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This ppwerpoint was created as part of a presentation to TechWeek '10 in Bermuda on 30 April 2010. It provides an overview of free, portable and web based assistive technologies to support people with disabilities
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Free Assistive Technologies Yes Free!
This Means Inclusion for Everyone!
Assistive technologiesAssistive technologiescan make a significant difference can make a significant difference to a much wider range of people.to a much wider range of people.
Especially free technologiesEspecially free technologies that can help many people.that can help many people.
• I cant read the information on the screen
• The information on the screen is too small to see.
• I can’t adjust the font and colour backgrounds to suit my
personal preferences.
• The words keep jumping around the screen.
• I find it difficult to navigate.
• I can’t click the mouse buttons.
• I can’t see the keys on the keyboard.
• I keep miss-hitting the keyboard keys.
Issues for people accessing computers
Assistive Technology Triangle
1. Initially regarded by many as being useful only for people with disabilities.
2. Recognition of their benefit to a wider audience in personalising what people access on their computers.
3. Increases productivity for everyone.
4. Growing range of free and more recently portable resources.
5. Increasing number of web based assistive technologies also.
Portable Assistive Technologies MyStudyBar
AccessApps *
AccessApps Open Office
Planning and Organising Tools
Reading and Writing Support
Visual Support
Accessible Browsers
Keyboard and Mouse Alternatives
Multimedia Resources
Presentation Tools
Learning Games
What’s on MyStudyBar? * Planning
• XMind mind map
Reading• T-Bar screen reader• ssOverlay – change colour of screen• Orato text reader
Writing• Lingoes talking dictionary• LetMeType and word prediction • Balabolka writing support/MP3
Vision• NVDA screen reading tutorial
Windows Speech Recognition• Windows Speech Recognition
Open Office What do People with Dyslexia Think?
With my budget computer at home, I found it difficult to do college work because I did not
have MS Word at home so I had to use word pad which I didn't like to use because it did not offer me the right
tools to complete work
Listen to Guy a Dyslexic Student at Coatbridge College, Lanarkshire Scotland talk about using
Open Office
Planning & Organisational Tools
Xmind and Freemind Mind Mapping tools
Mozilla Sunbird - Calendar
Hott Notes 4 – Sticky Notes
Visual Support
• Vu Bar – read text one line at a time• Sonar Mouse Ring• EnorMouse (works best with windows vista)
Visual SupportVirtual magnifying glass
Non Visual Desktop AccessNon Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Reads text on documents and web pages.
Enables blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows for no more cost than a sighted person.
This is an option for those who don’t need the full scope of a commercial screen reader or need a quick solution when away from home.
Listen to a users experience at:
http://tinyurl.com/narqg3
Watch the NVDA Tutorial
Other reviews of NVDA
Amis DAISY Reader
What is Daisy? Case studies
Susan uses DAISY to Access Open
University *
Visually-impaired learners benefit from audio and synchronised text on their mobile phones
Demonstration of how a DAISY player can be used to enable blind and visually impaired people access to their favourite books.
A DAISY Digital Talking Book combines eatures of the written text and audio recordings of the text together.
By combining and synchronising the text and audio in this way, you have the option of reading the text and listening to the recording independently or simultaneously. As the audio is played, the corresponding text is highlighted – providing a cognitive link between the spoken word and the text, and delivering text based materials in a totally accessible format.
Accessible Browsers• WebbIE A Text Based Browser • Use in collaboration with Thunder Screen Reader
WebbIE strips out all extra visual information and provides the person with purely the text from the webpage.
Helpful for anyone who finds webpages overly detailed or distracting
Find web pages with a few keystrokes.
Find out more.
DyslexiaScotopic sensitivity and visual difficulties experienced
by many learners with dyslexia
Issues for Dyslexic People?
Simultations of Different Disabilities
Reading and Writing SupportRapidSet TBar SS Overlay
Orato and Rapidset
Orato is a straight forward text to speech application. Simply highlight some text, press speak and Orato will read back words highlighting them as you.
RapidSet gives readers the chance to change the colour of font and background on any MS Office environment
Both helpful for people with poor vision, dyslexic people and those who need help reading text.
Dspeech text to speech and save as MP3
Listen to Janet Explaining How She Uses DSpeech
Dspeech will Dspeech will hook into the speech hook into the speech
engine on any engine on any windows PC you windows PC you
use use and will either will either read out text or read out text or convert to MP3convert to MP3
Watch the tutorial
Balabolka is also very good free Windows text-to-speech software.
It includes magnification (2X to 16X) and spell checking.
It is also keyboard accessible.
This software will create audio files from text–MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA to be saved and listened to on an iPod or other mobile device.
Audio Book Cutter
After you have created your text as MP3 (with Balabolka, Dspeech or RoboBraille) this tool will help split them to make them easier to listen to in
smaller chunks.
