Free Mouseless Browsing, Key and Super Search Shortcuts

One of the challenges I have is working with students that need a way to navigate a computer without a mouse. Because of orthopedic impairments, getting around with a mouse is difficult. For some of us, it doesn't matter whether we have an impairment or it's that we don't want to do extra - either way, we like to work with as little hand wandering as possible. And let's face it - it gets a little tiring reaching for that mouse all the time.

Well, I found a mouseless browsing add-on to Firefox by Rudolf Noe that imbeds a small number id to each link on the browser page. When I hold down Ctrl and type the number, the cursor goes there and the link either opens or the search window opens to type a word into it. It is pretty slick. One thing I found though was that when I navigated around the page with the id numbers, my page up and down wouldn't scroll the page anymore - I probably need to just work with it some more.

Key Shortcuts for Firefox.

If you want to get around more mouse-lessly beyond the id tags with the mouseless browsing add-in, you can use some nifty shortcuts, for example:

Ctrl + L highlights the location bar/URL address window

Ctrl + K highlights the search bar window

Okay, and get this one...once you have used the Ctrl+K to get to the search bar, keep holding down the Ctrl key and use the up and down arrows to scroll through different search engine sites. You will see Google, Yahoo, Answers, Ebay, Amazon, etc. Try it!

Ctrl + F takes you to the find window at the bottom where you can type in a word and find all its' instances on the page.

There are more great tricks on the Lifehacker post "Hack Attack: Mouse-less Firefox".

Super Search Shortcuts with YubNub

Go to YubNub - A (Social) command line for the web. You WILL be amazed...

You can type in commands to do all your searches. For example:

gim = google image. You type in gim (leave a space) and then whatever you want to see images of , like this: "gim football" takes me quickly to a page full of football images from Google Images.

Amazon = am; Wikipedia = wp; and so on. The list is on their home page. On top of that, you can create your own commands to be personalized searches you use frequently.

If you would rather work directly from Firefox instead of from the YubNub page, you can download a YubNub bar that goes into the add-in area as another choice on your search bar. the link is here. On this link there are directions how to put it in the MS Internet Explorer and Safari too.

Mouseless tasks can make life a little easier if you get in the habit of using them. Blind folks live with these types of tasks and shortcuts all the time when working with JAWS and navigating on the screen. Using them (and remembering them) makes me appreciate the effort that goes into using the computer for folks that are blind or visually impaired. If we sighted folks put out a little more effort we can get familiar with many shortcuts that will make life easier, and for those with orthopedic issues, allow working in a lot smaller workspace and save some of their fatigue.

All the best to you!

Lon

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How to Create Your Own Audio Books for Free or Low Cost

I was listening to an Mp3 I had downloaded recently from a national talk radio show that I enjoy. They had been interviewing an author and it was the time in the show when folks can call in and share opinions, ask questions, etc. A caller was put on the air and he said: "I am a blind person, and I love listening to your show. I would love to read your book but I have to have it in another format on tape or Braille. I get books from American Printing House and I wondered if I can get your book someway."
The author said he didn't have his books in an audio version but he would send anyone a book for free that was blind if they wanted to have someone read it on a tape recorder or something, but he didn't know anything about books for the blind and couldn't do Braille.
The caller had sounded like someone who didn't really know about the technology available to them. Neither did the host or the author. I was listening to the interview several days after the fact and wished I could have called in and given some tips. I guess because I work in AT, I assume most people who need access to tools already know about them and that I am not sharing anything new - but I need to stop assuming that. I am giving a presentation this afternoon to a group of folks in special education that don't know how to do this at all. Since I am not able to call in and answer the gentleman's question that called in, I'll share with you. I know I have shared this before, but for new readers, here it goes:

