My Study Bar : Free!

EduApps consists of eight useful software collections all  free  to download and use.
The EduApps Family  software  supports teaching and learning.You can check out the range on their website

 
My favourite resource is My Study Bar. It can be saved on a memory stick or downloaded to a student's own home computer It gives a free reading tool. Its not designed for learners with severe disabilities but could be considered for Entry 2/3 learners, depending on their individual needs and abilities.

SymbolWorld relaunch.

The SymbolWorld website has been redeveloped

E live news a favourite feature of mine is  available again in a new format.

The website now include features which allow the user to
Change the size
Change the colours for high contracts
Change between scrolling and single screen views
Highlighted tabbing for switch users

Facebook for The Grid 2

Smartbox has announced the launch of

Facebook for The Grid 2 .

The grids are easy to understand and can be used straight away – all you need is a Facebook account.(and be a user of The Grid 2!)

Cause and Effect

Early Childhood games or Juegos Atención Temprana
has a good list of simple mouse skills/cause and effect games.

Teaching Learners with Multiple Needs has an updated list of Switch accessible games

QR codes A tool for accessibility?

There is a lot of information about QR codes and their use in education at the moment
Its something I’ve always been interested in. I would like QR codes to work as a tool for aiding access to information  for young people and adults with a learning disability.  
I saw a good idea for Entry 3 students studying work preparation skills at South Cheshire college

(from Teaching News)

However I’ve never yet been able to put it any of these great ideas into practice.
We don't have I pads,I phones or smart phones at college
Not many students have their own phones with the necessary software and the right contract that allows them to access the internet.
Iphone cameras are still not very good with QR codes

Incidentally if there is someone who can give me an idiots guide to the cost of accessing the web on your mobile device I’d be grateful!

So where do I start?
I thought if I can’t use phones I would try using a lap top and web cam.
I printed off some QR codes using a QR code creator:

snap.vu
 delivr

and then looked for a QR code reader for the PC.

I found 

  Flash Webcam 
Still at testing stage but works!You need a web cam and the ability to allow adobe flash You have to hold the qr code in front of the web cam. You then have to use the mouse to clik “Take a his is a Photo” - t which then takes a picture. The QR code is read and the web address /text/ phone number picture is displayed
  
 
BAR capture
When you find a QR code on the web that you want to explore you use the Barcapture crop tool. You manually drag the crop tool around the QR code and it takes a picture This then lists the text/link/phone/ geo tag but does not provide a click through . It must be copied No web cam needed.  


  QuickMark
You need a web cam. You have to hold the qr code in front of the web cam window(this will appear on your desk top .)
It takes a picture The picture appears as a link. You can then use the mouse to click on the link.
The downside for all three methods is that it still needs a learner to use a mouse to click through to a website . I would like to see  an automatic connection through to the web. 
In terms of ease of accessibility to web sites using picture link sites such as Sqworl , Tizmo or Symbaloo are still better at the moment.

The other problem is that the lap top is not that mobile, and its mine!-
To get the college laptop sorted needs a “computer person” to set it all up.
And all this takes time...

Off limits to online QR codes

In 2008 Big Tree blog featured some work they had done on using QR codes to improve access to the internet for people with a learning disability.You can see the video below:






Now Tom Barrett at edte.ch has shown how simple it is to use flash cards with QR codes and a web cam/lap top.

He has also produced some INTERESTING ways series which you can contribute to.

I'd like to give it a go . My only hurdle will be getting the software and web cam installed on a college network computer.
Also see my Blog entry on QR codes

Big Tree does Symbol surfing

This new project from the Rix centre on Symbol Surfing looks very interesting.The project will explore how people with a learning disability can access websites by using symbol cards which are read by a web cam. The Rix centre are offering the software free so that everyone can join in.
This short video
Symbol surfing demo from nick weldin on Vimeo is a good introduction
You can then head over to the download page to find out how you can join in.

Winter e-Quality bulletin out now

The latest edition of the JISC RSC Scotland e-quality bulletin is now available to download. The newsletter features a wide variety of articles on subjects from communicating with symbols to creating accessible PowerPoint slides.

Cameras and Flip Cams.

We have had some fun filming and taking pictures .
We have used a variety of improvised devices to secure cameras to wheel chairs.

But what I would like to do next is to make them switch enabled-something like the ones featured on RJ Cooper
or in Mat's Blog-

Assistive Technology Resource.

Global Assistive Technology Encyclopedia is a Wiki from AbilityNet (UK charity)

It has information on many assistive technology related resources .There is also a page that covers Learning Disability with some useful videos.

Source: RSC Newsfeed

Point -Symbols on demand.

The Eden project website site has a good example of Point a new product from Widgit.(read the explanation here)The product is is a new piece of augmentative software that website owners can use to assist learning disabled visitors to their website. When the visitor hovers their mouse over a word, a list of symbols that illustrate the possible meanings of the word appears. You can also view another example of Point in action at Ability Net.

Reward for Excellence in IT.