Lingoes
lingoes is an easy and intuitive dictionary and text translation software.
It offers lookup dictionaries, full text translation, capture word on screen, translate selected text and pronunciation of words in over 80 languages.
Power Talk• PowerTalk is a free
program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.
• The advantage over other generic 'Text To Speech' programs is that PowerTalk is able to speak text as it appears and can also speak hidden text attached to images.Find out more about Power Talk
Power Talk website
Click N Type and Mouse Tools may help people with mobility issues or RSI problems
Keyboard and Mouse AlternativesDasher *
Dasher is a communication system controlled by moving your mouse to the right of the screen.
Instead of using a keyboard, the user writes by continuous steering, zooming into a letters which then create words by predictive text.
Dasher can be driven by a regular mouse, by touch-screen, or by eye control.
Case Study: Paul• A student with Cerebral palsy, aged 23.
• Studying for a degree in Business Studies and IT.
• Uses a Head mouse which connected to his on-screen keyboard.
What does Paul think about Dasher?
His on-screen keyboard used to require a lot of tiring head movement...
But with Dasher he simply moves his head pointer across the Dasher screen to find the letters that make up the correct words.
This is then produced at the top of the Dasher screen
Paul also felt that there was no need to click or dwell…just ‘drive’ through to the next word.
This was far less exhausting for him and made it so much easier to create text independently.
What else does Paul think about Dasher…?
Paul estimates that Dasher is about 4 times quicker…
…even new users can achieve 25wpm very quickly.
What other features are there in Dasher?
• Word prediction which helps guess your words..
• Dasher can learn new text as you type and remembers typical words you use for next time.
• Text can be sent to other applications.
• Even via Bluetooth cell phones to text others.
Dasher adds text by moving the mouse to the right
. . . and talking of sending text to Word. . .
Paul completed his final thesis - all done with Dasher which helped him achieve an excellent degree in Business Studies and IT last summer !
All of these tools can be downloaded and run from a USB pen drive from:
www.eduapps.org
Web Based Assistive Technologies
JISC TechDis Toolbar
This free application can be installed on a website or downloaded onto an individual PC,
working seamlessly across all operating systems to provide significant benefits for everyone
using the internet, especially those with a disability.
This is an excellent resource for businesses, schools, colleges and any organisation wanting to ensure
that viewers can access the content of their website in an accessible way
Watch a webinar tutorial about the JISC TechDis Toolbar
http://tinyurl.com/jisctoolbar
Other web based text to speech converters
RoboBraillewww.robobraille.org/frontpage *Watch a video about RoboBraille
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cAVp0dnzoc
Other web based Assistive TechnologiesCleanPage
• Removes advertisements and other junk from a webpage, and extracts the main text based content:
• This main body text is then fit on the screen, spoken aloud, emailed, printed, imported for speed reading or editing, zoomed in and zoomed out
• All the features can be easily accessed by one click on the toolbar or through a keyboard shortcut
http://www.readonweb.com/
WebAnywhere Screen Reader• WebAnywhere is intended to enable a blind person to access the web from
any browser on any computer that has a sound card.
• At present it is freely available to anyone who wishes to use it.
• Listen to a podcast about WebAnywhere www-cdn.educause.edu/sites/default/files/2009/01/cni_bigham.MP3
• Watch a video on You Tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfjD06aOxts
Making Everyday Resources More AccessibleAccessibility Essentials Series
• Making your computer more accessible for you
• Producing MS Word documents that are more accessible
• Producing inclusive MS PowerPoint
• Making PDFs as accessible as possibleFollow this link to view an example
of guidelines from Accessibility Essentials
www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/sites/accessibilityessentials2
Thank You! Any Questions?Download this PowerPoint at:
http://tinyurl.com/26cy4v8
Alternative Formats
Recording Tools
Planning Tools
Communication Tools
Visualisation Tools
Writing Tools
TexthelpClaro readKursweil 3000PenfriendCoWriterAudio NotetakersDragon Naturally SpeakingZoomTextInspirationMindmanagerJAWSWindowEyes
Commercial Assistive Technologies
Reading Tools
Alternative Formats
... But for some people free technologies can offer similar support
Where can I get more information?
• www.techdis.ac.uk/getfreesoftware
• www.eduapps.org
• www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm
• http://tinyurl.com/abilitynet
• www.ace-centre.org.uk/
• www.oatsoft.orgAlternative Formats
Recording Tools
Planning Tools
Visualisation Tools
Writing Tools
Communication Tools
Reading Tools
Save as Daisy Add in for MS Word 2007Creates Accessible eBooks for Free!
How?
• Microsoft ‘Save as DAISY’ add in for Word.
• This lets you turn Word 2007 documents straight into DAISY/Digital Talking Books which can be read by Amis
• Simply choose "Save As" from the Word 2007 file menu.
http://tinyurl.com/3x25acx
Learn More at: