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

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

Bookmark this on Delicious

The Alphasmart Neo with Write-Outloud To Go

I have 3 students currently using this combination. These are lower cost items that provide speech generation for students that can type. By using the files to save conversation topics, students can open and access a topic and use the stylus to select and "play" the text.
The Neo and Write Outloud To Go package runs about $700 for everything and can be a big price difference for accomodating communication for some kids rather than a $7,000 high-end dynamic display device.

We have had to look at students individually, trial the equipment and make sure it made sense for them. Some students may not be capable of managing the reading and writing prerequisites needed to get full-advantage of the unit. They might need a picture-based unit like a Tech Talk or Go Talk.

In order to have the Write Outloud To Go have speech output you have to attach a speaker to it with the headphone mini-jack. The software was designed to allow student writers to have text to speech support while working with headphones on. I have adapted it as a communication device by attaching a pair of Sony speakers you would use with a portable CD player or ipod. They don't need batteries and fit together. There is another little mini-jack speaker that is for an ipod, takes batteries and is very possible as a sound source. Both are pictured below.

The white set is from: http://www.handhelditems.com/ Look for ipod speaker items.

Check out the Alphasmart Neo with the Write Outloud To Go bundle on the Don Johnston site at: http://www.donjohnston.com/products/portables/wol_to_go/index.html

Check out the Afford-a-Speech also as another alternative at:http://www.affordaspeech.com/SS200.htm

Don Johnston's website has a free download checklist of items to learn in initial training to use the Write -Outloud To Go HERE. It opens with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Here are the speakers I use. There are some portability issues though.

These below might be better. I don't know how loud they are.

All the best to you!

Lon