St Anne's Community Services
an organisation that works for adults with a learning disability has won a Guardian award : Rewarding Excellence in Public Sector IT
for their project ICT for people with learning disabilities .There are no details of their work but I'm sure there will be more to follow.
One of my favourite Education Technology sites gained the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED slot:
JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland North and East, for AccessApps.
AccessApps consists of a range of free applications which can be use from a USB flash drive.These programs will run without the need to install them onto a computer and offer a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as visual and mobility difficulties.They are not specifically for adults with a learning disability but I believe they are working on some specific applications for this group.

Making computers easier to use.

I've tried to make the computers easier to use for my students with a learning disability.

I have :

Increased cursor size into a big arrow
Reduced the speed the cursor moves across the screen.
Reduced speed of double click
Made highlighting easier i.e. one click then move mouse, rather than click ,hold down and drag.

Avoided repeated keyboard strokes sssss....

Increased the screen size so that icons are easier to see.

The BBC website Accessibility section has very good information for
Windows
Mac
Linux
on how to do all of these.

For a student guide to making computers easier to read visit :
Newham Easy Read website .
This link takes you directly to the Mothership How to page . Then look in the Hints and Tips section.
If you use a college network and you want to change the settings make sure you

ask for Roaming Profiles (you may have these already) so that the settings stay after the student logs off.

Teamwork Switches and the Internet

Jim Thomson is a lecturer in Music and IT in the Support for Learning section at Reid Kerr College.
Team Work Accessing the Internet shows a group of students with learning difficulties working as a team.They are using switch controls to access the Internet. You can read more about Jim's work in the summer bulletin of E learning Accessibility and Inclusion see my blog entry

Accessible News

I have been using Sqworl to explore the news with my students with learning difficulties M7-E1. It allows me to create a series of picture links to news stories. See my blog entry In the News.
The new accessible newsreader from the BBC should cut out some preparation time .




It provides one click access to news stories which are in text and are spoken . You can read a review about this on the one switch blog and look at their list of news resources In my quest to keep the students informed I have also been using newspapers. We have been learning to

• Identify the name of the newspaper
• Understand the meaning of newspaper related words: headline, newspaper, article, broadsheet, red top and local newspaper
• Develop skills that help us read the newspaper and find articles of interest.

We have done this by:

• Cutting out a headlines, the newspaper name and adding key words to an information sheet.
  
• Finding one picture that we like and explaining why.
• Finding the weather forecast .
  
• Turning the newspaper pages one at a time. Some tried The Guardian without leaning on the desk!

eLearning Accessibility & Inclusion

The summer edition of eLearning Accessibility & Inclusion is now available to download. It is full of interesting and helpful articles about using accessible technology for learning. I recommend the article by Jim Thomson a lecturer in Music and IT in the Support for Learning section at Reid Kerr College.He writes about how he uses technology with students who have complex needs.There are also articles on preparing documents to be read by a screen reader,making moodle easier to access, information on how to change text to an MP3 format,details of an Access Apps application for students with complex needs and much more.

Making Computers Easier To Use.

Making your teaching inclusive from The Open University site has a wealth of resources on accessibility and is a good place to start if you want to find out about equipment that could help your students use the computers independently.

The Assistive technologies section has information on:

Braille and tactile technologies
Calculators, time and measurement equipment
Communication devices
Electronic note takers 
Ergonomics
Keyboard and mouse options
Listening devices and loop systems
Magnification aids 
Reading technologies 
Recording devices 
Reference software: Dictionary and thesaurus 
Scanning and reading devices 
Writing aids   

The information is not specific to students with a learning disability but there is some useful information
for example:

Keyboard and Mouse options has a video on:

 selecting the right keyboard ( top of the page ) 

 mouse options (end of the page) 

The videos just show you the options with no explanation but the text has links that explain the equipment in further detail.        
for example: 

the word  trackballs takes you to a site http://www.emptech.info 

where more information about trackball products can be found.

Using mobile phones and QR codes

I recently had and email asking if I was interested in using QR codes to develop independent travel with our students with learning difficulties.It wasn't until I was watching CSI NY this weekend that I began to understand!

This Saturday's episode of CSI NY Dead Inside Episode 7 featured QR codes. Watch the video below for a very quick explanation:

I can see that they would enable access to the Internet quickly and without writing.

There is a You Tube video about how to set your phone to read QR codes

One downside is that using the Internet with your mobile phone is expensive.

The Rix centre -a learning disability innovation centre at the University of East London is looking at the use of QR codes to widen accessibility for people with a learning disability.There is a video featured on the Big Tree Talk blog about accessing the web using picture cards as QR codes.

A web camera is linked to software which turns everything in to black and white images.

This enables the QR codes which are on the back of picture cards

to link directly to a website.

I would like to see QR codes replace the over long, complicated user name and passwords which currently stop many of our students using college networks independently.

You Tube channel on Accessibiliy and Inclusion

rscnescotland has a You Tube Channel.

It currently has 22 short videos for example, using adapted keyboards, alternative mouse,alternative keyboard and braille readers.