Links for K-12 Teachers | Assessment Assistance | On-Line Practice Modules | Daily Dose of the Web Links verified 4-21-08

Assistive Technology | Autism | Gifted | LD/ADHD | Special Education || Exceptional Children index

Assistive Technology

L.A.T. Kids - " LifeShare Assistive Technology Project, The LifeShare Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi. Its mission is to better the lives of children with disabilities through the use of technology. L•A•T Kids offers for download all of the software and resources it develops, free of charge, and in Mississippi currently offers one-on-one consulting with children, parents, teachers and therapists, also free of charge"

1. Access Technology - On this web site you will find dynamic, user-friendly universal access tools for teachers to support diverse learners
2. Accessibility Technologies in Mac OS X - a wide variety of features and technologies specifically designed to provide accessibility to users with disabilities
3. Adobe Acrobat Converter - Adobe offers an online conversion tools for Adobe PDF documents. If you are using Screen reading technology, pdf documents may not be read. Copy the URL, go to this Adobe site, paste the URL, answer some questions about why you are not using the pdf format (tell them about the screen reader) and ask Adobe to convert the document to a web page.
4. ASL Browser - excellent resource for looking up ASL signs
5. Assisstive Software - Free downloads of various software to help individuals with special needs.
6. Assistive Technology Journal - Published twice a month by the AT Network and California Assistive Technology Systems
7. Assistive Technology and Augmentative Communication - (some tips from Linda J. Burkhart) Don’t miss the instructions for how to build a mouse house.
8. Assistive Technology News Portal - free news, articles, and product reviews of assistive technology devices.
9. Assistive Technology Solutions - Free design plans for do-it-yourself devices to assist persons with disabilities
10. Assistive Technology Training Online Project (ATTO) - provides information on AT applications that help students with disabilities learn in elementary classrooms.
11. Audio Books and Podcasts
    1. Accessible Podcatcher - a simple way for blind and screen reader users to use podcasts
    2. Audio Books - BooksAloud - Sign up for this free service to receive books in the mail.
    3. Audio Books - National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
    4. Audio Books - Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic®
    5. Classical Audio Books - many classical books in mp3 and Itunes format. - can listen online without downloading
    6. Kiddie Records Weekly - Children's records spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties of all-time classics. Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers; these are records changed into audio files; can hear static of LP records but story selections are wonderful!
    7. Learn Out Loud - a directory that features free audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and many other great free audio and video resource
    8. LibriVox - free audiobooks from the public domain to download
    9. Robert Munsch's Books - read by Robert Munsch
    10. Storynory - Free Audio Stories For Kids online; no need to download
    11. Voices in the Dark - Audio books and stories read aloud by real people for free! must download
12. Audio Games
    1. Audio Games - many free online games using sounds to play for students without sight.
    2. Hark the Sound: A Sound Game for Kids - simple sound game intended for young kids who are visually impaired or blind; easy to use and Fun!
    3. Sign Language Alphabet game - Fruit and Vegetable Alphabet - 3 versions of the game- a bilingual sign language only game, a listening/auditory game and a combination game where children can click on the listen button after viewing the sign language video.
13. Braille
    1. Braille alphabet card - print out the card
    2. Braille - See your name in braille
    3. Braille riddles - riddles in braille with the braille alphabet included.
    4. Braille jumbles - unscramble these words written in braille.
14. Chess - Play UA-Chess - can be concurrently played by people with different abilities and preferences, including people with disabilities (e.g., low-vision, blind and hand-motor impaired).
15. CLC STAR - allows users to easily setup preferences for how they want pages presented to them in Firefox
16. Crick Software Learning Grids - This site contains FREE high-quality resources for Clicker, ClozePro, and Wordbar.
17. Deafblind Online - "This website provides free software for people who are deafblind or have learning disabilities. This software can be used to enable them to learn, explore their surroundings and become more independent"
18. Described and Captioned Media Program - You must register but it is free. The Described and Captioned Media provides services to benefit students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. Available to schools and families are a free-loan library of described and captioned educational media and information related to accessible media. U.S. Department of Education-funded.
19. Hey, Can I Try That? - A student handbook for choosing and using Assistive Technology
20. Keyboard and Mouse Resources
    1. Click N Types - virtual keyboard; As long as the physically challenged person can control a mouse, trackball, touch screen or other pointing device, this software keyboard sends keystrokes to virtually any Windows application
    2. Mouse keys - for people which have difficulties to move a real mouse
    3. On-screen Keyboard - On-Screen Keyboard is an accessibility utility that displays a virtual keyboard on the computer screen that allows people with mobility impairments to type data by using a pointing device or joystick
    4. Point-N-Click - a FREE stand-alone on-screen virtual mouse designed for anyone with a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to click a physical computer mouse.
21. Microsoft Accessibility - Web site with Product Information -how to make the computer easier to see, hear, and use.
22. Microsoft Accessibility Tutorials - step by step tutorials introduce you to some of the most commonly used accessibility features
23. Microsoft Guides by Impairment - Each guide provides a list of assistive technology products and links to Step by Step Tutorials for accessibility features that are helpful for specific types of difficulties and impairments.
24. One Stop for Free Assistive Technology - Steve Jacobs has put together a long list of free open source applications.
25. Open Source Assistive Technology Software - oatsoft.org
26. Picture Communication Tools
    1. PECS - Picture Exchange Communication System - Site is in Spanish, but pictures are labeled in English.
    2. Pictograms - downloadable and catagorized
    3. Picture Cards - Communication tools
    4. SymbolWorld - website created by Widgit Software, dedicated to people who use symbols; stories, life skills, learning; also a monthly magazine for symbol readers.
    5. Visual Supports - Creating Picture Exchange Symbols
27. Resource Guide for Teachers and Administrators about Assistive Technology - PDF format
28. Screen and Print Magnifiers
    1. Another Lens - displays a magnified view of the area of the mouse cursor
    2. EasyRead - software to download for Internet Explorer allowing you to view webpages at the size you want
    3. EZMagnifier - a small utility to magnify a portion of the screen
    4. iZoom - "Magnify your screen anywhere from 1.5 to 16 times while having it read out to you, all ready with color/cursor enhancements and image smoothing. Additionally, iZoom is the only free professional grade magnifier that works across Remote Desktop Software such as Terminal Services/VNC."
    5. Large Print - Just copy and paste any text into the box on this web page and it will enlarge the size for easy reading!
    6. Screen Magnifiers - Software downloads to magnify the screen- some free and some for a fee. Windows based
29. Sign Language Alphabet game - Fruit and Vegetable Alphabet - 3 versions of the game- a bilingual sign language only game, a listening/auditory game and a combination game where children can click on the listen button after viewing the sign language video.
30. Switch Resources
    1. Accessible Computer Games - Single Switch games for kids
    2. Switch in Time - Free software for Mac machines - uses switches for input devices
    3. Switch Software Downloads - Games for switches.
31. Teaching Strategies - 9 Types of adaptations
32. Technology Guide to Assist Students with Visual Impairments in Meeting Curriculum Goal - This guide provides a sequential framework addressing a range of technology options to meet the general learning expectations from Kindergarten to Grade 12
33. Text-to- Speech Resources
    1. Browsealoud - A free download. Works only on sites that have purchased web site speech enabled by browsealoud. Free for the user end. A directory of sites that are Browsealoud enabled are listed for the user. This is a Windows application.
    2. CLiCk, Speak - must be downloaded and installed; "Reading with a simple interface - CLiCk, Speak is designed to be as easy to use for sighted users as possible. The interface is completely mouse driven; there's no need to remember any key combinations. Reading through a page is as simple as placing the cursor and hitting the GO button; reading a selection is as easy as highlighting the text and hitting the SPEAK button".
    3. Hands free Browser - A speech recognition tool for MS Internet Explorer 5.x. HFB allows user to control IE fully by voice. User can go to an address, click a link, type forms and control IE window without using the mouse or the keyboard
    4. HelpRead - a free text reader program. Tutorials - lessons to support the HELP Read™ user to get their personal highest out of using the software.
    5. Making Windows XP Talk -Windows XP has the ability to read out loud certain types of text on screen, directions on configuring your computer.
    6. Natural Reader - Text to Speech free software. Download the Free version.
    7. PressDisplay - listen to your favorite newspapers where ever and whenever you decide. Registration required but free.
    8. ReadPlease - Reads any text you can copy and paste into the reader- all purpose text-to-speech software. Download the 2003 version (it’s free), not the Plus version for which there is a charge. After downloading this application, go back to download two Spanish voices.
    9. Screen Reader - Free Download - Click on the link in blue that says free download. from TextHelp
    10. Simply Web 2000 - speech friendly, speech enabled accessible web browser with advance features that allow easy navigation of complex pages by blind users
        
