. AutoVerbal Pro: $9.99. Utilizes multiple sliding ribbon/bars to choose and build phrases. More advanced versions available. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autoverbal-talking-soundboard/id368727888?mt=8

10. Tap to Talk: Lite, Free; Full version with access to online library, $99.95 1 year, $179.99 “forever”. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taptotalk/id367083194?mt=8 Tap to Talk home page: http://www.taptotalk.com/product.aspx

11. Grace: $37.99. Users can navigate through the categories and click on images they want to use. Users can use each picture isolated or combine a set of pictures to make phrases. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grace-picture-exchange-for/id360574688?mt=8

12. Look to Learn: $14.99. “I want” paired with a photo and higher quality voices allow needs and choices to be communicated. For early to mid communicators. Free assessment can be downloaded at www.look2learn.com. App store description: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/look2learn-aac/id319600029?mt=8

13. Proloquo2go: $189.99. contains text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary and much more. Builds phrases to speak by selecting folders with categories. App store description: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/proloquo2go/id308368164?mt=8

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuKv0Z2_HMo

14. Ablenet Sounding Board: $49.99. Design 1 to 9 button boards. Record your message, use built in library or use pictures off camera. Has ablility to collect data on user as well. Ablenet is developing pre-made boards to purchase and download for this app. Website: http://www.ablenetinc.com/Assistive-Technology/Communication/SoundingBoard

Accessories:

Cases: AMDI makes a durable case with a handle designed for AAC with an iPad. Here is a link to a blogpost on it: http://www.laseredpics.biz/servlet/the-Adaptive-Technologies-Supplies/Categories

The AMDI website and iAdapter 1 and 2: $198, http://amdi.net/index.php?route=product/category&path=141_106

Keyguards: Lasered Pics makes iPad Keyguards and can make customized ones for the apps they don’t carry as well. They are currently made for the apps Grace, iClick iTalk, Proloquo2go, Speak it, and TapSpeak Choice. They also make one to fit over the iPad for the iPad keyboard. $19.95

http://www.laseredpics.biz/servlet/the-Adaptive-Technologies-Supplies/Categories

I will be presenting a 3 hour break out session on these apps in Portland, Oregon at the AT Now! Conference March 1 and 2. (The breakout session day is March 2). If you are in the area and might be interested in attending, I know there are 2 other presenters doing sessions on iPads that day so there will be a lot covered. For more information go to the Oregon Technology Access Program website and check the conference page. They don't have the actual conference info up yet, but it should be up in January sometime to register.

All the best!

Lon

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14 Apps for AAC, Part One

2011-11-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

I have been getting requests for information on apps that use the iPad as a speech device. There are so many out there and I have compiled a list of 14 apps from free up to $190 that can be used as AAC. Some produce single hit messages, some are able to be customized boards and some are full-blown choice and phrase, sequenced talkers. The TapSpeak line now includes 4500 basic Boardmaker symbols. Some cost a one-time fee and some have annual subscriptions. I am splitting these up into 7 each post so you aren't blasted with too many at one time. I will also included links and costs to cases and key guard overlays. at the end.

Your suggestions and additions are welcome!

The following list of Apps converts the iTouch/Phone or iPad into an Augmentative device:

1. My Talk Mobile and Workspace. $39.95 with one year upgrade. Works with My Workspace to design and sync boards. $9 a month, $75 a year or $175 3-year. (My Workspace free to SLP’s with ASHA number) Has Lite version free.

My Talk: http://www.mytalktools.com/dnn/Home.aspx

You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMLNWlBycgg&feature=player_embedded%27

2. First Then Visual Schedule, $9.99 from iTunes App Store. Has 1, 2 and 4 image screen modes and record your own sound and choose your own picture/symbol. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/first-then-visual-schedule/id355527801?mt=8#

3. My Choice Board, $9.99 iTunes App Store. Prepare and save boards with up to 6 choices and ability to expand if needed. Board has a phrase “I want” and then images as choices with optional checklist. Images available from camera, Internet search or photo albums. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-choice-board/id384435705?mt=8

4. TapSpeak Sequence Standard, $29.99, iTunes App Store. Has re-sizeable and moveable visual targets, unlimited number of sequences, use your own images and drawings, un.imited phrase recording length and sequence length. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tapspeak-sequence-for-ipad/id379541810?mt=8

5. TapSpeak Sequence Plus, $49.99. Plus version includes 4500 image Mayer Johnson Boardmaker library for building sequences.

6. TapSpeak Button Standard or Plus, $14.99 or $49.99. Uses image of Big Mack or Big red button/jelly bean button on screen and overlays an image on it and recordable message activates when tapped. Standard uses your images, Plus uses Boardmaker library. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tapspeak-button/id359998293?mt=8

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbmNtgfQXCs

7. TapSpeak Choice, $149.99. Builds boards using Boardmaker symbols with speech window at the top to build phrases. Low to mid users.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tapspeak-choice-for-ipad/id408507581?mt=8

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI9LKZWIpuA

Note: The TapSpeak apps can use the RJ Cooper/Ablenet Blue tooth wireless switches.

All the best!

Lon

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Free Online Typing Resources

2011-09-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have been asked about keyboarding and typing programs and our schools always are looking for free resources. I have used tuxtyping for kids for a long time. I thought I would add a few others below. If you have some resources that you like please comment and add your ideas and links!

http://www.typingweb.com/typingtutor/ - this one is free but you have to register to keep scores and track progress.

http://www.nimblefingers.com/

http://typingsoft.com/all_typing_tutors.htm a directory list of free and pay typing programs online

Lon

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iPad USB Camera Adaptor Works for other Accessories

2011-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

We bought a mini EZ See Keyboard for an ipad through RJ Cooper this summer for a student and found that we needed an adaptor. The Apple camera adaptor (USB) will support headsets and keyboards, so if you are looking for a way to get a particular keyboard, a headset/mic, etc this should do it.

Read the full article for details from zdnet.

All the best!

Lon

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Back to School: AT Integration Projects using Wii, Language Arts, Open Source Tools and AAC Curricular Designs

2011-08-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

Summer is drawing to a close. Classrooms are being set up for students to return and so it is time for me to return as well. I have purposely turned my attention to family and summer chores on our mountain in Oregon over the past 2 months. Although AT is a passion and something I live, eat, breathe and sleep during the school year, I have let it sit on the back burner over the summer. I don't know about you, but I have needed the break to let my batteries restore and recharge for new inspiration and a new year.

This week I have started getting calls and emails, "We need a training before teachers return. Contact me." So I guess the time is approaching to kick into gear and drive off the mountain and get working on new projects, pick up old ones and get back to the students who have been home doing things with family over the summer like showing bunnies at the fair, swimming, speech camp, etc, I guess it will be a transition for them too!

My Back to School Integration List for Assistive Technology and Learning:

Wii therapy/XBox Kinect - continuing our pilot and working with some new schools to trial as well support schools that purchased systems for start up this year. We use these to enhance OT goals and also to enhance peer play and social/communication goals. We have an autism specialist that we turned loose with a Kinect and XBox this summer to develop some strategies for autism social and communication goals - can't wait to see what she has come up with.

Common Core Language Arts Standards alignment with strategies using AT, E-Readers and iPad apps, etc. I taught a summer class (OK I wasn't off all summer) on cross-referencing Core Standards in ELA with open source computer apps that will assist in student succcess for that standard. I want to develop it more this year.

TBI and AT: Technology that supports learning for students after Traumatic Brain Injury.

Free Open Source Tools on all our school computers for student accommodation - now a reality but in need of a lot of training and reinforcement. Tools include DSpeech, XMind, Hott Notes, and tools like Vubar, Sonar Cursor Ring and Orato. You can see a list of links and descriptions at the Access Apps Site.

AAC devices with boards/pages designed for curriculum and in-class learning not just communication. I have helped our SLP's develop some exciting boards for science as well as life skills and community topics. These have been on Dynavox and PRC devices.

iPad/iPod Touch apps searches for AAC, AT and student accommodation and learning - there is always something new.

I am excited to see what we come up with this year. I am always striving to learn new things and develop cutting edge strategies in my service to students and staff . If you are returning to a school district or regional service organization after a summer break, I wish you a great fall full of great opportunities to make a difference in a child's life.

All the best!

Lon

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Exoskeleton Assists Graduation Walk

2011-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

The exoskeleton is begninning to find its way into the mainstream media. I found this video clip and news item on a college senior who was able to walk through to get his diploma using the help of an exoskeleton in Berkley, CA.

Although still under development, the cost was said to be around $20k once it is ready to market.

If you want to find out more about the exoskeleton, check out my recent interview with Dr. Gene Emmer on the development of the exoskeleton and links to his information.

All the best to you!

Lon

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iPad Growth Continues in Support of Special Education

2011-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

The iPad continues to become more and more popular for supporting students with special needs. I have shared my favorite apps in the past and came across the video clip and article below on how the iPad is being used at a technology resource center in Marin County, California. Thousands of iPads are now beginning to be purchased for special education students. I am thankful for the support we have in Oregon from United Cerebral Palsy in helping fund iPads with Proloquo2go and other apps they might need. We have been able to provide them to several students.

ABC Local Affiliate iPads for Special Education

This is well worth watching. I especially enjoyed seeing two students hold a conversation between them, one with a Dynavox VMax and the other with an iPad with Proloquo2go.

All the best!

Lon

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Exoskeleton Interview with Dr. Gene Emmer on No Limits to Learning Live

2011-04-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Blog Talk Radio Show "No Limits to Learning Live" interview with Dr. Gene Emmer is now on archive.

Exoskeleton: Can "Ironman" Help with Physical Disabilities?
Archive
You can also listen on the right sidebar Blog Talk Radio player.

We had a fascinating interview on the exoskeleton and where it is headed. Did you know there are 3 types being released to limited regions for institutional use now? Find out about the 4 main exoskeletons that can replace wheelchairs, specific target areas for upper and lower body strength, varieties of motion sensing vs. driving and gait issues.
Dr. Emmer shared his concerns about the future of the exoskeleton. He believes a lot of the availability, affordability and marketing while moving from institutions to the home market will be determined by the public demand through awareness, requesting through hospitals, doctors, therapists and generally putting out the call for need.
You can access his website: exoskeleton-suit and news blog: wheelchairpride.

Lon

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Blog Talk Radio - Exoskeletons: Can Iron Man Support Physical Disabilities?

2011-03-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

Blog Talk Radio Interview with Dr. Gene Emmer on the Exoskeleton Monday April 4 at 8:30 am Pacific. The exoskeleton is an outer suit that could take the place of a wheelchair. There are many models, prototypes and neurological extensions being developed. Dr. Gene Emmer has been investigating the research and development of the exoskeleton and has conducted interviews with some leaders in the field. His website is: Exoskeleton-suit.com Reading his research, I have discovered that there are external suits and also "bionic" prosthetics that connect to a brain implant that controls by actual neuropathway synapses. Folks with issues between the brain and body/arms and legs have special challenges in getting neuropathways connected to allow triggers to move prosthetics. There have been great discussions on therapy and use of the exoskeleton for people with disabilities. Below is "Rex", an example of an exterior system that supports the legs. Check out an example with "Rex" shown below and YouTube video: Dr. Emmer and I began to email several years ago when he shared a wheelchair under-carriage LED light system. I posted that on my blog and since then we have kept in contact. Dr. Emmer and I have been working on a Blog Talk Radio interview for some time now and I am excited to share that we will be on for you to listen or call in and chat on Monday, April 4th at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time. The archive will be available on my sidebar to listen and download as well after the show. The call in number is: 310 982-4116 if you want to ask a question or contribute to the discussion. Hope to see you there! Here is the link to the show: No Limits 2 Learning Live- Blog Talk Radio All the best! Lon Bookmark this on Delicious

Wii Therapy: Mats, Standards and Loads of Fun!

2011-03-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have been out and about setting up some new Wii systems we were able to purchase from a hospital grant that funds therapy tools for OT/PT in the schools. I went to 2 new schools with new loan systems this week that included:

Wii game module and Wii Sports/Sports Resort
Active Life Outdoor Challenge Game and mat

Wii Fit Board and Fit plus game CD

Wii play game CD

Alternative PE Time and Therapy Rolled into One!

We visited during Alternative PE and showed the Wii Games on a projector/screen. We started by using the mat with Outdoor Challenge to play several games with students in a standard rolled over the mat and locked in place. These games are great for stretching legs, foot movement, eye-foot coordination and motor planning.

Games:

1. Timber Trail - player runs in place and then jumps to go over log obstacles. There is a blue circle target to time the jump.

2. Pipe Slider - we seat the student on the center of the mat with upper body support then physically assist if necessary the hand movements to steer down a water slide and pat the mat to move faster.

3. Mountain Boarder - Again in a standard, the player stands with left foot in the center and right slightly back on a back button. Jump to go up ramps and move a foot to center left or right for tricks.

4. Mole Whacker - Based on the "Whack-a-Mole" game, the player in the standard is rolled and positioned over the mat to try and tap the corresponding target on the mat with foot to the spot where the mole pops up on the screen.

Collecting Data:

We are choosing either a physical - fine/gross motor goal, a cognitive problem solving goal or a social/communication goal. We write down the games that were played, the level of verbal and physical assist, and any notes or observations on set up, progress towards goal, etc.

Note on Outdoor Challenge Game: This game came out in 2009 and is not for sale new anymore. We had no problem buying used ones through Amazon or other searches for about $50-60. They are out there and well worth it!

All the best to you!

Lon

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Using Learning Styles to Increase Effectiveness of AT

2011-02-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

How do your students learn? Have you taken the time to analyze whether a student you are evaluating for AT is kinesthetic, auditory, tactile, visual, etc?
I was observing a student this week that has a cleft palette. He is a primary student learning phonics and sounding out words. As I watched the class drill sight words flashing on a screen, all reading out loud, this student had delayed response, listening to the class then trying to say the word. It didn't take long before he gave up and was looking around the room completely off task. Now I had sat with him all afternoon and saw that he was a hard worker and was able to focus and do good work - so he didn't have attention deficits. What I did see was a style of expressing mastery of a skill that was actually not his forte. In fact it was his main disability - pronunciation and expressive language. No wonder he gave up!
This prompted me to think about how I watched him learn skills and look at his learning style. After class I asked the teacher how he learns best, what his style of learning is. We discussed it and I challenged her to think of multiple modalities to express mastery and drill and practice. How will this student be able to be successful? If he can't say the word, is he missing a step in finalizing the process neurologically to build those neural pathways and connections? How can he " finalize the learning" in another modality so it seals the deal?
I would challenge you to look at learning styles, differentiated instruction, strategies for multiple intelligences, multi-sensory learning and apply AT that supports finalizing the learning so the concept becomes second nature.
Some resources can be explored at the CAST website where you can explore several self-paced modules that will help you think in this way.

All the best to you!
Lon

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There's An App for That Series: Apps for Students with Learning Disabilities

2011-02-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

I have been digging into apps for TBI and for our assistive technology equipment center. We have 3 iTouches and 1 iPad to check out for trials. I came across a terrific series:
There's an App for That - has 5 parts, here is a link to Part One on Organizational Skills for Students with Learning Disabilities. Check out this and the other 4 articles in the series. Excellent work.
All the best,
Lon

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Tools, Apps and Resources for TBI

2011-02-08T10:02:00.001-08:00

There are so many tools and places to go online for help with traumatic brain injury. Below is a collection of websites, tools and apps to help support the TBI student.

Check out Papershow, which puts what you write on the screen AS you write. Very cool and according to Brian Friedlander's blog post about it was a BIG hit at MACWorld 2011 in SanFransisco.

Here is a website that has some great tools for families. There are some great videos on how to work through issues in IEP's and school meetings.
Brain Injury Partners: Navigating the School System

Print Disability Tools:

I have found a lot of great helps at CAST and through the AIM/NIMAS links below:
CAST has a new video UDL at a Glance, that explains Universal Design for Learning.

AIM Navigator will help you determine need, what electronic formats are needed, identify textbooks that are needed. There are great summary topics about accessible insttructional tools, what quesations to ask, etc. This is a good tool to use with a staff to line out what is needed, develop a materials list and a to do list for what comes next.

CAST UDL Book Builder is a free book designer program that utilizes Text Help and UDL elements. You can read books that have been built by others or create your own. It allows students to go in and read, take notes online and then save notes to the computer at the end.

CAST Strategy Tutor is a free download that goes on your internet browser toolbar. It gives tips and strategies on how to study at your fingertips when you are studying, doing research, etc.

The CAST Learning Tools area has other teacher support tools.

iPad/iTouch Apps:

I found a YouTube video from Michigan Engineering on a texting tool for the iPad that does auto scanning for texting and email using the on-screen keyboard. It is not available anywhere at this time but keep your eye out for it!

Shapewriter is a touch keyboard that allows you to slide your finger dot-to-dot style without having to lift your finger. I tried to download it and it said it was not available in the U.S. It didn't show up on the app store search either. Two friends have it so if you know how to get it let us know.

App list: You can google these or type them into the app search on iPad/Pod and find them most are free (F)=free - a few I paid for.

