Summary of Accessibility Features for iPad in iOS 6

Here is quick summary of the accessibility features for the new iOS 6 on the iPad for those of us who need a short simple summary to have as a reference. Go down the list with the iPad and play with each feature - if you have been putting this off, now is the time!

Accessibility Features on the iPad (iOS 6)
Under settings, scroll down near bottom and tap Accessibility. There are accommodations under Vision, Hearing, Learning, Physical & Motor, and triple click settings with Guided access, Voice-over, etc. Below are descriptions of the features within Accessibility.

VISION:

• Voice Over – allows you to touch areas of the screen and hear what is under your fingertips. Allows you to double-tap after hearing to open. 3 finger swipes move to different screens left, right, up and down. Experiment: Try turning on Voice Over and navigate around the iPad, iTunes, web, email, etc. with a blindfold or your eyes closed. Makes for an interesting experience! Under the Voice Over settings there is Typing Feedback which speaks each symbol on the keyboard when you tap it. It also speaks the words in your text you are typing when you tap the sentence.
• Zoom – Allows you to use a three-fingered tap and drag to access and use zoom feature. Note: If you use zoom feature and try to type with the keyboard you have to slide the keyboard around to see all the keys and you can’t see what you are typing while you type.
• Large Text – you can set the size of font for your notebook, email and some other features. It does not change the text size within apps like word processing apps, games, etc. It only interfaces with the basic apps that came with the iPad.
• Invert Colors – Inverts and brightens in certain colors to make it more visible to folks with vision-related issues.
• Speak Selection – adds a speak function to the copy/paste/select text/select all bar. There are settings within it for speed, dialect (get an Irish, British, Aussie woman’s voice). Has a highlight word feature as well.
• Speak Auto Text - Here suggested corrections related to the auto-text feature are spoken.

Hearing

• Mono Audio – turns off stereo channels

Learning

• Guided Access – a triple-click of the home button opens Guided Access where you can circle areas of the screen to lock out access. Sets with a password so students can get in and turn it off. Note: if you lose password, just hold home and sleep button together for 10 seconds and the iPad will turn off. You can then re-open the iPad and Guided Access and then re-set the password.

Physical and Motor

· Assistive Touch – record and set custom gestures that can be activated from Favorites that allow you to activate/use the iPad. Just for fun...The video above shows how to make a gesture to play Angry Birds which helps in getting down the feature and how it works.

· Home-click Speed – Set speed to default or slow or slowest

Triple Click
· set what the triple-click is used for i.e. Guided Access, Voice Over, Inverting colors, Zoom or assistive touch.

For a full description of the iPad Accessibilty features, go to the Apple Website:

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iPad Case with Duct Tape?

Out in the schools the other day, I visited one of my favorite students that has CP and is in a wheelchair. We were able to acquire an iPad for him last year through our regional United Cerebral Palsy Foundation of Oregon and Washington. The wheelchair mount and plate wasn't working well for him and so the team got a roll of black duct tape out and voila! ...a really cool adapted iPad case complete with a foam inner core slanted for his lap and a belt to go around his seat to hold it on.
Pictures are worth a thousand words...so get your roll of duct tape and imagination out and start building!

Sliding the iPad in:

The slanted foam core:

The cover without the iPad inside:

All the best...
Lon
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Cosmonaut Stylus Great for Little Hands Writing on iPads

My New Find...The Cosmonaut Stylus is fat, comfortable, smooth to write and draw with, feels like a fat crayon, or maybe a dry erase marker?

Check this out:



"Hey have you seen this?"  a colleague asked while holding up a large black rubber-looking crayon. It was a Cosmonaut Stylus. He handed it to me and had me try it with my iPad. Love at first contact...the stylus is easy to grip and the point makes it much better to write and draw with than the round spongy tips that come on the end of the thin pen/pencil stylus tools.
If you work with students or have a child that needs a wide writing tool - similar to the big crayons for small children to color with, try the Cosmonaut Capacitive Stylus by Studio Neat. I even loved the old fashioned cardboard sleeve/box it comes in that makes the stylus look like an old rocket complete with a story about the early NASA and Russian Astronauts designing writing instruments for space.
I got mine on Amazon for $22.

Watch a COOL video where MisterRogers takes on a "field trip" to watch the Cosmonaut being made:



All the best,
Lon


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Use AudioNote for Synchronized Recording and Note Taking on iPad

When students need support for lectures and notes, take a look at AudioNote ($4.99) and AudioNote Lite (free) for the iPad.

AudioNote allows notes to be handwritten in pen mode for drawings and notes, or typed with the keyboard.The lite version can record a lecture and track notes written during the session and sync them to the recording. Tap anywhere on your notes and go to playback and it will replay the lecture recording where you tapped.

The highlight feature re-traces letters in blue as the recording plays so you are reviewing and tracking at the same time. You can email your notes and wi-fi share with the upgraded pay version.

You can buy a Livescribe pen for as low as $99.99 to use with real paper, but you can use this lite app for free with your iPad and get many of the same options open to you - for free. Real pens and real paper are great to have for certain settings, but the tools are there for you with synchronized notes and playback on an iPad.

This tool can be a real support for students with traumatic brain injuries and students that need help with organizing and memory. Check it out.

Here is a video review of Audio Note:

All the best!

Lon

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

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

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

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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