In order to do the things I suggest, you need the following:
1. A computer - that is a given!
2. A Scanner - the scanner can be a 4 in one printer/fax/photocopier/scanner, or a dedicated flatbed scanner. You can buy a new one for around $65 at the big general stores like Target, Wal-Mart, etc. Make sure it has OCR (Optical Character recognition).
3. A FREE text reader. I use Read Natural. The voices aren't that great if you use the free version but "Hey, free is free - it helps" The upgrade pay version has great voices AND an Mp3 converter tool - very cool.
4. An Mp3 player - This is optional. You can hear the text on a computer for free, but if you want something portable, you will want one of these. What I like is that these little jump-drive players use the USB port right into the computer, no cables or wires (except the headphones). You can then open the device on the computer screen and drag and drop in converted e-text files to listen to. I bought a little jump-drive RCA makes. I can drag and drop music or documents from my computer right onto the jump drive and then listen to them from the player - quick and easy. It cost $29.95 and has1 Gig Memory.
This is a lot better than using an iPod and iTunes and having to sync your device and build playlists etc. I have an iPod and I find I don't use it to listen to quick downloaded talk shows, articles, converted files, etc. because the iPod doesn't lend itself to on-the-fly syncing

If you have a book, but no audio version what do you do? In this instance, you can scan the pages using the scanner with OCR that will recognize the text and turn it into an RTF (Rich Text Format). It will open in a Windows, Mac or Linux operating system.
After you scan the text you can use your free downloaded Natural Reader to hear the text read to you. You have to open the mini toolbar that floats on the screen and then highlight the text and let it read - or you can open the reading window and paste the text in to be read.

Converting Text to Mp3
There are tools out there that can take your text and convert it to an Mp3 file. There is the Natural Reader upgrade I already mentioned above. Premier Literacy has an Mp3 conversion button on several of their readers and has a program called "Text to Audio" for $69.95 that will convert large amounts of text and create sections every 10 minutes or when you specify.
The Kurzweil 3000 has a text to Mp3 feature also but the program costs about $1200 - $1500.

A work around buying software to convert text to Mp3 is to start a blog just for this purpose - like I have with My Reading Chair and copy paste your text into a post. Add the Odiogo free player onto your blog and then be able to download your text as an Mp3 format onto your computer for free. Anyone can do this but one caution: If you are scanning copyrighted text, there is a fair use allowance for the owner of a book to adapt the text for their own private use. If you use a blog, you need to close it and delete the post as soon as you have your converted text to Mp3 files so you are not opening it up to the world-wide-web. That would definitely be a copyright violation! Also, if you are scanning a book and creating files of audio text you need to keep it for your own use and not give it to others. If a book is in public domain, you are fine to do what you want with it. Gutenberg.org is a great source for public domain works and many titles have audio versions ready to download for free.

I hope this has helped some of you get to accessing some books and listening - I know I am having a lot of fun with it and it helps me and my students.

All the best,
Lon



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Children's Rodeo Gives Special Needs Kids a Day With a Cowboy

The Cowboys Are Coming!
One of my favorite times of the year is here. Every year, the second week of September, the town of Pendleton, Oregon turns into a cowboy Mardi Gras where the Pendleton Round-up resides. Started in 1910, the rodeo is one of the oldest and largest in the world. Boasting a large purse of prize money, professional rodeo cowboy atheletes come to compete from all over the world.
It is in this setting, that the Round up Association and my employer, Umatilla Morrow Education Service District co-sponsor a special rodeo for special needs children. The pro cowboys volunteer to take a child through a circuit of activities out in the arena.
From roping to riding, these children get to rub elbows with real cowboys and spend some time making a cowboy dream come true.
You can read all about the Children's Rodeo on the UMESD Website.
The director, Karen Parker will be my guest on No Limits 2 Learning Live on Blog Talk Radio next Monday, September 8 at 10 am Pacific. The archive will be available on the sidebar of my blog afterwards. I will be interviewing cowboys, kids and parents during the event next week and putting a podcast together to share highlights in the next couple of weeks.