Speech/AAC:
Talking Tom (F)
Speak it!
Proloquo2go
Tap to Talk (F)

Study/organization/scheduling:
Dictate, by Dragon Naturally Speaking (F)
Search, by Dragon Naturally Speaking (F)
Dictionary! Auto fills words in list as you type to help spell. (F)
WordWeb Dictionary and Thesaurus, speaks words to help with spelling
iPlanin - visual scheduler (F)
Time Timer -
Class Organizer - has recording tool that syncs with notes and drawing pad, etextbook access and class scheduler homework to-do, etc. (under $10)
Text Expander - create abbreviations to auto fill with keyboard.
Mind Mapping - iThoughtsHD (9.99 and 7.99 versions)

Math:
Talkulator (talking calculator) (F)
Arithmetick (F)
Hot Potato: Algebra (F)
Balance - money tracker accounting app (F)
Dot to Dot Number Whiz lite (F)
Flash to Pass Math

AIM/ Talking Books:
Storykit (F)
Treasure Island by Flying Word
Speak it! - copy in text to read - great voices
iReader - copy in notes to read (F)

Brain/speed drills:
BrainReactor (F)
Buzzwire (F)
3D Brain (F) lights up, describes and shows sections of brain and turns 3D style

Writing:
Dropbox, free account for file space and storage (F)
Elements, for word processing documents - linked to Dropbox
Zen Tap, word predict tool (F)
Plain Text, free word processing tool (F)

Hope these give you some ideas!
Lon

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Are Textbook Publishers Bringing iPad Apps and E Textbooks to the Classroom?

2011-01-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

an Inkling iPad Textbook

Are iPad textbooks and apps by publishers around the corner? Actually they are already here and being developed. Publishers are discovering that there are new ways to represent and explore concepts and information through the app. Read the recent article link here in the Boston Globe about a pilot study in the State of Virginia, using iPads in a fourth grade classroom for curriculum access rather than textbooks. The article also shares the publishers viewpoint about the future of using the iPad and other tablets coming out as a new format platform for marketing their curriculum.
What are the implications for Accessible Instructional Materials? Incredible!

This article from AppleInsider, although a year ago, taps Scrollmotion as a designer of textbook apps that could incorporate, lecture recording, video, interactive models, etc.
The New York Times article by Nick Bilton, "Replacing a Pile of textbooks with an iPad" says:
"Now there’s an iPad application that could further lighten the load. A new company called Inkling hopes to break the standard textbook model and help textbooks enter the interactive age by letting students share and comment on the texts and interact with fellow students."
Inkling says the iPad is the textbook of the future here.

I am looking forward to what we see develop in the next year or so. It will be amazing.

All the best to you,

Lon

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Adapted Wii Games for Students with Orthopedic Impairments

2010-12-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

Wii games can be adapted for exercise and play for those with severe orthopedic impairments. As we have been developing Wii therapy for students, our work has been more limited in the area of severe orthopedic impairment but we have developed the use of a game mat with a game called Outdoor Challenge and we have set the accompanying game pad on a rocker board and have folded it around triple thick cardboard custom cut to fit the width of the mat and support a student. We fold it so the middle row with the right and left arrows (like on a dance pad) are across the cardboard and rocker board. We then carefully set the student on the pad and have one person support from behind while others do the hand over hand assist to steer and press. It involves three people so to release 3 para-pros to work with one student is a luxury many teachers don't have. Because of this it is harder to get class time at school when it can be done as a daily therapy tool. We have also set the cardboard and pad on a laptray on a wheelchair and supported the student to use arms and hands to press the arrows down while arms rest on the tray.
The Outdoor Challenge game has a pipe slider activity that allows the player to sit on a sled and slide down a large tube. By patting with the left or right hand on the pad, the player can steer down the pipe slide to run over target arrows lit up in blue that shoot them down the tube faster.

Pipe Slide:

We have used hand over hand assist to work with students that have poor muscle tone and are stiff. We have found that the activity is exciting for the students and allows their mind to be entertained. The distraction helps relax the hand/wrist/arm during the manipulation/assist. We have seen the rocker board help in creating the leaning motion and assist in balance goals.
The game is getting harder to find but can still be found online if you do a search. It is Active Life Outdoor Challenge for Wii.
I have seen recently a switch controller for Guitar Hero. It would be a fun adaption for those with limited hand movement or with a head array. You can see one at Enabling Devices.
Another game a nurse colleague uses with her son who is in a wheelchair is Let's Tap. See the You tube video below:

There are some great games that help strengthen and work on muscle tone as well as have fun, all at the same time. Check them out, but remember to use care and caution when moving and working with children who have orthopedic impairments. If you have any doubts about what you can do or limitations, consult a doctor, specialist, OT or PT before starting any of these on your own.

All the best to you!
Lon

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The Wii, Kinect and Gaming Technique for Therapy and Disabilities

2010-12-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

The Wii has been a great tool for us to use in therapy with students in our school districts. Now we see the new sensor controller-less systems hitting the market and they are all over the TV and their sales are hot this Christmastime. What are the differences in these two kind of systems when looking at therpeutic uses?

An occupational therapist team member and I have been busy at work on building and expanding trials for our therapeutic model for using the Wii with students with disabilities. We have broken it down into 3 domains, physical, cognitive and social/communication. As we have done trials with students, we have found that the game play/strategy that is involved in correcting upper body movements and body/eye coordination, build balance and strengthen cognitive abilities for problem solving and strategizing on even basic levels. We are excited as we further develop our data collection and break down the skills and objectives that the active Wii games can strengthen.

Kinect in the mix - some initial thoughts:

The other day as we were going over some of our notes and findings, we got on the topic of the new Kinect add-on to the X Box for controller-less game play while moving the body like with the Wii. I can see the new sensor systems that bypass hardware you hold as being the new frontier, but the handheld Wii controllers give you the opportunity to still develop the hand and wrist movements in a way that these new systems cannot. It is also more fun than stringing beads and other conventional activities that can get mundane for kids. I am sure that the new Kinect games work areas of upper and lower body awareness, space, coordination, balance and build on cognitive process for problem solving and stragy building. They also require hand movements, but don't have something you hold for grip and movement stregthening. There is also something important about the tangible stepping up on a fit board and balancing that is lost just standing in place on the floor.

Ablegamers has put out a 2 part series on the Kinect and have reviewed the system's strengths and weaknesses for those in the disabled community. It doesn't address the ramifications of the new controller-less sensor systems on therapeutic applications, but is a great review of the system and how Microsoft to them into consideration in the research and development.

We are in our second year of trials at 2 new schools and hopefully we will have a manual, data collection forms and an objective/skill-based grid that spans the three domains sometime next year. This is taking time but we want to do it right. Check back now and then and we will keep you posted and let you know when something is ready. Hopefully our model it will be general enough so that it can apply across multiple game systems - we will keep the Kinect in mind as we press on.

All the best to you!

Lon

image credit

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Windows 7 and Office 2010: Accessibilty Options and Screen Magnification

2010-11-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 and Office 2010 have some great accessibility options you should check out. In an article on accessibility options from Microsoft, they explain that with our economy in decline, older employees are choosing to work instead of retire which means that vision and accessibility are a more important issue for accessibility on computers in the workplace. Read about their accessibility checker and screen magnifier as well as a college student taking advantage of them.
All the best!
Lon

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Teens Shy to use AAC in Public? Check out Selena Gomez!

2010-10-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

To all of you out there struggling to learn and teach the use of dynamic devices for AAC:

Here is a must-see for any hesitant users that are teens and think it is “uncool” to use a Dynavox – Selena Gomez of Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” just blew that theory all to pieces – check out this video – gave me goose bumps to see a device used conversationally – from the Dynavox Website.
Dynavox used by Selena Gomez video
Here are more videos of successful users by health diagnosis category.
Thanks to all of you that are helping kids communicate everyday!

All the best,
Lon

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Reading Bookshare Files on the iPad

2010-10-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

I recently needed to find out if Bookshare files could be read on an iPad. Since Bookshare itself does not list the iPad as a tool to read their books I asked help from my friends at OTAP (Oregon Technology Access Program). The link below from "I Can Work This Thing" tells you how.
Will this transfer the images from NIMAS file textbooks too? Anyone know? Let us know if you find out.

Bookshare Books on the iPad

There is a link on the tutorial to epub2go - the link is dead so go there through this one instead: epub2go sorry for any confusion.

All the best...
Lon

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Never Under-estimate where Financial Support will Show up for AT!

2010-09-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

I am excited today that I am getting ready to deliver a brand new Dell laptop loaded with Clicker 5 and a new scanner donated for a middle school student I serve. I can't give out any name or location but I can share his story.
He trialed a laptop and we used a scanner to scan text and worksheets as text files. We pasted the text into Clicker 5 (free trial download) for him to hear and to fill in questions and worksheets. He uses a mouse and the on-screen keyboard in Clicker 5 to input his work. The assistants were excited because he was finally able to access the text and write answers independently without them having to do it for him. The catch was funding a laptop, software and scanner.
I told the school that we would look outside their funding first and do all we could to find a way to purchase one. I wanted it to be HIS laptop to take with him wherever he might go.
I submitted a request with a children's hospital fund but it didn't go through. About mid-summer I had to let the family know that I would still be looking but our resources weren't panning out.
Of all places, I was at a BBQ with friends and an old friend, retired military was in town and we got to talking about my work, AT kids needs etc. Out of the blue he asked, "Do you have any particular projects you are looking at for kids right now that I could help with?"
"You bet!" I said. I told him about the need to purchase a laptop, Clicker 5 and a scanner.
"I'll get a check off in the mail to you in a week or so." he replied.

Sure enough a check arrived, I ordered the equipment, got everything loaded and we are taking it out next week! Never underestimate where you can find channels for money for kid's equipment. I share needs all the time. I am so grateful for those wonderful people who are generous givers to kid's causes. This post goes out as a thanks to my friend - you know who you are... Thanks SO much!

All the best to you!
Lon

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Dr. Brian Friedlander: Don Johnston Sponsors Free Webinar

2010-09-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

A year into ARRA funding, and
only a year left. Now what?
Don Johnston has invited Dr. Brian Friedlander to share stories of districts in New Jersey who have used ARRA funding in creative ways to build their AT programs.
The webinar will also help you answer these questions:
√ What are some of the misconceptions about ARRA funding?
√ How can I advocate for ARRA funding?
√ What has worked for other districts?
√ What kind of implementation plan should I present to my special ed director?
√ Once I have the funding, how can I use it most effectively?

Wed September 22nd
or
Wed September 29th

12:00 PM CDT
1:00 PM Eastern
10:00 AM Pacific

Sign up now

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iPad Apps for AAC

2010-08-12T00:33:00.000-07:00

It is time to face the beginning of another school year. I am driving to a rural area 2 hours away to help set up an iPad for a yougster entering 1st grade. I was searching for some reviews and ideas for this boy when I came across a very helpful review on the iPad and AAC. Although it is not adressing young children, from an adult user viewpoint it was great.

The blog is "Do it Myself - Glenda Watson Hyatt". She covers Using the iPad as an Affordable Communication Device.

If you are looking at an iPad to accommodate a disability, I would recommend reading it.

All the best!

Lon

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Readability: Great Way to Read the Web

2010-06-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Want to read your web pages in a format you want at the click of a button?
Try Readability, an arc90 experiment. Just choose your format style, the font size and margin spacing, combine them in a customized "bookmarklet" and add to your browser toolbar and you can see the content clean and enlarged the way you like it. You can even email the article to someone in your format style. There is a video on the home page which shows you how to install the bookmarklet.
Check it out!
All the best,
Lon

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Seeing Success? Think Your Job is Done? Think Again!

2010-05-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

With summer around the corner, I am beginning to get the sense that folks are starting to wrap up and wind down already. Not me! I am seeing great things happen and I want to squeeze every last drop out of it all as long as I can. My thoughts go to some of the successes I am seeing after a long year of observing, setting up trials and implementation.

I have a second grader who has his new laptop, Clicker 5 and a trackball. His staff has bought in and he is gaining computer skills. It has taken all year to get the staff and student trained and he is starting to turn in his written work along with the class - a success in the making!
There is the high school girl I see that has myriads of words and ideas cascading through her brain and converging all at once until her syntax and conversation is a broken jumble. You can imagine what that does to her writing! With Xmind Mind Mapping and DSpeech, she has been able to map out her thoughts, write out her sentences in DSpeech and hear them in a cohesive orderly form - you should have seen her face the first time she heard what she wrote come out with text to speech and say and mean what she really wanted. I have shown her teachers the strategy and they are using it with her to self-accommodate her writing - AND - the programs will be on EVERY computer in the building this next year for all the students to use.
One of my more severely health impaired students in an outlying rural community has had a laptop speech device and Kurzwewil 3000 on it, but has not really tapped my services to help implement accessible instructional materials plans. Out of desperation, the school finally pulled me in to consult with the team and get them thinking and building a protocol for getting lesson plans, handouts, worksheets, etc. collected early and identify terxtbooks and literature to access from Bookshare. They have collected all he needs for the first 3 months of next year so we can get things scanned and downloaded and ready to go next week. Wow! Another success in its' formative stages.
I could go on with other stories of great kids who are seeing assistive technology integration that is working and supporting them - and I could be tempted to sit back and go "Whew! That was a long haul and now it is in place. I can rest on the accomplishments and move on to somene else." But that would be the biggest mistake I could make!
There is the aftermath of a big push, after all the equipment has been acquired, folks have bought in, and you think the staff has got it. That is when we think as assistive technology specialists that it is OK for us to fade into the background and busy ourselves with the next big push and move on.
Wrong.
That is when you need to roll up your sleeves and make sure the implementation is ongoing and plan out your roles with staff and know who is doing what, how, when and where. Make sure there is accountability and be the team's best cheering section.
Implementation will make or break the assistive technology plan put in place. With summer around the corner take every effort to get pieces in place so you have something to build on next fall.

All the best to you!
Lon

Calling for iTouch App Ideas for Special Needs: What Do You Use?

2010-04-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

I had a parent send me this video clip today and asked if I had a resource list of apps she might use with her son. He is in 3rd grade and we are introducing Clicker 5 on a laptop to him and he is developing computer skills and writing with the grids.

NBC News Video on iTouch in Special Ed

We have an iTouch in our loan center but have had some glitches in setting up an account and getting funding released at work to put into gift cards to buy apps - one of which is the proloquo2go app. I use Speak it! and have looked more at augmentative communication apps. Here is a list from egolfer on scribd for iPhone, iPad and iTouch Apps for Special education. He has a great list all categorized. I would like to hear from you on things you use and have found success with.

What are you using? We would love any ideas and suggestions you have as to what you are finding for the iTouch/iPhone. If you add a comment with your suggestions, I will start a sidebar list for everyone of what we turn up. Also, if you want to email me at lonthornburg@nolimitstolearning.com I can read and share what you send if you don't want to leave a comment.

All the best to to you!

Lon

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Making IT Plan Implementation Work for Integrating AT/AIM in Schools

2010-04-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

I work in a large region with about 12 school districts, 4 ESD's and the eastern half of the state of Oregon. It is hard to organize tools that can be on all computers for all students to create self-accommodation. I am always looking for ideas to help me integrate AT into IT plans in districts. Besides the task of sometimes convincing them of the need, there is the training and implementation once tools get loaded and out in the schools. The Family Center on Technology and Disability has released their March 2010 newsletter/magazine. These issues from FCTD are great resources and this one is dedicated to IT Plan Implementation: Making Change a Friend.
Check out this issue if you are looking at how to partner with IT in your district to implement AT or AIM tools and strategies.
All the best to you!
Lon

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Breaking news on Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials: DIAGRAM

2010-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Breaking News for AIM!
This press release just in from Benetech...

"U.S. DOE, OSEP awarded Benetech, along with partners WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and the U.S. Fund for DAISY, a $5 million, five-year award to establish an R&D center to transform the production of accessible digital images. DIAGRAM stands for (Digital Image and Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials).

Who benefits: U.S. students with print disabilities

About the DIAGRAM partners:

. Benetech, NCAM and USFDAISY have led technology initiatives that
fundamentally changed how people with visual and print disabilities
experience and interact with all forms of media, from the DAISY standard to
the Bookshare library to NCAM's work on image descriptions.
. All 3 have strong track record of working productively with
technology developers and hardware and software manufacturers to design and
extend accessibility features for people with print disabilities.

DIAGRAM's mission:

. develop simple and cost-effective tools and best practices for
producers of accessible instructional materials, such as publishers and
state and local education agencies
. expand the field of image description and interactive exploration
of graphical content
. increase the understanding of accessible image production and
access strategies
. create open-source tools to make graphic content more accessible
and widely available
. make a broad range of general education curriculum accessible and
graphically understandable
. accelerate the development and inclusion of accessibility
specifications for high-quality images in electronic publishing standards to
support implementation by technology developers
. advance national efforts toward providing more equality of access
to benefit people with print disabilities.

Background:

. Fewer than 5% of books are available in accessible format.
. Burden of accessible image preparation typically falls on
educators who have limited time and tools to create useful descriptions or
accessible graphics.
. Barriers to accessing information pose fundamental challenges for
students with print disabilities.
. Students using text-based accessible instructional materials are
presented with only the words "image" or "graphic" when using software
devices that encounter illustrations, equations, graphics, photos or
diagrams in digital textbooks.
. Numerous studies cite how students with disabilities benefit from
digital resources that offer flexible, multi-modal methods of interacting
with content. "

All the best to you!
Lon

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No Limits to Learning on Best 100 Blogs for Classroom Teachers

2010-04-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

Online Degrees comes out with a Best 100 Blogs list every year and this is the second year in a row that No Limits to Learning has been included in the list. I am in very good company with some of my colleagues who do a fantastic job.
The Assistive Technology category includes 8 other blogs that you will find great resources.
Check them out on the link above.

