“Into the hands of learners”

Richard OrmeInnovation Director

@ Dolphin

Matthew HorspoolVI Resources Technician

@ Exhall Grange Specialist School

Session Overview

“This workshop will feature some of the latest tools that provide a range of access options for learners, and make common tasks easier for teachers and technicians. Featuring technologies from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dolphin and Duxbury, this session is nevertheless down to earth and practical. Join us to help create a variety of accessible hard copy and electronic resources from some typical school materials.”

Objective: to provide learners with resources that they can learn with effectively, using practical and efficient methods for everyone.

What is in the handout?

• Details of approaches, links to resources, software and apps

• But make sure you check out the groovy video of Matthew!

Where do resources come from?

• Print books• Other printed materials• Created by staff• From the Internet

Whatever the source, the key is to get them into a flexible, structured, digital form...

Getting to digital

• For books:Check Load2Learn, SeeingEar, Bookshare, VI forumApproach the publisher (Load2Learn helps with this)

• Failing that, there is always scanning…

Options for scanning

Use a:• scanner e.g. Canon LiDE (cheap, holds the book flat)• document camera e.g. Hovercam (some books hard to fit onto

scanner, quick)• Smartphone- apps available for Apple iOS and Android• For Apple recommended apps are Prizmo @ £8 or KNFB Reader @

£80 (best for non-visual use)• Also, some good options for Android (but I don’t know what they are,

sorry)

Converting resources

On PC, Dolphin EasyConverter can be used with scanner or document cameraIncludes Omnipage OCR technology to scan or convert from pdfHere’s a video of Matthew and how he uses EasyConverterEasyConverter can convert also pdf files to WordYou can tidy up the Word files, add more structure such as headings.Then you can produce large print, braille, DAISY, MP3 files to suit the needs of your learners.Duxbury is a dedicated braille translator for the confident transcriber, EasyConverter is more of a Swiss army knife.

But…

• The approaches in this workshop apply mostly to text based materials• There are still significant challenges with graphical and technical

content• Signs of progress in relation to maths, but we’re not there yet

• But on with the show…

Options for reading digital files on a PC• Word – for Word files and text (say, from Load2Learn)• EasyReader – DAISY files, great navigation, highlighting, bookmarks,

braille support etc.• FS Reader- comes with JAWS• AMIS – getting long in the tooth now, some reliability issues on later

Windows

Options for reading digital files on iPad/iPhone• VoiceDream Reader, reading app with great voices, or use with

VoiceOver• Kindle app works with VoiceOver, and you can email files to it.• Read2Go app works with Bookshare, simple to use

Options for reading digital files on an AndroidRather more limited than iOS• Darwin reader accessible DAISY player• GoRead player for DAISY books (free)But Android has the advantage of the wonderful Ivona voices, available for free.

Options for reading digital files on an eReaderNo speech, but a good option for a large print user.Long battery life, robust, relatively cheap.Such as the Kindle (remember you can email your files to the device)The Paperwhite model gives the best display of this type of reader.

Options for reading digital files on a notetakerNotetakers such as the BrailleNote also read Word and DAISY files

Converting pdfs

This came up several times, so as a recap:You can try online conversion such as ZamzarOr use a scanning tool such as Omnipage, Abby or EasyConverterIf you have SuperNova version 14 (Reader Magnifier, Access Suite or Screen Reader) use Bookshelf / Open file to convert then read in Word or the built in reader.

Summary

For the greatest flexibility, get the materials in a structured, accessible digital file- there are several sources nowGet the source file, or use scanning on PC or smartphoneAdd structure to improve usability and accessibilityConvert the file to a format such as DAISY for the best reading experience on PC, tablet, smartphone or braille notetakerPdf files remain a real headache, often OCR is the only way to extract the text and images, but usually editing is required