All the best to you!
Lon



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Finding the Right Assistive Technology

I slid the slider with my mouse and watched the numbers roll forwards to 70%, slid the slider the other way and went to 20%. What was I selecting? The degree of summarization being applied to convert text with the PDF Equalizer from Premier Literacy. when I decided on a percentage and allowed it to summarize, a new window opened with the summarization of the text. The text reader read the text to me and my first thought was, "Where have you been all my life? Where were you in my college days?!!"
I have heard some criticism of these tools because they cost money and some folks believe there should be free tools for support and accommodation for the impaired so they can access text just like anyone else - and it shouldn't cost them. The Premier Literacy Company has their grant program to give district licenses for their software suite. Any home computers of students can use a password from the district to get that current version for free too. I know that once a person is out of school, they lose that umbrella of benefit - but there are other avenues.
I for one, would LOVE to see accessibility tools for free and there are quite a few open source tools as well as free "trials" that don't expire, and also online tools for browsers, etc. But I do believe that we can either access the free basic tools and survive, or we can have some nicer tools if we choose to pay for them.
The folks that design many of these programs have to make a living too - and some of them are blind or visually impaired, and this is how they make their living. I feel good knowing I am contributing to their efforts to be independent and free to provide for themselves. So I guess it all depends on how you want to look at it. Both have their merit and neither is wrong.
I really don't want to make this blog a place to pitch products, but I do want to share on different tools I am testing and using, give feedback and allow readers to check out their options.
A few months ago I was working with the Microsoft tool that saves Word documents as DAISY files. With the help of the company, we were able to figure out the process of transferring a text from a Word document to a DAISY formatted talking book file. Now that was all free - except you had to have MS Word already to utilize it. (I need to work on a tutorial to explain that - I promised I would...)
This past week, I shared excitement with a high school teacher as he blew the dust off a flatbed scanner with OCR (Optical Character Recognition), scanned a worksheet, opened it up and had the Natural Reader toolbar read the scanned text to him. That was all free - except he had to have the scanner. They are as low as $60 - 70 these days.
So there are ways to get your text into an audible format - it is just that there are SO many ways that it gets overwhelming. Should I use Kurzweill 3000, Premier Literacy, free tools and my scanner? I guess it comes down to:
1. Who is the person using it?
2; Where are they going to use it?
3. What are they needing it to do?
4. What bundle of technology and software best serves the first three issues?
This is sometimes called the SETT approach: Student, Tools, Tasks & Tools.

We will be asking the above 4 questions with an elementary boy that we will be in a team setting for here soon. We will be, once again, nailing down what tools to access print and writing are options for this student. Every one of these kids are different and their needs are diverse so I need to customize my thinking one child at a time.
In the meantime I can go play a little with this stuff too. That's one of the reasons I love this job -and I still like that incredible summary tool!

All the best to you!
Lon



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A Closer Look at the Dynavox InterACCT System

Yesterday I had a great interview with Linnea McAfoose from Dynavox. She shared on the InterACCT system that is the foundation of the Series 5 software on their AAC devices. I made the comment on yesterday's blog that I thought they sold the software for laptops as a stand-alone item, but they don't. Through some comments and emails, I was alerted to my error - I stand corrected. I am so glad some of you took the time to inform me. It is nice to hear from folks and get your input on things. You can get a trial CD with the full version on a 180 day expiration through a Dynavox representative. I would suggest going to their website: http://www.dynavoxtech.com/ to find out who a representative in your area would be.

During the interview Linnea clearly shared her passion about communication development and language growth with students. I asked a couple of hard questions: "Why did you choose Dynavox?" "Being an expert, what is your conviction as to why you chose to work with the Dynavox system? What reasons do you have that support the Dynavox AAC over other devices?"
Linnea shared that the software on the devices has been developed in conjunction with researchers and groups that use devices and know what really needs to be there. She also said that the team that designed the new software had let themselves dream big as to what they would want if they could "have it all" in a high-end AAC device. They wanted to be able to make the system easily understandable and quickly accessible - not something that is always possible with technologies today.
The way that a beginner is taught to use an AAC device has just as much to do with the success of the device as the bells and whistles and elements in the system contained in the device.
Linnea stressed that we use age-appropriate content and situations to teach and use the device. There are over 2000 new vocabulary words added to a child's vocabulary each year at school and at home in the k through grade 12 years. This includes curriculum content and new trends, pop culture terms and other words that crop up in daily life as well. Trying to keep up with this is a challenge in using an AAC device, but the company is striving to work on developing a way to include this element through the InterACCT system.