All the best to you!
Lon

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New Assistive Technology DVD and Reference Guide Great Resources for Educators

2010-03-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed reading Dr. Brian Friedlander's Blog on assistive technology for quite a while now. He was my one of my professors in my master's program on assistive technology and is a mentor and friend.

Dr. Friedlander has released a new labor of love, a DVD called "Assistive Technology: Powerful Solutions for Success". He has paired the DVD with a laminated resource, a fold-out reference guide with fast information and lists of mid and high tech solutions. These are available through National Professional Resources.

The video has several sections - running about 5 to 7 minutes each. Topics include and introduction to AT, auditory processing supports, fine-motor writing supports and reading supports. They are concise and show student, teacher, parent and administrator interviews. The videos show students use and explain the AT they are using. This video is a great training tool to help get your staff and teachers turned on to what AT can do as well as an informative introduction to staff, administrators and parents. These 2 resources should be in every AT library for an up to date look at how we can support our students.

Thanks for developing these Brian!

All the best,

Lon

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Great Adaptive Art Using Online Art Pads

2010-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Well Done" by Yurdoz (done with Odopod)

There are some great online art design sites now that create incredible paintings, sketches, etc. In an age where we are trying to adapt the curriculum to make it accessible for all students, what better way to add art for orthopedically impaired students than with a joystick and an online art pad!

I recently gave some of these sites to one of our middle school art teachers who had a CP student in a chair in his room. They played with the mouse and these sites and found them to be great supplements. Now, when everyone else is sketching and drawing on their papers, this student can do it on the computer.

I shared a post last week on how to adapt a PC game controller to act as a mouse and use the thumb joystick to navigate. My son and I tried it using JoyTokey and spent the evening using the controller to draw and paint - tons more fun than the mouse. We had to hold down the left-click assigned button though while we used the thumb stick to glide around the canvas.

Mouse training - the old "click and drag":

I have been using art pad programs with teachers to work with students on mouse control, fine motor control and basic mouse skills. The click and drag piece is one of the hardest, but working on drawing is a fun and motivating way to devlop that skill. I will spray paint a dot or use a shape or stamp at one end and then the same at the other end. I then have the student work on connecting the two with a line. They choose the width, the color, pattern, etc. It gives them some opportunities to choose and also get some variety. You can build on-screen obstacle courses to get around, do copy the pattern, etc.

Creating more independence and self-directed learning and enrichment is sometimes hard for those orthopedically impaired students with tons of energy, cognitive skills and the desire to learn. If you want to do some self-directed art lessons, you can use the modules in Drawspace.com and have them use an online art site to practice the skill.

Great Sites!

Some sites have so many varieties and things to explore that you don't want to stop, like BRUSHster by National Gallery of Art kids. This is one of my favorites. Paintbox is another by NGAkids. You can warp out images and get real crazy and creative.

A great mainstay is Art Pad - which has a great combination of media. If you like the antique, worn and warm look, try Odopod. I love the textures and washes ou can get with brushes and inks. It can look like an old document that was found in an antique trunk.

QueekyPaint has layers similar to using Adobe Photoshop. It is a little more grown up and technical, but it has a cool play function that speed draws everything you did. There is a Queeky gallery site that allows you to view speed paintings of other members - very cool! (WARNING:there are some adult themed paintings, nudes etc. on this site so be careful who goes there).

Flashpaint has some fun features but it is not for the visually impaired. The tool bars are pretty small for my eyes. Tuxpaint is an open-source free download software for all systems that is a great children's paint program. Pencil is another free open source downlaodable software for the MAC, Windows and Linux OS.

Finally, Kerpoof, is a very kid-oriented activity based site. It has quite a few drawing and creating "pads" on one site. Activities include Doodlepad, Spell a picture, Make a picture, Make a movie, Make a card, Make a story and Make a drawing.

Collaborating, Interactive and more - more to come!

There are more - sites that are interactive, allow you to post on blogs as videos, do collaborative drawings - wouldn't that be cool - to share a drawing online amongst different students at different schools to do together. We will have to take another post to explore those - enough for one day!

All the best to you!

Lon

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Mouse Emulator Joystick for Orthopedically Impaired: Free software and controller Under $8!

2010-03-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Joy Tokey!

I recently had to send in a mouse emulator that worked with a joy stick on a power wheelchair for repairs. The student had been using it to access his laptop. He had Kurzweil 3000 (Flash demo) and Click nType keyboard to write in his scanned worksheets, do reports, etc. and now he was stuck without his gear.
I knew it would probably be a month until this student got his equipment back so I needed to come up with a fast fix to patch together in the meantime. I was online searching for mouse emulator software and I came across Joy Tokey, an open source free application that takes a Playstation game controller that is USB and converts the joystick and a couple of buttons to a mouse controller.
I downloaded the app and unzipped it in a folder on my desktop.
I didn't have a PS2 USB controller, but I did have an older PC game controller with 2 thumb joysticks, side buttons, a plus and 4 top buttons - regular game controller. It was USB. I plugged it in with Joy Tokey open and selected the preference for a mouse. It worked great! I had up, down, left, right, with a joystick and 2 buttons were my left and right-click. I could hold down the left-click button and move the mouse to highlight text. I used Click n Type for my on-screen keyboard to type.

I plan to to take this down to the school and hook it up with the student. If we can mount the controller where the student can access the thumb stick and buttons, he will be able to get back to school work!
I looked online and found a USB game controller for PC for $7.99 at Computer Geeks . They also had a wireless joy stick which would be even better for $24.99. For under $8 you can get a controller, download the free mouse emulator app and be ready to rumble.

Next week I will share on some online art programs that work with this set up to do some great drawing and build mouse skills and control.

All the best,

Lon

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Mi Stories: Social Story Videos for iTouch and Video iPod

2010-03-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Kencrest's autism support includes a new listing of videos called "Mi Stories". They are under the autism video link and can be downloaded off the site. The set of 8 videos feature topics including:

Getting dressed, Going to the grocery store, Going to the restaurant, Riding in the car, etc.

To my understanding, you cannot download these off iTunes - you must purchase them with Paypal off the Kencrest site. You can see a preview video and read more here.

Here is an excerpt from their press release:

"Plymouth Meeting, PA - Mi-Stories were created by Debbie Lord of Harleysville, Pa, a Speech Language Pathologist who directs Health, Clinical and program supports; and KenCrest Center and are designed as brief social scenarios that focus on everyday activities. The videos, ranging from 2 – 4 minutes in length, will target communication and social behavior in community settings. They can be viewed on an iPod to allow an adolescent or adult with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental disabilities to easily watch them and learn the appropriate social behavior in a variety of different situations. The stories can also show the viewer what to expect in certain situations.

Mi-Stories utilize modeling, social scripting, and visual strategies to help target appropriate communication, behavior and social skills. There are numerous stories available including going to the grocery store, going to a restaurant, calming, getting dresses, crossing the street, riding in the car, as well as a video on how to use the iPod and a parent training protocol. More stories will be available soon.

Mi-Stories came about as Debbie Lord was asked to develop social stories for individuals served by KenCrest’s transition age after-school program, EDUCARE. “We were developing stories to help these kids, many of who are kids with autism, understand the appropriate things to do and how to act in certain situations.” Lord said. KenCrest received several grants to help with this project.

The Mi-Stories work in numerous ways. People with disabilities are able to watch the stories and hear and see appropriate behavior and social interaction. They also hear a scripted social scenario that describes how to act and interact all while watching the story. Also, with the iPod, the story can be utilized right before or during the activity, if necessary.

Debbie Lord has made presentations on Mi-Stories at the American Speech Language and Hearing Association in 2008 and 2009 and the Council for Exceptional Children National and Sate conference in 2009 and will make numerous other presentations over the next year."

All the best,

Lon

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Birth to 3, Early Intervention and Technology Featured on FCTD

2010-03-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

My EI/ECSE work with AT is always a joy as I get to sit and play with these little ones using AAC and switches, etc. I am always looking for more information to make my job more effective as I match AT with small children's needs. This issue of the Family Center on Technology and Disability is featuring resources and interviews around Early Intervention. I would highly recommend checking it out - especially if you work in that arena.

Here is what they share:

"Delivering early intervention services to families in remote rural areas has long been a challenge to service providers. Technology has, for the past twenty years, held the promise of helping to reach those families. Yet limited access to computers and the Internet has hampered efforts to use technology to overcome geographic barriers. Now, however, more than ever before, growing familiarity with, and access to technology has raised the hope that distance technologies will make possible "virtual home visits" and with them, increased service to families of young children.

This month we're pleased to bring you the insights of Sue Thain Olsen and Amy Henningson of the Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD). Their center received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Children with Disabilities program. Under the grant, they and their colleagues have been researching the benefits and challenges of providing virtual home visits as part of the early intervention services for which they are responsible. Their research will help inform the efforts of many others throughout the country."

FCTD Link

Download a printer-friendly pdf of the newsletter.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Great Ebook Sites for AIM

2010-03-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

I am facilitating a day workshop on Accessible Instructional Materials. The presenters were from OTAP. There were some sites they shared that are resources for ebooks. I thought I would share them with you.
Enjoy!
Lon

knowledgerush
fictionwise
crankylibrarian
Lit2go
tumblebooks
accessible book collection
project gutenberg
kidthing - NEA Read Across America

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Notebook on Print Disability Resources from Oregon Interagency AT Meeting

2010-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

At our Portland, Oregon AT Interagency meeting on February 8, we discussed Accessible Instructional Materials. Below are some of the ideas and concerns that were shared on methods, tools and struggles implementing text in alternate formats and readers, etc.

Student Eligibility - Bookshare accounts need to be managed and teachers need a system to track and manage files to make sure everyone is in compliance.
Wynn, Premiere, SOLO and Natural Reader have been used. RFBD has a free individual account - (parents can sign kids up - schools can't do this) digital download now.
When it comes to an organic dysfunction, parents are going to the doctor and getting a certifiable designation letter to submit. Schools aren't getting the letters from the doctor, but they are using a form letter that gives the doctor guidelines and parents can take it when they visit.

The Don Johnston Reader - Read OutLoud is free on Bookshare to download and use to read books. It was shared that if you download files from the reader vs. doing a Bookshare title search and download, it seems to be easier.
National Geographice Young Explorer - you can go online and access the issue and you can click on the page and it will read in a nice voice. Great reasourecs for free open titles are Library 2 Go and Gutenberg.org.
Teacher Curriculum Institute has titles on website. Email them and they send you a form, you return and they send file if they have the title
Pearson Publications have the online purchase file of text as option. A lot of the textbook companies will charge $7 in addition to the purchase of the book in hardcover to add the E-version. Some will throw a couple of the E version files in when a lot of books are being bought in a district.

Comments on NIMAS:
NIMAS book files with images are huge and the Read OutLoud software does the best job of all the readers at opening thye files but the books will freeze up when trying to get to page 200 - have to scroll through the pages.
There are issues with districts having locked computers so that students can't independently download anything - so there are steps to get the files downloaded and then unzipped and put on a students file area on the networked server space. The IT have to give the AT person a code and then they do the download - but not sustainable in the longrun.

Applications being used or tried:
Kurzweil 3000
Wynn
Premier
Victor Reader WAVE
Natural Reader with the pay voices
Eclipse Reader
DSpeech
Top OCR
Jaws for Windows
Ruby software
Freedom Scientific, Sara - a stand alone scanner with voice output - $2000.

There are district trends to put software through an adoption process so that there is a uniform software the district uses and trains to use.

All the best,
Lon

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A Grab Bag of AT Ideas from Oregon Interagency Meeting

2010-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

I am in Portland, Oregon today with all our districts and ESD's as we share on what is happening in our area with assistive technology. I have heard some great ideas and thought I would share what they are doing in summary.

Many are using the SETT model for assessing and implementing AT. They are also using the WATI consideration guide. Data collection/trials can last up to 3 months depending on the district.

ARA funds are being spent on NEO keyboards, K3000, Intel Readers. Autism kits were built using Boardmaker, Time Timers, GoTalk Ones, Clicker 5, Cheap Talk 8.

There were some great ideas. I don't have a lot of details on them, but you can see what
Proloquo2go, iTouch and administrating iTunes account - went to Costco and bought gift cards with the district credit card and then bought Proloquo2go. They have limited the code to open the iTunes account to their AT administrator.
Natural Reader is being used.
Paper Port/scanner to scan tests take and print out.
Loved this one...iTouch with the Nike sensors tied onto shoes and recording walking times and distances. They upload the data and students look at graphs and work on better distances and times. This has been developing more independence and motivation to exercise.
One ESD has developed an online data base that holds a lot of the free online Boardmaker, Intellitools activity exchange and Clicker 5 teacher-made activities in one place.
Using Office 07 Access template for asset inventory (they downloaded a free template Lending Library from the business category of online templates) to build an equipment data base.
Porta Portal - a free web based link organizer open to everyone - used by Saint Helens School District.

Redmond School District did a one day training open to certified staff and trained them on print disability and text to speech tools. The teachers left with Mp3 players, flash drives, and notebooks with directions and ideas. They did a survey later and found that not very many had used them. The team re-grouped and got a tech/IT guy to be a tech support for them. They collaborate with IT on training and getting out in classrooms to model how to use the tools. They are using Premiere Literacy software to get students with print disabilities access to text. They have been doing training of counselors for students that are on 504's and need support for vocational and college prep counseling/expulsion counseling - what AT will do to support these students and help them graduate.
Redmond has also been integrating Flip video and sharing videos for assessment and showing them to students for self-assessment. It has strengthened their program. There is a digital wish site that will give 2 for 1 when you buy if you prove you are an educator.

National Initiatives:
Gayl Bowser shared on RESNA and that they were at the ATIA conference they asked how they could be helpful to AT specialists and make IDEA mandates enforceable. she also shared on the QIAT (Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology) Summit June 22 and 23 in Fort Lauderdale FL area. If you would like to be involved in collaborating with a work group to strengthen the processes for AIM, you might want to attend. The cost is only $40 for both days and your travel and housing is on your own.

All the best,
Lon

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AT Blog Carnival up For Janary 2010

2010-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

The AT Blog Carnival for January is up and going right now at Teaching All Students.

There are some great posts on using AT with the iTouch, a new release from Dr. Brian Friedlander and a review of SOLO 6. Ricky Buchanan shares her MAC secrets. There is sharing on the new iPad, cooking in the classroom, Digital reading tips and more.

Check out a great issue!

Lon

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Use Fun Activites to Integrate AAC and School Curriculum

2010-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

How do you teach a crystal-making project using a Dynavox V?

I sat down with an SLP last week and we began to piece together the elements of a science activity using a Dynavox V that a girl has recently acquired to accommodate her speech. (Note: these ideas could be applied to any AAC - not just a V or VMax). The team of 2 SLP's I am working with on this project are pretty innovative and have used lots of motivating activities and integrated curriculum topics to use as the medium to teach their speech concepts and skills.

Design your folders and pages

We thought about what we needed and mapped out the pathway to get to the activity. We built several pages, but we started with a root folder with a directory page inside. We called it "Speech activities". We put this in this child's school category folder under a "classes" folder she has along with her science, math, reading, etc.

Once we had the root folder page made, we labeled buttons and turned them into folders so we could put the crystals activity on one and have more for future activities. We went onto Google and searched "making crystals " and found a picture like the one above. We put it on the top level button for making crystals.

We did a materials page to show all the supplies needed. We labeled them and made them so the student could tell us using the V, what each item was and test her ability to identify them We also made a step by step direction page with images of getting materials, measuring contents, stirring the mix, putting in the string, checking the minerals growth and recording data and taking digital images. (These could be shared through the V on pages for an oral presentation at the end.)

Finding and adding graphics is easy with Google Images!

The SLP needed Borax so we went on Google images and added that to a flash drive to import images to the V. Once we got going, we thought it would be easier to make a shopping list of all the images and then see what ones might be on the V already and what ones we needed to find. For example, the Borax would really be something to find through an image search online, where a bowl or spoon or string would be in the image library ready to put on a button.

There are several ways to add images to a button on a V or VMax. One is to reduce the window of the Series 5 software with the page open and the button you want to add an image onto visible. You can insert a jump drive or go to My Document/My Pictures and click/hold/drag them onto the button - an easy task.

Another way is to go to the modify button and select your button, then choose "symbol" and then import an image. You can select "Show all files" and see the jump drive, open it and import the pictures, then they are accessible again and again through your symbol searches. The only thing to remember is that you need to re-name each image to be what you want on the button. The image file name will transfer and be on the button and in the file directory unless you change it. Might as well do it when you first save it.

Building and using activities like this makes learning to get around a V lots of fun if you are new, uisng it to do something of value at school where the lesson elements are at a students fingertips. The time spent will pay big dividends in buy in with kids. I have used worked with students on building model rockets, pizza, sandwiches, etc.

An SLP at another school has a boy with a new V that loves motorcycles. She is going to get a motorcycle model and have him label parts, get materials and work with him to use the V for building the model.

The more we can use AAC in school environments to access the curriculum and learn through motivating activities, the more effective we can be at connecting the use of a device to everything kids do all day. Oftentimes we work on wants and needs and socialization, but forget that there are plenty of topics rich with vocabulary and activities found right in front of us in school units and the curriculum. Why not try integrating some curriculum activities into your programming the AAC device for students you work with and see what happens.