    11. SpeakOn - a free program that runs on your PC and is a speech enabled environment containing applications for listening to various media; developed for people who are comfortable using computers."
    12. Speech - YSpeak - only for Macs; a free computer program for speech- and motor-disabled users.
    13. WordTalk - works only for PCs - reads text in MS Word applications. Free software to download and configure into your MS Word program.
    14. Thunder ScreenReader - free screenreader talking software for blind and visually impaired people
    15. Ultra Hal Text-to-Speech Reader application - "will read your documents out loud; a great tool for proof reading because hearing your text out loud helps you spot all mistakes. This program can also be used for reading e-books"
34. Using Assistive Technologies
    1. Input Devices or Methods
    2. Output Devices or Methods
35. Web Tools - Free videos to show solutions on making the web more accessible for people with vision, hearing or other disabilities
36. Widgit Resources - resources using symbols; select the ones that are free; resources to be used by CIP Communicate: In Print 2, Boardmaker files, WWS Writing with Symbols 2000 v2.6 and PDF format
37. Workshop Solutions - a place in space where engineers, technicians, inventors and workshop enthusiasts can display and share knowledge on the assistive devices they have built to better the lives of the disabled.

Assistive Technology | Autism | Gifted | LD/ADHD | Special Education || Exceptional Children index

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