The interview with Linnea is crammed full of good concepts on developing language with a device and I would recommend listening to the archive. You can access this segment on the No Limits 2 Learning live player on the sidebar of my blog or at the Blog Talk Radio Site for the show.

All the best to you!
Lon



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Options for Using a Latop for AAC

I get email questions from time to time. Folks ask a variety of questions concerning equipment, software and AT evaluations, advocacy, etc. I recently received a question that I felt might be good to share with everyone:

"What software can you purchase that would make the laptop function similarly to the Dynavox. So far, we're interested in Speaking Dynamically Pro. What do you think of this program and do you have any other suggestions?"

Great question! With the prices on dynamic display devices upwards to $7000, using a laptop can be an alternative. I have used laptops with Boardmaker Speaking Dynamically Pro, and it has a lot of potential. There is a lot of work that has to be put into building the communication sets/pages you want - but it can be done. A lot of thought and planning go into the software that comes loaded on devices and you can get ideas off of demo software and Internet sites to spark your own ideas with SDP. The program is about $649.
Dynavox sells its Series 5 software to load on a laptop. This gives you a chance to demo the whole system on the Dynavox devices on your laptop to get a feel for how it works. I got a free trial CD from our Oregon state representative from Dynavox. You might want to give the trial a try and see what you think. Also, if you do get the Boardmaker SDP, there is a CD called Velocity for about $399 that has sets ready to go - but you have to use the SDP with it and by the time you get the SDP @ $649 and the Velocity at $350 - you are in the $1000 range - maybe the Dynavox System 5 software is comporable.
Another thing to think about is that Dynavox has the Boardmaker Bridge that allows you to add sets you build with the SDP onto a Dynavox V Series. Since Mayer Johnson (which makes the Boardmaker products) and Dynavox are the same company now, there have been efforts to blend the devices with the software tools to provide a complete package. This effort has seemed to pay off. There are some great tools available through this company.

I have built speech device style branching topics with PowerPoint, although there is no way to access the choices other than a mouse. There is no scanning to make choices in PowerPoint. I am working on some basic communication pages with Powerpoint to provide in the future so check in for more on that as I get them put together. I have a video tutorial on how to assign sound and set up the basics of a communication board on the link above. You might want to check that out.
There really is no substitute for a dynamic display device, but if you are up to the challenge of building your own communication pages on a laptop to save money, it can be done.

All the best to you!
Lon




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Guest Shares Strategies for Develolping Language and Communication with AAC

Developing AAC supports for students with communication disabilities at an early age is becoming an important strategy for me in my region. We have several students at the high school level that are finally getting devices that are way overdue for them. If we can begin to support our students early on, in kindergarten and first grade, we can lay a foundation for them to grow and develop with their peers.
Linnea McAfoose, CCC-SLP, is an expert in developing strategies for language development and communication. In fact, she has been working on the Dynavox team as co-designer of the software series that is placed on the dynamic display devices. She has played an important role in the InterACCT system which is a part of the Series 5 software for the Dynavox V Series.
Linnea will be on No Limits 2 Learning Live tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3 at 10:00 a.m.
You can call in and ask a question on the live stream or access the archive after. I am looking forward to hearing her share about the system and how it moves from supporting beginning communicators all the way through advanced communication. The system grows with the user and has many adaptable features.
Join our visit and hear strategies for developing language and communication with the students and dependents in your care.

All the best to you!
Lon



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