All the best,

Lon

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C Print: Technology Research for Deaf and Hard of Hearing on FCTD

2010-01-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

The Family Center on Technology and Disability has put up their latest issue for students that are deaf and hard of hearing.
Their latest newsletter addresses "the innovative research and development of Dr. Michael Stinson and his colleagues at RIT's NationalTechnical Institute for the Deaf. Dr.Stinson, Dr. Lisa Elliot and Pam Francis form the core of the team that hasdeveloped state-of-the-art speech-to-text displays for deaf and hard of hearingstudents. With support from the Officeof Special Education Programs at the U.S Department of Education, the C-Print team is conducting randomized, classroom-based trials of the technology."

Survey Participants Requested
The FCTD (The Family Center on Technology and Disability) has collaborated with the Special Education AssistiveTechnology (SEAT) Center at Illinois State University to create an online survey to identify family preferences and needs for computer-based technologies. They are asking all interested family members with children aged 8 and under to participate in the survey .
Professionals who work with family members are encouraged to share the survey link with interested family members with whom they work.

All the best to you!
Lon

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Hand-shake a Mouse! Vertical Mouse an Ergonomic Support

2010-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Evoluent Vertical Mouse
I stumbled across this great idea and thought I would share. I haver tendonitis in my forearm and I am thinking this might help.

I found it listed on sale for $69.95 from The Human Solution.

Al the best to you,
Lon

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i Speak It for Mac and iPhone Text to Speech

2010-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

i Speak It by Zapptek

I wish I were a Mac User - but I am locked into our Windows PC world in our school districts. As I have been exploring the text to speech options within the iPhone world, I have been getting great tips from readers. The i Speak It app from Zapptek looks promising - if you own a MAC.

It converts files to audio and then is a companion to your iPhone or iTouch. It converts Word docs, PDF, Pages, RTF, Appleworks, Text files and HTML files. It converts those to Mp3/AAC track files through iTunes so you get the text as a lyric as you listen, to follow along on screen (that's what it says...dunno exactly how that works).

Sounds pretty cool - but I can't test it on my PC. If anyone has it, let us know what you think.

All the best to you!
Lon

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wUnderGlow LED light: Safety and Fun for Wheelchairs

2010-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I had a late Christmas gift idea shared by a reader that I thought I would add to the gift idea list on my sidebar. If you ever are looking for a gift that has an assistive technology slant to it, check out my sidebar gift list with links.

The wUnderGlow was too fun to pass up. It reminds me of the hotrod cars with the lighting under the running boards - except a wheelchair version and it helps let someone see you coming. It could be very helpful - and I have a first-hand story to prove it!

I had a scare over the holiday when there was snow plowed up on the sides of the road forcing a motorized wheelchair to drive around it out into my lane on the street. I pulled out of a parking lot and almost ran into the wheelchair. That would have made a great headline: "Assistive Technology Specialist Rear-ends Powered Wheelchair in Christmas Rush Traffic."

I have attached the video for the wUnderGlow below:

All the best to you!
Lon

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Raise in Autism Rates and Non-verbal Rates will Impact AT and SLP Services

2010-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

In my work, I have been seeing an increase in Autism occurances - as has been reported in many studies, like this one from CDC, but I have also seen more incidences of non-verbal children in our schools. I am collabiorating more and more with our SLP's and EI/ECSE Specialists to develop AT supports and strategies. This past fall has been the busiest so far.

I was interested to see a link to an article about a poll by YouGov in the UK, that showed children are reaching the age of 3 without being able to say a word. It also showed that "boys are almost twice as likely to struggle to learn to speak than girls".
The survey results were released by I CAN, a children's communication charity.
On their news release, they provide links to download the survey results. The collection was done between December 15 and 18 of 2009 and 1015 parents of children 1 to 7 responded.

You can also get more info at http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/

Also, the CDC report at the beginning of this post was featured in The Age of Autism, a daily newpaper on the Autism epidemic. Therre are some great articles and features to keep up on posted there.

What do you see as the impact this data has on assistive technology services and speech services to early intervention and early childhood populations?

All the best to you,

Lon

image credit:http://www.aact4children.org/aboutus.html

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iPhones, Kindles, E-Books and Text to Speech Readers

2010-01-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

The VOD app for the iPhone by CYPAC can read DAISY 2.02 files.

I have been playing with my iPhone lately and I have been teased and tempted, but just can't come up with a combination of apps that works to hear books directly from text. I have purchased several apps and tried to find a work-around to get text files to read. I downloaded the Beverly Cleary Book "Ribsy" powered by Iceberg. I bought if off iTunes for $3.99. In a description on iTunes it seemed that you might be able to copy and paste sections of the text into a notes section and then copy those to another app to hear them read, but that feature had been turned off by publishers for copyright reasons in the book I bought. I had hoped to paste sections into my Speak it! app and then hear it read back. The only thing I could do was type a note attached to a paragraph and then copy the note I wrote to hear it back. All the text was locked. I discovered that the Iceberg Reader has a kids division with young children's literature.

The Iceberg Reader for kids was reviewed by The iPhone Mom. She reviewed a Curious George title that has the illustrations and actually reads the page as an audio book. You can pause and play, flip pages and bookmark favorites. This is the closest I have found to doing what I would like to do with a book on the iPhone. Good job Iceberg Reader.

I added an app, TouchReader, thinking that might let me add a public domain text to my iPhone and have it read, but even though it is a great app for getting text files onto your iPhone, changing the text size and black on white vs white on black, the text is locked and you can't copy and paste it anywhere else.

I was reading a review of the Kindle 2 and it dealt with how the text to speech setting was hampered and left up to the publishers whether to make it accessible or not. Amazon didn't feel it was competitive with the publisher's audio versions, but the publishers felt otherwise.

The issue is the same on the iPhone - there are copyright issues stopping the accessibility. As one commenter put it, "If I could read a real book or afford audio books of all my books, I would rather, but I am stuck with listening to a mechanical voice read books to me. How can that be a threat to the publishers that want to sell audio books?"

I am still exploring options. I had a reader email me recently about VOD, Voice of DAISY, which is a $12.99 app that only plays older DAISY 2.02 files. If you already have DAISY 2.02 files, you can read them on the iPhone or iTouch. It looked pretty slick, but I couldn't find any links to it on DAISY Consortium. I had to go directly to the Japanese company CYPAC that made it to find it.

If you come up with any solutions or new discoveries please keep me posted and I will share them here. Thanks to all the great readers who have been sending me questions and tips lately. It makes this blog more dynamic as we share together.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Assistive Technology Blog Carnival for 2010

2010-01-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

A New Assisive Technology Blog Carnival is Underway for 2010

Welcome to 2010!

Patrick Black of "Teaching All Students" is excited to host the carnival from his blog. He is putting out the call for all bloggers to write a post on their blogs and share the link so we can travel around and do some visiting and reading. The topic is open and you can share a story, a tip, trick, new tool, etc.

Visit the AT Blog Carnival Site and Teaching All Students for more information.

Thanks Patrick!

Lon

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No Limits to Learning in Top 10 Assistive Technology Blogs for 2009

2009-12-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Top 50 Blogs for Special Education Teachers - No Limits to Learning Included!

Online Unversities.com has put out their Top 50 list of Blogs for Special Education Teachers. They have broken down the top fifty into 6 categories:
1. Sped Teaching Tips and Strategies
2. technology and Assistive Technology
3. Specific Disabilities
4. Special Education News and Policy
5. Special Education Law
6. Various Topics on Special Education

I am humbled and thrilled to be included in the top 50 special education blogs and among the top 10 assistive technology ones. Many of the other blog authors have contributed to the AT Blog Carnival, which should be coming back for another edition after some time off.
I am in good company with my friend and mentor, Brian Friedlander Ph.D of Assistive Technology; My friend and colleague Patrick Black, of Teaching All Students, who has hosted the AT Blog Carnival in the past and plans to do another here shortly to kick off 2010; Karen Janowski's always amazing, Ed Tech Solutions: Teaching Every Student; and Paul Hamilton's Free Resources from the Net for Every Learner , collaborator from SET BC. Also among the top was AT Cubed by Brian Wojic who administers the Web 2.0 group assistive tech. If you haven't joined this group I would recommend it.
One of my favorie blogs with a writer who always sparks my thinking and challenges the way I approach education and disability is Ira Socol's SpeEdChange. He was included in the Special Education News and Policy category. Kate Ahern's Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs was included under the various topic category. Her blog is always dynamic and crammed with ideas. Her links and resources are about the best you will find on a blog. I have told her that her blog is what mine wants to be some day when it grows up!
So... I encourage you to check these blogs out - many are on my blogroll, and check out the complete list here.

All the best for a GREAT new Year in 2010!
Lon

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Percentally, New iPhone App, Collects and Converts Student Performance Data

2009-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Percentally Collects Tallies and Converts to Percentages

Percentally is designed in part by an SLP who is also an Assistive Technology Specialist, Eric Sailer. Percentally looks like a promising way to collect tallies on the fly and convert to percentage data and spreadsheets quickly. If you collect intentional switch hits, correct answers or other student responses, this just might do the trick for you. This app is now available in the iTunes app store for $2.99. Eric has written up a post on it on his blog, "Speech-Language Pathology Sharing" along with his video tutorial. You can watch it below:

All the best to you,
Lon

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Open Content Textbooks Available to All Without Proof of Disability

2009-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

U. S. Department of Education Grants Funding to Bookshare to Convert OpenContent Textbooks to Accessible Formats

I have been doing a lot of training this past fall on Accessible Instructional Materials and copyright issues. When I share about the content via NIMAS files being available to those who qualify, I see enthusiam fade. Why?
Many special education teachers think at first that the students they have who have reading and processing disabilities or are LD will qualify for NIMAS files under AIM initiatives.
When they realize that you can only freely access these files if you are:
1.) Blind/visually impaired 2.) orthopedically impaired to where you can't hold a book or turn pages, or 3.) diagnosed by a medical doctor with an organic brain dysfunction, they are disappointed.
Now, there has been a new wrinkle to this issue. An open content math/science textbook has been designed and adopted in California that meets their content standards. The press release below, outlines the details. This new open content textbook will be available to any student for free, regardless of disability identification or eligibility status. The files will be able to be downloaded at Bookshare. They are not available yet.
This means that for the first time, there is a textbook that anyone can download for free to access content in aletrnate print formats. The questions that need to be answered are:
1. Will other states adopt this text as a viable alternative to the textbook companies versions?
2. Will school districts allow teachers to use this as supplemental text to support the curriculum to any student needing an alternate format?
3. If so, does this fulfill the requirements of AIM if it is a text other than what everyone else has?
4. What is the quality of content in these open/content texts?

The answers will have to be explored. I will download the files when available and look through them. I am going to pass them on to the curriculum folks in our region to present to curriculum committees for cross-referencing and to see if they are aligned with our content standards. I am also going to ask our state AIM group and text book adoption team if they would look into this and see what they think.
This is an exciting new trend, but it could have some pitfalls if we are not careful. One I see is that the content for schools gets taken out of the hands of free-enterprise and competition for quality by publishers and gets placed in a government-controlled content text that can reflect the standards and opinions it wants to convey. I don't mean to be paranoid, but I think we need to consider and warn against that if this is a trend that might snowball state by state.

All the best to you,
Lon

Open Content Textbooks Available to All without Proof of Disability

Release by Benetech and Bookshare - "Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has awarded Bookshare $100K in supplemental funding to create the first accessible versions of open content digital textbooks. The initial planned conversion of open content textbooks, which are distributed freely under a license selected by the author, are math and science textbooks approved for California students. California is leading the nation in encouraging the use of free, open content textbooks. Under the direction of the Governor, Secretary of Education, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, the California LearningResource Network (CLRN) reviewed for standards alignment open-source digitaltextbooks for grades 9-12 in the subject areas of mathematics and science. While some open content textbooks may be edited, the publishers of these digital high school textbooks are guaranteeing consistent content for the next two years. As other states begin to approve open content textbooks, Bookshare will continue to convert these materials to accessible formats for all students who read better with accessible text. The first open content textbooks approved for use in California will be available via Bookshare at<http://www.bookshare.org/> http://www.bookshare.org/. The texts will be offered in the accessible DAISY format that enables multi-modal reading, combining highlighted on-screen text with high-quality computer-generated voice, and BRF, a digital Braille format for use with Braille displays orembossed Braille.
"Once again California's innovation has inspired action, as those with reading challenges will soon be able to read the standards-aligned digital textbooks adopted under California's first-in-the-nation digital textbook initiative," said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Thanks to Bookshare and the U.S. Department of Education, these textbooks will be converted into accessible formats so students who struggle with reading traditional textbooks have a new opportunity to enhance their education." Under the terms of the OSEP award, the accessible formats will offer a choice of digital book files with or without images, including detailed math and science illustrations and image descriptions for those with visual disabilities. "Traditional copyrighted books, including those contributed to Bookshare by publishers, are protected with digital rights management technology and available only to those with a documented print disability. But Bookshare's open content books will become part of the freely distributable books in the Bookshare collection and can be used by anybody without proof of disability," says Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman.
"These accessible books will not only help disabled students throughout the U.S. and globally, but provide parents, teachers and assistive technology developers with free access to real talking textbooks." This initiative builds on Bookshare's experience as the largest converter of digital textbooks from the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) into accessible formats for students in K-12 public schools.
TheNIMAC is a federally-funded central repository for digital versions of textbooks. About Bookshare Bookshare is the world's largest accessible online library for people withprint disabilities. Through its technology initiatives and partnerships, Bookshare seeks to raise the floor on accessibility so that individuals withprint disabilities have the same ease of access to print materials as peoplewithout disabilities. In 2007, Bookshare received a $32 million five-yearaward from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special EducationPrograms (OSEP), to provide free access for all U.S. students with aqualified print disability. The Bookshare library now has over 60,000 booksand serves more than 70,000 members. Bookshare is an initiative of Benetech, a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit that creates sustainable technology to solve pressing social needs. "

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Creating and Playing Texts as Audiobooks on the iPhone

2009-12-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

I had a really good question on email from a reader concerning text reading on an iTouch or iPhone. The question was whether you could take Bookshare Books and have them read on your iPhone or iTouch.

First off, remember that Bookshare files can't be shared. If you want to "play" a file to read, there is the Read Outloud player on Bookshare from Don Johnston that is free with your membership. This will let you hear the book on your computer.

If you want to put the text on your iPhone to read it visually - no text to speech, the app, "Touch Text Reader" is great (for .99 cents). I can upload text files right off my laptop wirelessly into my iPhone without syncing it with a little tool you get online and put on your computer. When you buy the app they give you the link where to get it free. Touch Text Reader opens .txt and.rtf and html docs.but it doesn't let you copy any of the files into a text to speech app. My "Speak it!" app will say anything I paste in - see below for more on Speak it!

Bookshare books come in different formats. You have a .txt file format and an html format. Either of those should be possible to read with an iTouch or iPhone, it just takes a little more work around to get it on there.

I have a text reader app I downloaded on my iPhone called Speak it! I can copy and paste the text from a website in it and it will read it. The thing is that it has to be text in bite-sized chunks - not large files. You have to paste in sections and listen to them. A way around that is to convert chapters of a book to Mp3 and load them in your iTunes and listen. I do that quite a few different ways. Narrator, an iPhone app, will read a list of public domain books they have prepared from the iPhone, but in order to hear a book, you have to download it to read. It can't import any text files or other books to read. In order to hear a text you have you would have to download the text from the book in an email or on a closed web page you use for that purpose ( see blog, My Reading Chair for a sample of how I took a public domain book and put it on this site and had it convert to an audio file online to listen to or download) and then open it in the iPhone browser and then paste into Speak it! I would be hesitant to post chapters even on a closed site with a Bookshare file for copyright reasons.
There aren't any quick apps to buy for your iPhone or iTouch that read text files with synthesized speech in one easy step right now. If it were me wanting to get a Bookshare title onto my iPhone to hear, I would be converting my text file to an Mp3 file by chapter and then uploading them in iTune and listening. Check out DSpeech by Dimios Tools. It is free and will convert any .txt text you paste in to an Mp3 file.

Note: Touch Text Reader, Narrator and Speak it! are all in the apps store at iTunes. Good luck to all you techie ebook folks out there. If anybody has found an easy solution to this let us know!

All the best,

Lon

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Assistive Technology Apps for the iPhone and iTouch: AAC and Speech to Text

2009-12-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

I have been exploring apps for the iPhone for assistive technology. We are adding an iTouch to our equipment loan center to trial Proloquo2go Here is a blog article on it from the Autism site on Change.org.

I got word the other day that Nuance is coming out with Dragon Naturally Speaking for the iPhone. The app isn't up and ready yet, but will be soon. See the blog post on Crave from CNET for "Texting without Typing" for more information.

While I was looking, I went to the Nuance site for more information the Dragon iPhone application. I found a great video tutorial on using a voice recorder on the iPhone to add into Dragon and get it transcribed. The video site is called "Skill Casting" and you can see the video here. The teacher is such a fun and pleasant person! I was impressed.

I am probably way behind many of you in getting these tools out and used, but we are seeing the potential of using these handheld apps for our students in middle and high school that think they are too cool to drag around a speech generating device or use some of the mainstream software tools on a "special" computer just for them in the back of the room. Maybe you don't struggle with those issues, but I sure do! Maybe as technology grows, these handheld apps will be the answer for many. Now with the Google phones, Droid, etc. the apps are moving way past only the iPhone. We have to run to keep up...

All the best to you!

Lon

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Ricochet: A Service Dog for Disabled Surfers

2009-12-08T13:40:00.001-08:00

I loved this video. It is very inspiring. I love that he has found a special place to serve. We should all learn this lesson...

Lon

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From Recipes to Rockets: AAC - Part 2

2009-11-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

The process of funding a device, the SLP report, Medicaid applications, etc. can be daunting for some. Put on top of that, the time invested in the trials and matching an appropriate device, and you can be sure that when you see the device in a student's hands it is time for celebration.
I shared in Part 1, how we developed activities to get a middle-school boy using a Dynavox V.
We were discouraged after all our work, having Medicaid deny our claim. I have to say that all through this, the Dynavox team in Pittsburgh held our hand and the area consultant kept us in the loop as they did detective work to find what we needed to fix and re-submit our request for funding. Finally the word came back about August that we didn't do 2 things: the diagnosis for the student had a code number that had a .0 after it - we had not put it down. For example, 2145 would not be good enough. It HAD to be 2145.0! Then, for some reason, the screener of the claim wanted to not only see that there was an AT specilaist (me) overseeing the initial implementation and training, but they wanted the NAME of the AT specilaist in the description.
Past experience on everyone's part never showed that this had been necessary before - but - OK, we re-submitted and waited...
September came and went, October came and went, and then the first of November - at last! The device was approved and would be shipped out. We were ready to go down the next road, which is the set up and implementation piece.
I got a call this week from the family - they had the device and were SO excited. They wanted to know when I could come to help them get it set up. I drove over and met with them for a couple of hours and we built the student's user profile. I showed them how to edit buttons and some beginning strategies to get it up and going. Dad took a picture on his phone of his son with the device to send to the SLP that had done all the hard work of getting this boy this device (He had been transferred to new students in a new community in our region and would no longer be working with this student).
It was so exciting to leave the family with a device up and running so they could help their son express himself with his new voice for Thanksgiving break. I drove away with that great feeling that you get when you know you are in a career with some great rewards that are truly the non-financial and intangible kind. I was truly thankful.
I have another student waiting for his new device as well in another town. His didn't get denied, but we have been puzzle-piecing the funding from various sources and it has also come together in the past week or so - and he will be getting his for Christmas!
All the best to you!
Lon

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From Recipes to Rockets: Building a Fun Foundation for AAC use

2009-11-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest thrills is getting to be there when students get their "voice". It is extra special when it happens over the holidays, making them ones to remember. I have been working with a speech pathologist and a family for over a year trialing devices and doing activities to develop skills with a middle school boy in order to have a speech device. We decided on the Dynavox V, and designed activities for him to use coordinating communication boards we designed.
This student had a history of short attention span, getting bored quickly with everything. I had tried working with specialists through elementary years to design a binder, picture exchange systems, use recordable symbol boards like with a Go Talk, but he would refuse an nothing could be developed.
So... last year, in a new school in a new district, we embarked on the Dynavox trials. Our first activity was building a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since food is the way to a middle school boy's heart, we graduated to a build a pizza activity as well. As we did these, we had a partner for the student be a helper and we set out all the ingredients. We had a folder in a snacks category that was "Build a Sandwich" or "Build a Pizza". We had all the ingredients pictured and listed with voice output and also had directive buttons labeled and pictured with a sequence of tasks to complete the activity. We went through all the items and directions with the students and checked him out on them by having him show us and "tell" us each button.
Then he used the buttons to tell the partner what to get and what to help him do to finish the recipe and then the reward...eat the finished product.
We video-taped each of these and with permission from the family, showed them to the fellow-SLP's in staff meetings.
Last spring our culminating activity for the year was pretty ambitious. We bought a simple beginner level rocket kit and took digital photos of all the parts and sequences to building it. We built pages in his school/classes/science area and followed the same process of teaching him the parts identification, labeling and sequences to the finished product. We then took him out with his class to the football field to launch the rocket. We even had the countdown and lift-off ready for him to use on the device.
We saw a boy that never would use a device to communicate, begin to get the connection that this could be fun and be used to do things and work together. It went beyond the usual run-of-the-mill buttons we tend to use at school - "I'm thirsty", "I'm done", "when is recess?", "I need to use the bathroom" - with the picture of the toilet on the button - how exciting!
We began the actual funding piece with awesome support from the Dynavox team in Pittsburgh, and our area consultant. We applied to Medicaid, got the SLP report, all essential pieces in the packet and off it went.
About July, we heard back that Medicaid had denied the claim and we were back at square-one having to re-submit the claim. Summer turned to fall and still no device. There had been 9 months of school dedicated to training and trialing, we had all our ducks in a row, but still no device.
Was all our labor in vain? I received emails from the rep and the company that they were trying to find out why Medicaid denied it and we just had to sit tight until we knew what was wrong so we could correct it.
Part 2 is coming up with the end results...

All the best,
Lon

In the News: Kids Use Nintendo Wii to Learn Skills - Video

2009-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday KEPR TV and KVEW TV came and taped for a news clip. The students had fun showing what they could do. Although a lot ended up on the cutting floor, there are some interesting pieces. It gives you a rough idea of what we are doing. As promised, here is the link to the KEPR article and segment. They have the link to the video there as well:

Kids Use Nintendo Wii to Learn Skills

All the best,

Lon

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Wii Therapy: Findings in Motor Integration/planning and Sensory Systems

2009-10-21T09:49:00.001-07:00

Can observing children using theWii help us learn more about their weaknesses and develop strategies to use the Wii to augment traditional therapy and educational practice?

The Wii mat for Outdoor Challenge is pictured above, along with the pipleslider game the students play when sitting on the mat. By leaning left or right and patting their hands, the can steer themselves down the slide.

My question at the top is quite a mouthful! We are struggling to get valid results from observing students using the Wii and find ways to use it to support their goals. They love to play the Wii and it can be a real motivating factor. Whether we are looking at social interaction and systems that students work in with autism, or orthopedic issues in motor integration and planning, our efforts are showing some positive results as we have used the Wii in several situations this fall.

I have been working with a PT/OT and a early childhood specialist in an early childhood program. We have been bringing students in from the morning and afternoon sessions to "play". They have more speech and social goals than orthopedic ones. We have used the Outdoor Challenge game mat to play games like Mole Stomper, Pipe Slider and Timber Trail. All of these involve skills like running in place, foot/eye coordination, left/right orientation, balance, anticipation and developing problem solving systems, etc.

It has been enlightening to see how these young children develop better skills through trial and error, but we have also been able to pinpoint certain deficiencies in age-appropriate developmental skills within the motor planning, fine motor and right/left skills. We have also noticed that the students that have speech issues do not necessarily have motor planning issues as well when using the Wii, but most everyone has some area of deficiency when using the Wii that we can monitor and work on skill strengthening.

We have 2 TV stations coming out to the classroom tomorrow to tape the students and our therapists and myself on the pilot program. If we get a video clip of the piece to share online, I will link to it.

Since we have developed this program, we have been able to use it for some high school age students with autism as well. The thing we are noticing with them is that when they have to do something out of their sensory system - something that cause them to have to adjust and "tweek" their receptive sense, there can be some learning and higher tolerance as an outcome. For example, if we ask a student to take off their shoes and stand on the Wii Fit Board to play a balance game, they might refuse or have a hard time dealing with doing something in their sock feet. The lure of the game and the motivational factor there might be the ticket to get them to comply and give it a try. When this happens, the door can open to new sensations and willingness to try. We have had similar instances with sitting on a mat on the floor, being in sock feet on the mat and putting the strap on the Wii remote around a wrist.

We have just purchased the components for a second system that will go into a student autism group in a high school to work on social and sensory developmental goals. We also have a fourth grade deaf boy who is in a wheelchair and will be using the Wii therapy to do some eye/hand coordination and integration of a speech device with game symbols and basic communication to play with the teacher and a peer.

This has been an interesting journey. I have actually been so busy that I have had to focus on other directions and let this go. In spite of my negligence at times, the teachers and specialists have owned the program and run with it. They have been sharing results and ideas, and proposing new ways to apply the games to student needs. It is taking on a life of its' own!

We have a goal to develop improved data collection forms and develop some tutorials and helps for specialists and teachers to integrate games. We are a long way from that yet - but things are definitely taking shape.

More to come as things develop.

Note: The Wii is not used for official diagnosis, evaluation or screening. It is only used as another tool to see what students can and cannot do and give them a fun and motivating way to develop and achieve goals - approaching them from a different angle.

All the best,

Lon

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Is it a Mystery? Self-accommodation Needs Information and Self-Awareness

2009-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Assistive technology has been a unfamiliar concept for many living in my rural Eastern Oregon region, but in the past 5 years I have been working on building a program, and this fall we have begun to see the efforts pay off. I have been literally overwhelmed with new requests for evaluations, observations, new students, personal development trainings, involvement in accessible instructional materials directions state-wide (not to mention spending every waking minute not at work, spent underneath our home built in 1897, excavating and leveling and putting in new beams - and shutting 'er up before the snow flies - I live high in the mountains).

I am FINALLY at a place where I can sit by the crackling fire in the wood stove this evening, after my son practiced his fiddle tunes and his spelling words, to play some cards and then write on my blog - a dear friend I have missed but have been much too preoccupied this past few months.

I haven't meant to neglect my AT writing but there has been too much going on in life lately to chronicle. I think I have been on overload. It is like walking through a buffet line and not knowing what to try first. There have been many students and many ideas and new relationships built.

I wanted to share about a high school girl I drove to see way out in the boondocks in a small community who has central auditory processing issues and has low grades as an eighth grader. I was asked to come and observe and do an evaluation based on her needing support to write and get her ideas down. I observed her in a language arts class, write an essay on the computer. She could write on the fly and use the spell checker and word prediction well. She could do the mechanics, but the teacher spent a lot of time with her trying to get her to flesh out the main ideas and words that emphasized the major points. She wasn't quite getting that.

I visited with her afterward and explained that I was there to help her with some ways to write and organize her thoughts. I asked her:

"The papers in your file say that you have a central auditory processing disorder. Do you know what that is?" I asked.

She shook her head "No".

"It's like this," I said, "Do you ever feel like your brain is like a radio and you hear what people tell you but you can't tune in the station clear enough so later you can't remember what you were supposed to do?"

Her eyes got big and she nodded, "yes".

I started to share ideas, "What if we were to work on finding some tools, maybe a voice recorder to help you remember. You can have teachers say directions, instructions - maybe even record a class where they tell everyone a lot of important information for a test. You can use this to help you get it again."

I shared how we could set up a special binder with pockets to hold cards that tell her what the big picture ideas are in a class or steps to a project. We are going to have the staff that work with her in for a meeting and talk about low and mid tech and what might best support her.

I think the "take home" for me was that I was talking to an eighth grader who had never been told what her learning disorder was or how to accommodate for it.

In order to be successful, students with disabilities need to know what they have going on and what tools best will give them the life skills they need to succeed independently in life.
Let's take the mystery out of the issues our students face. Let's help them understand how things can be different and they can begin to have power over what they can read study and write. Empowerment and independence is what it is all about!

All the best,

Lon

Free OCR Programs for Print Disabilities

2009-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software for quite some time to work on ways to accommodate student learning and help students be able to access printed text when they have print disabilities. I wrote a review of Top OCR and Access Apps last spring and I have been demonstrating Top OCR to sped teachers, assistants and SLP's to use with their students.
I have grappled with all the intricate issues of copyright but I just show teachers the tools, advised them on what is within reasonable limits of the law balanced with what we are mandated to provide in AIM, and leave interpretations up to individual teachers, administrators and districts.
I have used Access Apps in several downloadable versions (it installs on a jump drive). The line up has changed as far as the tools RSC has included over the past year. I was disappointed to find Top OCR was gone. I had referred a parent to it after an inquiry on text to speech tools that were supportive with scanned text. I recommended Kurzweil 3000, but cautioned on the price. If a person is willing to give up some of the cadillac luxuries, a lot can be said for free open source tools.
I stumbled across a great review on the Top 5 Free OCR Softwares and thought I would pass it on. Hope it helps some of you as you sort your way through the many options for those with print disabilities.
All the best to you!
Lon

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Wii Therapy, AIM, AAC and Everything in Between: Welcome Back!

2009-09-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

I have taken a huge bit of the summer to be offline and rest, spend time with family, etc. I am excited to get back to writing and bring posts that will encourage and stimulate your creative juices. We just returned from a great trip to Toronto and now - back to it!

With Labor Day is behind us, it is time for gearing up towards goals for children and for me, pressing onwards to new goals in my knowledge and professional development. I know that we are being told that stimulus funds are available for AT and I am writing and developing recommendations for items for Autism and AT for our districts. I will have to share them and get your feedback.
I am on a state AIM committee that is working on our implementation of print diability materials in a timely manner and will be developing our protcols for requests and connecting teachers and students with materials, knowing qualifications for access, etc.
My biggest surprise in the projects I have been involved in has been the interest in the Wii as therapy. We tested it out last spring and it seemed very successful. I am going to an ECSE classroom today to work with some children for their motor skill activity time. We have two local TV networks that are working on stories on what we are doing and we are continuing to develop our data collection sheets this fall and fine-tune things. I am working on developing some overlays with speech devices to incorporate with the Wii therapy so we can develop some communication goal work alongside the motor work as well.
I stumbled across some new successes using neuro-feedback for dyslexia with great results. The doctor that has been doing this work has agreed to an interview and so I will be writing about this and setting up a time this fall for him to share what they are doing with you.
There is so much to do and so little time. Just take a deep breath and remember to pursue the things that give you joy. Those will being about your greatest success...
Have a great fall and do great things out there!

All the best to you,
Lon

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New Mobile Technologies Partner with Bookshare

2009-07-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Individuals with Print Disabilities Can Now Use Mobile Technologies for Accessing Bookshare Titles. Bookshare and Code Factory Announce Partnership.

Individuals with print disabilities can now choose new, low-cost mobile technologies to read more than 50,000 digital books and periodicals thanks to a partnership between Bookshare, the world’s largest online library of accessible books for people with print disabilities, and Code Factory, Barcelona Spain; a leading global provider of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for a wide range of mainstream mobile devices.

The Mobile Speak screen readers for mobile phones developed by Code Factory use synthesized speech to read aloud information displayed on the mobile phone screens including ebooks stored on their phones. Using this technology, Bookshare members who are blind or have visual impairments will have new alternatives and features like navigation, bookmarking and text search, to access digital books for work, study or reading pleasure.
“For years, individuals with print disabilities have needed the ability to read books on a readily-available, low-cost, portable device such as the mobile phone,” said Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the nonprofit organization which operates Bookshare. “We envision students with visual impairments or learning disabilities on the bus reading textbooks and other assignments with their phones. In rural areas or homes without computers, individuals can download digital books at school or a community center with computer access and read the content anywhere using their mobile phone. Mobile phone technologies will bring Bookshare books to people and students who previously lacked a portable technology solution to read digital books, magazines and newspapers on the go.”

To read Bookshare books, users of Mobile Speak can download books and periodicals from the Bookshare website (http://www.bookshare.org) to their PC and transfer them to their mobile phones or PDAs. Code Factory provides accessible solutions for Symbian phones as well as Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs.
If users have a Symbian phone (e.g. Nokia phone) they can install the Mobile DAISY Player application in addition to the Mobile Speak screen reader application. Mobile DAISY Player is a book reader which will allow users with sight and visual impairments to read Bookshare files in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format. Mobile DAISY Player is the first and only mobile phone DAISY application to support both DAISY 2.02 and DAISY 3.0 (NISO) book formats. Users can adjust the speed of reading without changing the pitch, set bookmarks to favorite places in the contents screen, navigate by character, word, sentence or paragraph, and configure font sizes and screen colors.

Individuals with a Windows Mobile device can also read Bookshare books in BRF (Braille Ready Format) through the built-in Braille reader implemented in Mobile Speak Smartphone and Mobile Speak Pocket. The Braille reader application will read Bookshare BRF files in English through users’ active speech synthesizer whether or not a Braille display is connected. Users having a refreshable Braille display can read Bookshare books in Braille which is particularly useful for deaf-blind users.

Bookshare member Larry L. Lewis, Jr., President and Founder of Flying Blind, LLC, uses the Mobile Speak application to read Bookshare books on the go. “My Mobile Speak-equipped Smartphone is convenient and allows me to accomplish more tasks while carrying fewer devices,” said Lewis. “Code Factory's BRF reader allows me the flexibility to read Bookshare books with a wireless Braille display or to simply listen to the text while it is read by Mobile Speak.”

“Bookshare and Code Factory share a vision to provide individuals with disabilities around the globe with greater access to a vast collection of digital books and information,” said Eduard Sanchez, CEO of Code Factory. “We value this introduction from Bookshare, a social enterprise, to identify the latest mobile technologies as a solution that will raise the level of access for these individuals.”

Product Information Links:
Bookshare Membership – Code Factory Promotion Code
Bookshare offers memberships to individuals in the U.S. and around the world for a nominal fee. The library has tens of thousands of books including fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, educational reading, newspapers and magazines, plus two free software applications that read digital content. To learn more visit http://www.bookshare.org/signUpType.

Applicants, other than U.S. students who qualify for free memberships, will receive a $25 waiver on a set up fee. To receive this waiver, you must: 1) enter promo code: Codefactory in your registration form and 2) send an email to membership@bookshare.org to request the waiver. http://www.bookshare.org/signUpType?promoCode=Codefactory)

Mobile Speak Pricing and Distribution Information
Code Factory’s accessible solutions are available in the U.S. through several distributors, including AT&T. The price for Mobile Speak starts at $89 for AT&T customers. For more information about the AT&T and Code Factory partnership visit http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/disability-resources/mobile-speak-magnifier.jsp.

To find the closest distributor visit http://codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=54

To download Mobile Speak screen readers, visit http://www.codefactory.es/en/downloads.asp?id=44.

To learn how to get a trial, visit http://www.codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=285.

Mobile DAISY Player Information
To download Mobile DAISY Player for a free trial for 30 days, visit http://codefactory.es/en/downloads.asp?id=43#version_2_57

To buy Mobile DAISY Player, contact the following distributors or look for other Code Factory distributors at http://codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=54:

- Adaptive Technology Resources at http://www.adaptivetr.com/
or call 262.375.2020
- Handy Tech North America at http://www.handytech.us/
or call 651.636.5184
- Vision Cue at http://visioncue.com/contact.php
or call 888.318.2582

All the best to you!
Lon

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Dynavox has Merged with Blink Twice!

2009-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Industry Leaders have Joined Forces to Better Serve Individuals with Speech, Language and Learning Disabilities.

DynaVox Mayer-Johnson has announced they have merged with Blink Twice, effective today, July 6, 2009. DynaVox and Blink Twice are now one company with the broadest range of products in the industry.

Here is the infomation I received today:

"DynaVox is the leading provider of symbol-based communication software and speech generating devices for children and adults with speech, language and learning disabilities. Blink Twice is the developer of the Tango, an innovative, synthesized symbol-based communication device designed primarily for children and teens. Today's merger reinforces our joint commitment to providing the appropriate communication solution for each client's unique needs.
DynaVox recognizes that augmented communicators have different needs, and our goal is to offer the right product to best meet the needs of each individual. DynaVox is excited to have the Tango as part of its product offering. We admire the innovative approach that Blink Twice has taken towards creating an easy to access, aesthetically pleasing device, along with engaging symbols and voices which are particularly appealing to children and teens.

For more information about the Tango, please visit the DynaVox Website at dynavoxtech.com.

Sales, support and manufacturing activities for the Tango will be integrated into DynaVox, with all key employees of Blink Twice joining the DynaVox team. With the Tango as part of the DynaVox family, customers will enjoy the benefits of DynaVox's industry leading support capabilities - what we like to call the DynaVox Difference. Tango customers will now benefit from:
• Increased local support through our team of over 100 North American Sales Consultants - find yours online at dynavoxtech.com
• Enhanced technical support coverage, now provided by the DynaVox Tech Support team, from 8 AM to 7 PM Eastern time. 866-DYNAVOX (396-2869)
• Expedited and accurate management of the reimbursement process, with the DynaVox Funding Team handling all Medicaid, Medicare, and insurance processing.
• Tango's inclusion in the DynaVox DREAM and rental programs.
• High quality manufacturing and the DynaCare service you've come to expect from DynaVox.

Dynavox is ready to assist you with all of your needs for the Tango.
All new orders should now be placed with the DynaVox Customer Support Team at 866-DYNAVOX (396-2869).
They are also working to expedite the delivery of all Tango devices currently on order."

Full Press Release

All the best to you!

Lon

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WATI Free Online AT Resources on Talk Radio Show

2009-06-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jill Gierach of Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) was my guest this morning on No Limits 2 Learning Live!

LISTEN NOW!

We had a great time discussing the resources in their Assessing Student Needs for Assistive Technology manual, (4th edition pdf link here). They are working on a 5 th edition that will be aimed at RTI and curriculum content areas more specifically in organization.
You can also listen on my blog player on the sidebar and access older shows there in the list.

All the best to you!
Lon

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WATI Director Jill Gierach on Blog Talk Radio Monday, June 29

2009-06-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

No Limits 2 Learning Live is proud to host WATI (Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative) Director, Jill Geirach Monday, June 29 at 9 a.m. Pacific time.
WATI resources have been some my best and most-used tools in assessing and implementing assistive technology. If you have never explored the free documents on their website, you need to add them to your knowledge base. Due to some budget cuts (we all know about that these days!) and some re-structuring, WATI will be taking on a little different look in the future.
Listen in as Jill shares about free resources from the WATI shelves and join us as we celebrate a wonderful history of WATI support for students with special needs and the teachers and parents that serve them.
If you would like to call in and talk with Jill, call 347 945-5431, Monday, June 29 at 9 a.m. Pacific.
You can listen live here or access the archive after the show on the sidebar player on the blog or Blog Talk Radio/ No Limits 2 Learning Live! show episode.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Assessing Formats for Accessible Instructional Materials, Part Two

2009-06-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Matching an AIM (Accessible Instructional Materials) format (See part one for format types) with students involves more than just locating a textbook title in etext or qualifying for eligibility to acquire NIMAS files. The correct software, type of reader, text to speech voice, method of access and visual settings for those with orthopedic or low vision issues all combine to make or break the implementation of the text in an alternative format.
In Oregon, we have the Talking Book and Braille Service for our Blind and low vision students. They usually access braille formats or listen through a Braillenote or computer. They use JAWS to navigate the computer and DAISY files that can be in a braille format (.brf).
OTAP, The Oregon Technology Access Program, has begun to develop a new state recognized media provider for accessing titles for those that are not blind - but either orthopedically impaired or having an organic brain dysfunction (See part one for more on eligibility and these conditions). As a teacher or parent gets past the eligibility piece and on into the accessing of materials, you have options of using Bookshare.org and state media providers that are recognized by NIMAC. There are other services that provide public domain texts in e formats such as Gutenberg.org and Lit2Go, etc.
As an assistive technology specialis, I am trying to develop a procedure which will help me streamline the process by which I work with teachers and IEP teams, so that we know what services we want to use for a student to access titles and what software and hardware will best serve the student to access and hear/see the text files.

What areas need to be considered in a Learning Media Assessment?
Below is a sample I have been brainstorming as a possible checklist for a Learning Media Assessment Form. It is a work in progress, but you can take it as it is and tweek it for your own use. I will hopefully have a finished and working document by the time school starts in September, and this is not an all-inclusive form - but it is a start. Let me know your thoughts and feedback. If you are familiar with the SETT method of AT Assessment, you will recognize those pieces in the sample below.

Learning Media Assessment Document
Student information:
Name:
School:
Classroom Teacher:

Case Manager:

Student Diagnosis:

Student Objectives? IEP Goals?:

Planning AIM:
1. Has the textbook and other materials been identified that need to be accessible? List below:

2. Who is the primary contact (your staff) for materials, converted files, etc.

3. What Authorized Users are being used? Bookshare ____; RFB & D ______; Other _______
____________________________;

4. In what settings will the student need text to be accessed? School ____; Home ____; Other _______________;

5. What are needs for implementation/staff training?

Media Assesment:
Check the type of media this student should use:

Audio (Mp3 file only) ___

Audio (DAISY) _____

Etext for large print only ____

Etext with reader _____

Format for etext: pdf ____; txt ____; html ____; BRF ____; DAISY _____; xml _____;

Software Tool used to read etext: K3000 _____; Read Outloud ____; DSpeech ____; TopOCR _____; Wynn _____; iTunes _____;

Hardware Tool: Classmate Reader _____; Mp3 device (i.e., ipod/Zune/Etc.) _____;

Optional readers for blind users (DAISY): AMIS _____; Victor Reader _____; Dolphin _____;ZoomTextPlus _____; JAWS _____;

Hardware Tool: Braillenote _____; PacMate ______;

This is all I have so far. Take this as a start and customize it to fit your needs.
I would suggest visiting the AIM consortium area on CAST and visiting the CAST site in general for more resources.
OTAP is working on a much more extensive set of info sheets and assessment pieces, designed by Gayl Bowser. Check the OTAP site this next fall to see when they will be accessible. Also, I am teaching 2 day classess in the Portland area in August for the Oregon Assistive Technology Summer Institute. College credit will be available through Portland State University. I will be teaching a day on free and low cost print disability tools, and a day on using Access Apps tools. Check here for registration and details. The venue is about an hour from the Oregon Coast as well.

All the best to you,

Lon

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Kidthing Offers Free Downloads of Summer Books,Videos and Games

2009-06-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Free Games on Kidthing this summer....

Kidthing, the games and ebook player for kids is promoting free games each week throughout the summer. You can download the player for free and the access the free game downloads. There are games such as The Great Outdoors word search and soccer math. July will bring a group of patriotic themed games and activities. Once downloaded, games and books can be accessed off-line on the player, so kids don't need to be on the Internet to play.
My past Kidthing posts still seem to be some of the most popular and if you haven't tried out this player and catalog of books and activities you should give it a try. I have used a switch and interface with the books to allow students to turn the pages and of course many of the books can be read to the students. The access piece matched with the books available, make it great - especially for younger or cognitively lower students. They also have an NEA/Read Across America program during the school year that allows teachers to download a free book a month - many of them Dr. Seuss titles.
We have a lot of fun with kidthing at home and my 7 year old son asks to play and read on there all the time.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Assessing Formats for Accessible Instructional Materials, Part One

2009-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Getting curriculum to students in an accessible format can be a challenge, but it is a federal mandate. We are to provide materials in a timely manner which means, "At the same time as the other students".
In Oregon, we are working on a protocol for helping districts and educators streamline the process for identifying what type of format AIM (accessible instructional materials) needs to be in and how to access the materials in a timely manner and implement them.
If you are looking at qualifying some students you have, or you are a parent that knows your child needs textbooks, articles and handouts in an alternative format, but aren't currently getting them, this post might help.

Format:
What are the formats we are talking about? Most common are: Large print; Mp3 audio; DAISY files; text files in a .txt format that can be opened by a text reader (see past posts on my blog for text to speech tools); or a text file that can be opened in a program or web browser with different color text and background. (Access Apps has some great free tools for this)
These formats require an e-copy of the text book or other materials so that the text can be converted, manipulated by an assistant, parent, teacher or the reader.
Accessing the Format:
We will assume for this post that the student has already qualified and eligibility has been proven. Briefly though, the standard requirements for eligibility are that the student needs to 1.) either be blind or visually impaired, 2.) orthopedically impaired to the point where a book cannot be held or pages turned, or finally, 3.) the student has an organic brain dysfunction that causes a processing or reading disorder.
A doctor's letter supporting one of these three eligibilities is needed for accessing copyright protected files through a state authorized media provider of files coming from the NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Access Center).
Another option, Bookshare.org , requires that a competent professional make this determination and it doesn't necessarily have to be a doctor. A special education teacher, a specialist in the field of disability, etc. can make this determination. You can consult the Bookshare.org website under qualifications for membership eligibility for more information. Bookshare is working hard to expand their ability to locate and provide textbooks for students so check them out.
I recently had a visit from a young woman who was a nursing student who wanted to know about some tools to help her access her nursing textbooks. She was able to connect me with a regional school psych who had tested her in community college for eligibility on a learning disability. I was able to send him the Bookshare form and he was able to sign off on her eligibility and fax it in.

These are some of the foundational pieces to setting up access to instructional materials that are copyright protected. We will look at the process of assessing formats for students and implementing in part two.

All the best to you!

Lon

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A "Bug" in the System: AAC Care Tip to Save You Money

2009-06-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

I have to share a tip I found out about this week that could save you upwards of $1500 on repair costs on those expensive dynamic display touch screen AAC devices that are used for communication...
"This is the service/repair department. We have your device ready to send back. Could you call us for details on your repair?"
I had been given a mal-functioning touch screen AAC device from a high school that needed repairs for the second time on a USB port. I was glad it was done and called the service department back to find out what was up.
"Hello Mr. Thornburg. We have replaced a main board in the device. It looked new other than being dirty - more than what we could just clean. I wanted to let you know that we found what looked like roach legs and fecal matter behind the screen. Sometimes if a device isn't working properly and gets stored away in a closet, garage or basement in a box, it becomes the "home" for insects."
I was getting a little grossed out I have to say... "You are kidding me, right?"
"No" he replied. "We see a lot of damage to devices because of bug issues." He went on to say, "We are replacing the board free this time and the USB port is working fine, but we are making a note of the bug issue and the free replacement. If it gets returned again and has the same issue, we will have to charge for the replacement of the board and labor which will run about $1600.00."
"Wow. I think this device is getting stored in a snap lid box from now on. Thanks for the free repair and the word of warning."
I called a different AAC device company's rep and asked if this was a common issue. I was cautioned that although it is not probably an issue for actively used devices, that folks store them away not thinking and the little vents and holes can become an inviting "hotel for insects".
"Be careful though about reporting that this is a common issue because it just can be another factor to cause folks looking at AAC devices to decide against them." the rep advised me. "A post about this could be helpful though just to help people be more aware and care for their devices."

So...there you have it. Who would have known? I guess our repeated repair had a literal bug in the system. I have visited the classroom where this device resides many times and it is a very clean room and a neat and tidy environment. I don't have any ideas about how this could have happened except that the OT that works with the student told me that the device doesn't go home with the student in the summer. "It gets locked up at school through the summer months." I was told. There could be our issue. If you have these type of devices stored away for the summer months you might want to re-think your storage strategies.
I will be advising all our AAC device owners to get a snap lid storage box to put the whole device, charger and case in when not in use. I don't want to see a $1600 dollar repair bill next time and maybe this advice will help you avoid a costly repair bill as well.

All the best to you!
Lon

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A Mountain Ranch Visit with a Todd's Paralysis Student for Summer AT

2009-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and kids are at home. Are you looking for a tool to sharpen skills and keep them engaged over the summer months?

Today I made a home visit, driving through our local Indian Reservation of the Cayuse and Umatilla, winding along the Umatilla River out into ranch country. I was taking a laptop loaded with Clicker 5 by Crick Software, out to the most beautiful piece of heaven you could want to see - straight out of a Louis L'Amour western. I drove up a gravel drive, under the hanging brand sign of the ranch and drove up to the main house, where a little cowpoke was waving me down on the porch. The family greeted me and I had a chance to sit with their little girl who just finished the first grade.

Mandy, (I will call her for this post) has Todd's Paralysis, a side-effect of epilepsy that comes on as a type of seizure. She has several in the early waking hours of the morning before school on a regular basis. They have effected her right side and she uses her left hand to do most things. Her speech is pretty good but she has to put alot of effort out to be understood.

Her teacher at school shared that she has mastered the material for first grade, but has difficulty writing and so she cannot get her work done and handed in at school with the other students in her class. The hope was that there would be something she could use with a laptop to type and print her work.

I got out a loaner laptop loaded with Clicker 5 to leave with them to play with for a month or so. Clicker 5 has a talking word processor window and a pop-up keyboard on the screen. It also has editable buttons in various templates that allow you to build word walls, build your own guided sentence writing activities complete with sound, animation and pictures that correspond to the words. My hope was that Mandy could begin typing using the mouse on the pop up keyboard and use word wall buttons where possible as well to practice writing skills over the summer in prep for fall.

We set up the introduction demo that let her go through the program and see how it works and try various activities. She needs to develop mouse skills so she can access the buttons on the screen, but with guided prtactice from mom and dad, she was pointing out the correct words for fruits to match pictures and her reading skills and word recognition was excellent.

I left them with dad building a word wall page with mommy, daddy, her horse, ranch, etc. They were building a sentence for her to tell about her horse when I left. The family was up and running with the basics to use the program within 15 minutes.

If you have a young student home for the summer that needs text to speech, picture linking to words and opportunities to build dynamic pages for inspiring writing, check out Clicker 5. The cost is $229 for Windows/Mac.

All the best to you,

Lon

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Wii Therapy Baseline Sets Stage for Program Pilot

2009-06-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Our ESD released the following article this week. From this I have had several newspapers and two TV stations call for further stories. I thought I would share the article below:

"Nintendo Wii has taken the video game industry and many American households by storm, and now the game system is starting to be used as a form of physical and occupational therapy to help improvement movement and motor skills.
When Pendleton Academies closed its doors last fall, the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District (UMESD) acquired several used Nintendo Wii game consoles. They were handed down to UMESD Assistive Technology Specialist Lon Thornburg, who began to research the use of Wii systems in physical and occupational therapy with special needs students. The results?
“Wii-hab.”
Now Thornburg, physical therapist Jodi Garberg and occupational therapist Christi Sullivan are working together to create a pilot program for the Wii therapy. They spent two days observing students using the system and several games at Sandstone Middle School and Hermiston High School to develop a baseline of activities and design a data collection model for the program.
The trio are hoping to create a pilot program that will be used for six months at a time at two different schools (to be determined) next year. They’ll study the effectiveness of the system to motivate special needs students, as well as how well it helps to improve their communication and motor skills. The pilot program will also give them the opportunity to improve the program, its uses and effectiveness, as well as refine the data collection model.
“We think it’ll also be a good tool for diagnosing what some of these kids can’t do,” Thornburg said. “I think there are just tons of possibilities with this system.”
Thornburg emphasizes that this program is not something for kids to have the chance to just fool around with.
“We want to make sure people understand we’re being very clinical about this,” Thornburg said. He noted that the only expenses so far have been to purchase several Wii games, such as the sport pack, Outdoor Challenge and Wii Fit. All of the consoles and remotes were donated when Pendleton Academies closed.
The Wii Fit aerobics and balance programs have fun therapeutic movements such as the hula hoop, penguin slide, ski slalom, tightrope walk and balance bubble. The Outdoor Challenge features a “mole stomper,” trampoline, water slide, jump rope and trail rider. These games help special needs students to improve their balance and motor skills.
Through his research, Thornburg has found other physical and occupational therapists across the country who are using the Wii systems in rehabilitation centers, assisted living centers and even for war veterans in VA medical centers.
“Doing the physical therapy can be quite painful for some of the veterans, so using the Wii helps them with their therapy while helping to take their minds off the pain by doing something fun,” Thornburg said.
Thornburg also has connected with Mershon Hinkel, an occupational therapist in Philadelphia known as the “Wii OT.” The pair have shared various Wii therapy ideas and experiences.
By refining the program through the pilot project, Thornburg hopes to collect enough tangible and effective data and experiences to apply for grant funding to help the program take flight in more schools with the UMESD’s physical and occupational therapists."

All the best to you!

Lon

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New Projects for June on No Limits to Learning

2009-06-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
I am "re-surfacing" after a pretty intense few weeks where I have just not had the energy to chronicle my work. Instead, I will try to start unpacking some of the thoughts surrounding the following topics that have filled the last 2 or 3 weeks of my life:

1. Accessible Instructional Materials/ conducting Learning Media Assessments - what does this mean, what is involved and how do you do it?
2. Social capital and how special needs students can get it, keep it and let it help them transition on after High School.
3. Wii therapy experiments in middle and high school: What we found and the data collection we are developing for OT/PT/Communication and Social Skills.
4. Lessons learned from success (and failures) in setting up AT pilot programs.
5. New Edition of Access Apps and changes/new programs.
6. Developing a rocketry unit and using AAC
7. Using AAC with Wii Therapy

As you can see, I have had quite a lot going on and have been tying up loose ends on transition meetings, setting up summer trainings, etc. I have quite a bit to write about. I just need life to slow down enough to get it out of my head and onto the blog.
I have pretty much posted every weekday for the past year and a half until this past month - please forgive me and I will do better. Who knows, maybe you have been so busy you haven't had a chance to read much either!

WATI Director on Blog Talk Radio Interview coming this month!
I am honored to be interviewing the director of the Wisconson Assistive Technology Initiative (WATI) about their program. Unfortunately, due to budget and the economy, WATI will be closing the doors, but the website, a vision of director Jill Gierach MSE ATP will continue and all its' great resources should remain for us. We have not set a definite date, but it will be on in a couple of weeks. Keep posted for dates and more info as it gets closer.

Have a great first week of June...
All the best to you!
Lon

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3D Printer Robotics May Lead to Home Design for AT

2009-06-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

Imagine a home 3D printer/ fabricator where you "print" a device by loading a fabrication software plan/ program for what you want to build, supply the raw materials and let the "robot" build it.

A Standard Freeform Fabricator (SFF) designed by "Fab at Home" will do just this. With Open-source software, folks are experimenting with designing 3D and useful objects. h+ Magazine posted an article sharing about the system and that it is being used in universities to learn design and engineering as well as experimental handicapped assistive devices.
Cornell University published an article: "Object Augmentation for the Visually Impaired Using RP" (pdf here). Sibley School of Mechanical and Aero-space engineering, Cornell Univ. Computing and Information Science, and ELIA Life Technology Inc, used a free form fabricator to "print" a tacticle alphabet on various surfaces.

Here is a video that shows the unit making a watch...

Find more videos like this on hplus community

All the best to you!

Lon

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Math Tool Accommodations: Number Pads, Calculators and More

2009-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I received a question about options for number pads and calculators for the computer. The need was to isolate the number keys so the letter keys weren't being hit. As I got to looking at options, I thought I might as well share my ideas with you. If you know of some cool apps for this or tricks, share them in the comment section. I have left out big button calculators, but they are great tools too. It just depends on what you are wanting to do. The question I received came from a computer keyboard need.

You could use small pvc pipe and elbows and ends to make a “stand” that covers the part of the keyboard you don’t want and leave the numbers at the end. I made one a few years back to cover the keyboard on a laptop – pretty simple – I covered it with foam board from a craft store and covered it with felt. We used it as a flat surface and used velcro to fasten jelly bean switches on it. (Thanks Linda Burkhart!)

Another option is a mini USB pad – here is one for $20 at Target online.

I use comfort software's on-screen keyboard. They have many editable on-screen keyboards and I like one that is a number pad only – you can download the program and get a whole suite of keyboards, word prediction and you can change the size and customize. I put a screen shot of one at the top of this post. The program has a preview download version to try out. I think you can stay in evaluation mode as long as you want to put up with the start-up sales stuff. Their website is: http://www.comfort-software.com/on-screen-keyboard.html

There is also an online virtual calculator for the visually impaired here: http://www.calculateforfree.com/sight.html

This site has all kinds of calculators for different purposes so definitely check them out.

Last but not least, I will refer you again to the Calcu Type online switch activated scanning calculator which is another great on computer math accommodation tool .

All the best to you!

Lon

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Rocketry with AAC

2009-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

3...2...1...Lift-off!

I have been "in the trenches" over the past week or so and also off to some great trainings, one on transitioning and building social capital for students and a state meeting on implementing accessible print materials. BUT...in between all this I have been building pages for a Dynavox VMax for a rocketry project with 2 of our non-verbal students. We video-taped one student last week and I will be doing another this week and next.

I built several pages, one branching off a science class page with 3 button/folders:1.) Rocket parts 2.) Building the rocket and 3.) Launching the rocket. I used a digital camera and took pictures of the parts in the package and made buttons for the main ones. I purchased a rocket kit with some pre-assembled parts so it only took about 15 minutes to build. I also took pictures of hands doing the assembly pieces and the actual launching. We even made a countdown page with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, lift-off buttons.

Since we are using a speech output device, I am having the student using the device work with an assistant and use the device to tell the partner what items to get, and what they will do next, clear through the launch. What an exciting way to build involvement and motivation to use AAC. The student has been practicing where all the boards and buttons are. It should be great fun! I am looking forward to a sunny afternoon launch out on the football field soon!

All the best to you...

Lon

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Using Stimulus Dollars to Build Your Essential Assistive Technology Toolbox

2009-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

What Essentials are in Your Toolbox?

I was asked to recommend some tools that I consider "staples of the trade" to put in a tollbox for special ed classrooms. I was asked to keep it "reasonable" in cost and equip with the essentials. I might be sticking my neck out here, but I thought I would throw my list out to you and get your feedback. What am I missing? What would be better? Give us your ideas... remember, in this scenario there is money to spend!

My Toolbox List:

Boardmaker software $399 (Mayer Johnson)

Super Talker Progressive Communicator - $339 (Ablenet)

2 Jelly Bean switches - $45 each (Ablenet)

1 Switch Interface Pro USB 5.0 - $99 (Don Johnston)

1 Big Mack Communicator - $109 (Ablenet)

1 Big Red Switch - $45 (Ablenet)

I Universal Mount - $80 (Ablenet)

1 Powerlink 3 - $189 ( I would get a cheap radio to use with it) (Ablenet)

2 Battery Interrupters (AA and C/D sizes) - $12 each (Enabling Devices)

1 Touchscreen (13"-15") - $179 (Don Johnston)

1 Canon Canoscan LiDE 200 flatbed scanner with OmniPage SE OCR software- $99

(Tiger Direct)

1 Mp3/voice recorder/audiobook flash drive player - $39.95 (RCA Pearl)

Don Johnston SOLO Literacy Suite with Talking Word Processor, Graphic Organizer, Text Reader, Word Prediction. - $749 (Don Johnston)

(A free suite of tools with some lower-end tools like on SOLO comes in Access Apps as a download to put on a 2GB flashdrive) A low cost alternative I recently discovered is Confident Reader. It will not read DAISY files, but you can get one that does free online from Bookshare.org if you have an account, They also have a free version of a Don Johnston Reader.

There are so many great software tools like Classroom Suite, Clicker 5, Kurzweil 3000, etc. but with the tools above I could do alot - I think I could survive fairly well actually. I also know there are lots of different kinds of switches, but we have our equipment center to trial varities of switches so I would check them out and get them as needed. There are low-end ideas like pencil grips, see-through color strips, etc. What are your resources? (things you would want to be on your list?)

All the best to you!

Lon

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Piloting Our Own Wii Therapy to Support OT in the Schools

2009-05-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wii-abilitation or Wii-therapy is becoming more and more popular. I can tell by the increase in posts, articles and sites about it online. As I shared not too long ago, we were given a Wii, leftover from a program that had been closed. The Wii had some parts missing and the Wii Sports CD scratched beyond use. I got a call from a director asking me if we could use it for assistive technology somehow.
I went through the storage tub and sorted through broken remotes and odds and ends (there had been 2 Wiis at one time) and got enough working pieces to make up one good set. I bought an Outdoor Adventure mat and game, a Wii Fit board and Wii Play. I went online and printed off a good Wii Fit tutorial that lists all the activities and put together overviews from resources online for the Outdoor Adventure and the Wii Play.
We had a "launch" at a monthly OT/PT meeting last week and I gave the specialists an arsenal of articles supporting the use of the Wii in schools, veterans hospitals, care facilities, etc. I began to get requests from therapists to come out to some schools and help them get started.

A Time for Assessment
One of the OT's has set up two days, one at a middle school and one at a high school where I will set up the Wii in a closed setting. Throughout the day, we will bring in various students and based on their motor level and ability, try some games out and decide what activities will support the unique needs of that student. Will it be eye-hand coordination, balance, fine motor, speeding up reflex action, or just getting a student out of a chair, onto a mat and letting them slide down the water slide steering with their hands on the mat?
I drafted up a rough data sheet for starters that has the student information on the top as well as motor ability and motor goals, and then lists all the games with space for notes. We can fill out a form for a student, check all the games that apply to the goal and get a baseline started.
If we can pilot a program in a couple of schools and get some data that shows this is helping students, we can use that to start more Wii's in more schools under the direction of the OT/PT's.
Wii and Communication?
I have an interesting case developing for a non-verbal student where we are going to incorporate some augmentative communication with the Wii Sports to allow this student to play against a classmate and use the Communication Overlays to choose games, make comments, take turns, build a Mii (I have made boards with all the head, eyes, nose, hair, etc. parts ready to use) and say "Good game!" A great Mii site to visit for some ideas for your boards is a Mii Creator site.
Some students need a motivator to use alternate forms of communication. We are trailing a Dynavox with a student that is doing terrific things because we are having him build sandwiches, make pizza and build and shoot a model rocket (this Friday!). He happens to be in the middle school where we are bringing the Wii, so I will build some pages for using the Wii and incorporate the Dynavox V into it.
Blending tools and supports is getting to be so much fun and I find it allows some of those unique needs kids have to be met in a way that just can't happen with a one-size-fits-all philosophy.

All the best to you!
Lon

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Plan Now for Strong Fall Transitions with Students Using Assistive Technology

2009-05-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

As we face spring and the end of the school year, we have transitions...the movement of a student from elementary to middle, middle to high school, on to college and then out the door to life. It seems like it happens all too fast.
There are so many changes and adjustments to make. Parents get nervous about new settings, new staff and how their child will fare. Teachers feel overwhelmed by new cases that they have to study and students that they have to become familiar with. There are new routines to learn, new curriculum, new environments, etc.
I have seen transitions that were seamless and transitions that were bumpy at best. New teachers have to get up to speed on a student, but sometimes the same assistants go with a student to help. New IEP's and new goals, re-adjusting and fine-tuning what is being done - all can slow down progress being made.
In assistive technology, I have the distinct honor to follow sudents through their school career, so I can be one point of A.T. memory so to speak, going to new schools with the students as they advance and sharing what we have been doing can help a lot.
To help prevent the potential bogging down of the wheels of progress, here are some ideas you can implement in your transition planning now to make next fall a whole lot easier:

1. Don't assume anything! Never assume that a new school in your district will pick up the AT torch and carry it on without any glitches. Be available every step of the way to get things started. The AT specialist (or other specialist in charge of it) may be the only AT advocate for the student in the new environment for awhile. Don't dismiss your importance in training and sharing what is being used for support and accommodations.
1. Use Video: Take video now (don't wait) of a special activity that showcases the use of AT with a student. Send it on with the student and let the up-coming staff see first-hand what the student can do and what is possible to accomplish.
2. Send up-to-date reports at the end of the year explaining what was used specifically and how it was incorporated. Don't assume therapists in other areas will include details about it in their reports. Many of the files I get on new students have sparse AT notes. Sometimes there are notes of trials or recommendations, but not a lot of detail on things that were used and how they were used.
3. Transition equipment as well as students within a district. Try to make purchases district purchases - not individual school purchases. I have some schools that buy a Big Mack, a recordable communicator, or some piece of equipment and send it on with a student within the district for the student, but sometimes a school will keep the equipment for other students and send a student on empty-handed. It then becomes the high school or middle school's responsibility to find the money to get it to continue a service plan. This can eat up weeks or even months of time. I have an equipment center that can loan items to schools in the interim, but many districts don't have that luxury. Plan ahead for these glitches.
4. Spend time investing in the new staff that works with the student as soon as possible. Try and shorten the lag time between the first day of school and getting AT implementation up and running, by really shadowing an assistant for a few sessions. Follow the "Watch me, then do it with me, then do it by yourself while I watch you" steps to training and you will have strong AT implementation coming out of transition.

Following these steps takes some extra effort, but when you weigh the time spent at the beginning of a new transition done well vs. time spent over an over throughout the year struggling to get something going, the first example is more efficient in the long run and will save you time. I know there are many of you that have advice in this area and it would be great to hear from you.

Our new topic for our next Assistive Technology Blog Carnival coming up will be on transitions and how they went well or went bad - what tricks or tips help, what the obstacles are and how to overcome them. I will be posting more on this over the week and hope to hear from many of you. We can share information that will strengthen this area for all of us.

All the best as you press into the last few weeks of the school year!

Lon

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Wii Jumps in as Therapy Tool for Special Education

2009-04-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

I had reported on the Wii as "Wii therapy" this past winter and had asked for tips and ideas. I received several emails and comments about it. Since then, my assistive technology department has been given a Wii to use as a therapeutic support tool. I got on the Internet this past week and found that the number of articles and sites featuring the Wii for this purpose have grown considerably.

I "launched" our Wii program at a monthly meeting of our OT/PT specialist team yesterday. I set up the Wii and gave everyone a set of handouts on the games and articles that support the Wii in rehab settings. I shared examples of the Wii being used in hospitals for all ages, from 9 to 90. Stroke victims, veterans hospitals for military, special needs students in schools, all across the country are finding the following:

1. The Wii can divert the attention of the subject off of the pain associated with movement making it easier to do the movement while bowling, boxing, playing tennis, etc.

2. "Virtual PE" from a wheelchair is possible in special needs classrooms. Children can bowl and play baseball against other students in the classroom. One school even has a "game day" where a special needs class can play another class.

3. Teachers, specialists and assistants often hold and assist the student with the Wii remote to model movement, the swing, roll, punch, etc.

4. Better circulation of limbs is occurring.

5. Games support eye/hand coordination and students are able to "whack the ball out of the park" on the Wii when they have difficulty doing other eye/hand tasks. Maybe this will help.

6. Color and shape recognition is increasing.

There are quite a few articles online if you Google Wii therapy or Wii rehabilitation. One article I loved was: Wii Solutions for Special Needs from the special needs program at the Harry E. Blair Learning Center in Bakersfield, California. I would encourage you to check it out. There are some great pictures there too.

We have purchased a Wii Fit board to work with students who are not in wheelchairs. We have a game mat/game "Outdoor Adventure", which allows students with the ability to sit on the mat on the floor to slide down a water slide and use their hands to steer to the left or right. The Wii Sports games will allow students in chairs to use muscle groups while doing the tennis, boxing, bowling, baseball, etc.

The first student to use the setup will be a 12 year old in a chair that has lost interest in doing many of the activities the occupational therapist gives him to do at school:

"Stringing beads and other hand exercises have kind of reached their limit with him," the OT/PT director shared. "Maybe this will engage him and get the muscles actions we want him to get, and make it more fun for him."

I 'll keep you posted.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Win an Apple iTouch or Classmate Reader on Bookshare: Few Days Left

2009-04-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Has Bookshare changed your life or your students’ learning experience in a unique and significant way?
Bookshare Members! Tell Your Story and ENTER TO WIN
Grand Prize: Victor Reader Stream or the Classmate Reader or an Apple I-Touch
Share your Bookshare success story with us and win great prizes! Everyone has a special story about changing the lives of students with qualified print disabilities. What assistive technology do you use with Bookshare? How has Bookshare saved you time? Why do you use Bookshare in your school district? How has Bookshare made an impact in your students’ lives? For official rules check the Bookshare website at www.bookshare.org.

Official Contest Rules:
Who: You must be a current Bookshare Member. Please sign up at www.bookshare.org
How: Submit your story in any of these formats: Word, Video, MP3 or text/Braille formats. Make your video or MP3 a minute or less and your text document no more than one page. Send your submissions to Events@bookshare.org
Time: Contest runs from February, 28, 2009 (Date of newsletter launch) – April, 31, 2009
Winners Notification: We will notify winners by phone or email. Winners will be announced on the Bookshare website on June, 15, 2009. If winner is a minor, a parent consent form will be required.
Website Posting: Bookshare has the right to post winning media on our website. Bookshare will request consent from the author prior to any other use of the media.
Contest Details: One winner will be chosen for each of the following categories:
 Student – K-12
 Student – University
 Student – Adult Ed
 Individual Member
 School K-12
 Most Creative
 Best Video
 Best MP3
 Best Text/Braille
 International
 Grand Prize, Best overall story and presentation for US Members
 Grand Prize, Best overall story and presentation for International Members

Bookshare asked if I would let folks know about this even though time is short. Who knows, maybe your story will win you something!

All the best to you!
Lon

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Music at Your Fingertips: Radios, Switches and TBI

2009-04-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was heading to a home visit on a long highway through wheatfields, making my way to a small country town. Turning off the highway, I passed an old feed store and headed down what used to be a frontier brick and stone building -lined main street. If you dumped truck-loads of dirt on the street to cover it up and threw in a few cowboys on horses, you would think you were on the set of a western movie.
When I arrived at the house, using a Powerlink 2 from Ablenet, a Big Red switch on a universal mount, a radio and an lamp that looks like an aquarium, I set up a cause and effect activity for a non-verbal 4 year-old girl in a wheelchair who had a traumatic brain injury when less than a year old. The doctors said she would never be able to do anything, but the 2 aunties who care for her and love her have worked hard to get her to respond and clue in on what is going on around her.
Since her arm was hanging down off the side of her chair, we mounted the switch so it sat under her fingertips. I moved her fingertips slightly so she could get the feel of flexing them a little to make the switch trigger the radio station and the aquarium lamp on, timed for 3 seconds. As soon as the music started she rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, but when the music and lights stopped, she didn't try to get it going again. We verbally encouraged and coaxed, and finally I moved her fingertips and started the music and lights again.
"When we say funny things, she laughs," shared one aunt. "Not too long ago when we were talking about my sister having to be gone part of the day and a sitter needing to be here, she started to cry. We think she knows what is going on."
"I am sure she does. If she can move her fingertips to make the music play and gets the idea that she can have control over it, it will give her some power, and the stimulus will get those synapses' firing and we can build another block in the foundation," I encouraged.
We moved out to the back step of the house and continued to visit when suddenly from the living room we heard the country music station we had the radio set on, begin blaring through the house.
"She did it by herself!" cried one of the aunts.
I watched as the other aunt with me, began to tear up, her eyes showing the excitement of what she was hearing. "We know there is alot going on in her head and we want to see her world open up."
"She is just like any other typical kid inside," I said. "She will trigger the switch and do what she wants on her timetable, not ours." It seemed like when we were staring at her and waiting for her to do it, she wasn't going to. But as soon as I was out of the room...there it went!
I shared a few strategies with them on how to use the timer on the Powerlink and left them to experiment and play.
What a lucky girl to have 2 aunts that care so much. She is just starting to expand her abilities and there is so much ahead.

All the best to you!

Lon

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"Text-driving" the NEO 2 with Text to Speech

2009-04-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

We have been using the Alphasmart NEO and the Dana now for quite some time in our assistive technology equipment center. We have used it for alternative access in writing for some students who can't handwrite, and we have had a text to speech sound card in a Dana we have used with Write Outloud To Go from Don Johnston.

Recently I got an email on the NEO 2. When I found out they had built in the text to speech I wanted to try one out. They sent one for evaluation and I have been taking it out for a "text drive". I thought you might be interested in what I found out:

NEO 2 Text to Speech

The NEO2 has text to speech built in as standard. You access it with the purchase of a small wireless, battery operated receiver with headphones (see image above). This way the student can hear the voice without disturbing those around them. I hooked it up to a set of powered desktop speakers and turned it up. It worked great. My thought has been to use this as an alternate form of communication for students that can type well, but are non-verbal. The NEO with the text to speech kit comes in at $299. Well lower in cost than some of the mainstream word processing communicators. I also found the voice to be fine. It wasn't one of those primo natural voices, but it wasn't robotic and awful to the ear either.

Quizzes, Spell Check and Other Features

My main focus was on the alternative communication piece, but while I was at it, I thought I might as well share about other features it has as well. There are several "smart applets" that run programs off of the Renaissance Learning/Renaissance Place subscription services. The NEO can connect online through a wireless receiver ($99) to the Internet to access Accelerated Reader quizzes and Math Facts in a Flash. There is a built-in classroom response system, standard, that works with their 2Know! Toolbar software.

The NEO2 can come loaded with Co:Writer by Don Johnston, a word prediction tool, as a package for $338. I was told that a fully loaded NEO2 with Co:Writer and the text to speech receiver kit is $399.

Standard, at no extra charge (no subscription services) is the spell checker, thesaurus, Beamer infrared sending of files between NEO's, a calculator, Keywords typing tutor and AlphaQuiz that is set up to send quizzes to the NEO from a teacher computer, allowing students to answer on the keyboard. The program then scores and reports with the manager program when the finished quizzes are sent back.

Final thoughts:

There is a lot to the NEO2 keyboard and extension tools. I like that the NEO's text to speech receiver can be swapped between keyboards without worrying about which one has the text to speech software on it. Since it is on all of them as a standard tool, when a student needs the text 2 speech support, they can get a receiver and headphones and get going. The receiver needs to face directly in front of the NEO and no more than 3 feet away.

My only negative on the receiver is that if I am wanting to use this for a student as a communication device with others, I have to plug a speaker into the headphone jack on the receiver to be heard. Now I have 2 external items to carry along - the receiver and the speakers. An internal speaker and headphone jack option would be a nice addition.

I hope this gives you some ideas on the speech capabilities. This looks like a great piece of equipment to support learning.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Beef up Your Text to Speech Tools with Confident Reader

2009-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Looking for a low-cost, high-powered text reader and accommodation tool?
I have been using the free demo version of Natural Reader for use in the classroom for some time to introduce teachers to what it can do. I love the floating miniboard toolbar that can work with most all my documents and web pages. Some of the teachers have purchased Natural Reader for use with their students and to convert text files to Mp3.
While visiting the site recently, I discovered they have a new product, Confident Reader, that is a spin-off of Natural Reader, but for accommodating Dyslexia, reading and writing. And you know what I really love? They didn't hike up the price because it was being adapted for educational use. The personal version is $69 and the professional version is $99.
The main difference between Natural Reader and Confident Reader is that CR includes a typing echo by letter, word or phrase so you can hear what you type, a 100 ebook library of classics, a word prediction engine and a spell checker. The Natural Reader personal version is $49.50, so you are paying about $20 more for CR.

You can view the Confident Reader demo here.
A 7 day/ 10 time trial is available here.

Confident Reader has 2 natural voices, reads MS Word, pdf, MS Outlook and the web. It converts text to Mp3 file, has the ebook library, typing echo, word prediction and spell check. The professional version includes some nifty sound editing (that you could do with the open source tool Audacity), but it is nice to have it all in one place. The pro version converts multiple text files, like chapters, as a batch and even allows you to use a graphic sound editor to clean up the tracks and add a background music track. With the insertion of xml tags feature , you can insert male and female voices in the reading , insert pauses and conversational tags to create a dramatic and professional sounding audio book.

If you are looking at how to spend stimulus bill funding for your school in the area of technology/assistive technology, this might be a great way to stretch your dollars to get the biggest bang. I am going to get one to demo with my schools on my laptop. I am using a scanner and the free Top OCR (an image to text converter) to get my hard-to-access text ready for those students who qualify under copyright law, and then looking at this Confident Reader as a dynamo of a player at a low cost. It will also be a great companion to the Access Apps collection of tools we are introducing in our districts. There have been some shortcomings for me to free readers either in voice quality or the lack of highlighted text as the reader reads. Confident Reader looks like it gives me both.
With services like Bookshare and tools like this and all the free open source apps, we have many exciting methods to help students accommodate their learning. I see so much potential. Crazy as it sounds - I almost wish summer weren't coming so we could continue to implement and get these things going!

All the best to you!
Lon

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Create a Switch-Adapted Spinner from Battery Fan

2009-04-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

When it comes to tightening budgets, what better way to stretch the dollars than with a battery operated fan converted into a spinner. The battery interruptor cost about $10 and the fan was about $5.

A speech pathologist came in yesterday with a cardboard cut-out flower and some communication/activity boards she had made for spring. She was having students use seeds and glue them on a flower and use colored cut-out petals for an activity. She asked if I had any ideas for a spinner that was switch-activated.

"Why don't we make one right now!" I said. (It took about 20 minutes because I had everything already)

Materials:

Battery operated necklace fan

battery interruptor (see links to get one or make one below)

self-adhesive velcro dots or strips (both the latch and hook)

scissors

Sharpie pen and pencil

cardboard or card stock paper

notching file or a small round file

How we did it:

I grabbed a necklace fan that was battery operated I had saved in the closet for just such an occasion and we notched the slide lid on the bottom for the battery interruptor/switch cord, put batteries in and the interruptor. When we plugged the switch in, the switch made it go (We had to slide the on/off switch to "on" first and leave it there). Here is a link to get interruptors ready to go for $10.95. You can make them yourself too with a solder gun, and some speaker wire and plugs from radio Shack. pdf instructions here

A battery interruptor

Next, I took the fan guard screen's top half off to access the blades inside. I used scissors and cut off the fan blades so we could use the top of the fan as a mount for the spinner arrow. I used velcro dots and stuck a dot on the fan head that spins and the corresponding dot on a spinner arrow I cut out, then stuck them together, pressed the switch and...we had a spinner!'

Now the fun part came:

I took her cardboard flower cut-out and traced it on card stock. I cut it out and cut the center hole out so the spinner and fan blade head would go up through the center of the cut-out. I put velcro underneath, on the bottom fan guard and also the cut-out so it would stay. Now we had a flower spinner, themed to go with her activity.

She can now use boardmaker or other graphics, colors, numbers, etc. to make the spinner fit any activity. Other shapes could be: a pumpkin, shamrock, bug, heart, snowflake, etc. to fit other activities, or just a cardboard circle with divided sections and velcro dots to fasten any symbols you choose on.

I bought the fan, O2Cool Necklace Fan; http://www.o2-cool.com/ at Target or Walmart last summer for around $5. I found an Amazon Marketplace seller that sells it for $6.99 plus shipping. I like this fan for several reasons:

O2Cool Necklace Fan

1. The top is flat and facing straight up to put up through a cutout. Most fans are on the side or angle, making it hard to adapt it for a spinner.

2. It has a nice flat base so it can be switch-adapted and stand up without help. I have seen ones that have been mounted up inside a yogurt or cottage cheese container to hold them. This one might need a round cardboard foot under it to help it stand up better, but mine is staying up on its own.

Here is a snapshot of mine taken with my cell phone afterwards...

Hope this inspires you to give it a try...

All the best to you!

Lon

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Assistive Technology & Transition Discussion On FCTD

2009-04-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was excited to see Gayl Boswer, AT pioneer, as the moderator and discussion leader for a discussion on AT and transition on The Family Center on Technology and Disability site now through May 8 (Started on April 13).
About the discussion:
"We hope you'll join us ... (and) explore the many facets of planning for assistive technology devices and services as children move through the important transitions in their lives. Whether you're a parent, teacher, therapist, or disability professional, we know you'll learn a lot from Gayl and the many knowledgeable discussion participants."
I have enjoyed reading some of the threads. There is always a lot of good information, and their past archives have wonderful content to review.
You don't have to set up an account or register to read or comment, but you do need to type in a name just to identify yourself online.
Take some time to visit for some great discussions.

All the best to you!
Lon

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Bookshare on No Limits 2 Learning Live

2009-04-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Getting to Know Bookshare Live! Wednesday, April 15 at 1 PM Pacific time.

Betsy Beaumon and Betsy Burgess of Bookshare will be on No Limits 2 Learning Live (Blog Talk Radio) to share about the Bookshare service, what it is, how it got started, what is new, and where they are going in the future.

You can listen in or call in and share comments or questions at 347 945-5431.

The archive will be available on the player in the sidebar after the show is over if you miss it.

Hope to have you listen in!

Lon

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A Cowboy Makes it Work with Assistive Technology

2009-04-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

I shook the knarled, arthritic hands yesterday on an Easter afternoon visit, of a veteran cowboy, Dean, who has ridden for 15 brands and taught himself how to rope in spite of his disability.
"I reached the goals I wanted to reach in roping," Dean said.
"And what were those goals?" I asked. He shared that he had joined the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association) and competed in the Elgin Stampede - a regional rodeo in the snow-capped mountains of East Oregon.
"There I was, left-handed, trying to rope right-handed with my hands the way they were. It was my first competition and I had been practicing hard. I had to take pain medicine to rope but I was determined to do it. I entered with a friend in team roping and when it was all done that day-we won!"
He shared his frustrations with having fingers swollen and curled into knots and his inability to grip: "I went on the Internet to try and find someone who could tell me how to button up my jeans. I couldn't push the button through the hole. I spent a whole afternoon "Dancin' around on the Internet" I found handicapped tips, things about wheelchairs, etc. but nothing to help me get my pants buttoned, so I invented something myself."
When asked if he could show me what he made, he left the room and came back with two tools he had adapted. A flat head screwdriver he had heated in his shop and bent into a flat hooked tip, and a long piece of blue heavy wire bent in a "U".
"I just stick the wire loop through the hole, snag the button and pull one direction and then hook the eye-hole with the screwdriver hook and pull the two together."
I shared how ingeniously simple this was and how proud I was of him to make it work on his own.
"I just figure I need to learn how to do things myself. It might take me longer, but I have a great shop and I have all kinds of things I have adapted to pound nails, open my truck door and on and on."
As I left yesterday, I thought about this man's determination to self-accommodate. How I would love to have him share tools and talk about the whole frame of mind that comes with being able to solve problems and be independent. He is an example of what I strive to see for all our students as they struggle to achieve. Whether it is a text reader, a spell checker or an adapted screwdriver - helping students learn how to "make it work" with AT is what my work is all about. This cowboy's tools are a perfect example of what assistive technology is all about - it's not just high-tech computer equipment. Anything that solves a problem and accommodates a disability to make something work is AT. My cowboy friend is an AT designer out of necessity - and a good one to boot!

All the best to you!

Lon

(Dean has given me permission to photograph his tools and inteview him for the No Limits 2 Learning Live show and the website - so look for a great interview and photos in an up-coming edition!)

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New Edition of AT Blog Carnival Up: "Sabotage!"

2009-04-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sabotage is the theme for the Assistive Technology Blog Carnival hosted by Patrick Black at:
http://teachingall.blogspot.com/2009/04/at-blog-carnival-sabotage_10.html

Patrick, Karen Janowski, myself, and several others have posts linked there. They range from making Rock Band accessible to early experiences with sabotage for learning in the classroom.
Some great reads and great ideas are found there this month.
Thanks Patrick and all those who submitted!

All the best to you!
Lon

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Create EBooks with Your Cell Phone Camera?

2009-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Click! Take a picture of that page with your nifty smartphone or digital camera and turn it into a MP3 sound file in 3 steps.

1. Open it on your computer with Top OCR, a free open source program in the Access Apps Suite, or you can download it separately from the TopSoft Ltd. Site.

2. Top OCR will convert your page into text with almost error-free recognition, then read it to you with text to speech.

3. You can convert and save as an Mp3. (You save to .wav first and then click the Mp3 for final conversion - so 4 steps really.)

Sound easy? Here is their short tutorial. Note: They have pdf examples of the finished text files when taking pictures of pages the wrong vs. right way. Interesting.

Here's what they say about using text files you already have:

"You can also use TopOCR to turn the eBooks you downloaded to your web browser from Project Gutenberg or from other web sites into audio files to play on your MP3 player. On the TopOCR Text Window, you'll see a "View" menu item, under that you'll see an item called "Image Window". Simply "de-select" this item, and it reduces TopOCR to only the Text Window. Now you can Copy/Paste from your web browser, or even from other Windows applications such as Adobe Acrobat to TopOCR's Text Window. When you finished pasting the text, simply use the Text To Speech dialog to convert your copied text to an audio file. If you already have a text file on your hard drive that you'd like to convert into audio, simply drag and drop the text file onto the TopOCR Text Window, or use the File Open Dialog to load your document, then use the Text To Speech Menu to generate your audio file. "

I have found it to work great using scanned text or downloaded text files. I have not used my phone camera yet. It highlights words as it reads and can choose from the voices you have on your computer for the sound file conversion and reading. This is a serious tool for something free and should be considered in any school print disability accommodation package of tools. With growing budget issues, a tool like TopOCR can really help.

Post-note Update 4/8/09:

The Access Apps version of TopOCR is older - it does not have the Mp3 encoder. If you download the latest version of TopOCR from the website, it has some updates that improve its sound recording. The newer version allows you to convert text to a sound recording using any available voice you select so that the sound file has that voice. The older version on my computer defaulted to Microsfot Sam as the voice for recordings no matter what other voice I chose.

I just deleted the old Top OCR files out of the Top OCR folder in Applications on the jump and replaced them with the newer files from the TopSoft Ltd. site. I downloaded right onto the jump. I found though that I ultimately had to use Audacity (in Access Apps as well) and convert the .WAV to an Mp3 from there. The Top OCR program wasn't finding an extension needed even though it was there. USing Audacity was a quick converter method - not that much more of a step really. Once you get the newer version out of the way, you will have a nicely working setup. I hope Top OCR can fix the Lame extension bug so the Mp3 encoding works better though. Also, Access Apps is working on a newer updated suite right now.

All the best to you!

Lon

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