ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

While I was at ISTE 2011 I had a chance to visit with Livescribe and find out all of the latest developments that are happening with the Livescribe technology. For the past couple of years many of us who have been using the Livescribe pens have come with some interesting ways to...

Last week Google added voice search to it search page. This new feature allows Chrome users to speak rather than type their searches. Previously this feature was only available for Google search but recently Google added the service to  other text fields...

A new Feature in Mac OS X Lion will allow users to select text and convert it into an audio file. This feature will work with any text that can be highlighted. In order to convert text into an audio file right click on the selected text and click on add to iTunes as a spoken...

Caliber is a free eBook conversion software that can convert Bookshare books into ePub format. ePub is the format used by most eReader. There are other methods of converting Bookshare books such as Don Johnston's Daisy to ePub software. (Click Here for article about Daisy to ePub)  Caliber is a free program for Mac and PC. Caliber can input...

Typing on the iPad's touch screen can be difficult and slow compared to a physical keyboard. While typing on the iPad you must look at the screen because you can not feel the keys. For people that can not see the screen typing on the iPad is slow. There are a couple of tools...

Don Johnston, maker of Read:OutLoud and other software, has made Daisy to ePub converter software. The Daisy to ePub software works with Macs and PCs. The software converts accessible books such as NIMAS, DASIY and Bookshare to ePub format which can be read on popular eReaders....

It is hard to believe that ISTE 2011 is around the corner! I will be heading out tomorrow to ISTE 2011 for three days of nothing but educational technology. What a joy! ISTE 2011 is one of my favorite educational technology conferences and gives me a chance to spot trends and connect...

        CONTACT:                                                               ...

When I think about the PersonalBrain I always think of it as an ideal tool for helping me to see relationships among the data points that I have added to the brain. The PersonalBrain is an ideal tool for storing all kinds of related information that you want to...

Learn MoreGinger is an automatic spelling and grammar tool that corrects mistakes at the touch of a button. Ginger also has other features that Microsoft Word spell check does not. People who have dyslexia, are learning English or need documents with correct spelling and grammar can benefit from Ginger. Ginger corrects mistakes that spell check...

The maker of Kurzweil is holding a set of free webinars this summer. The webinars will inform users about features Kurzweil version 12. Learning about features of Kurzweil can be very helpful to users who don't know about all of the things Kurzweil can do. The webinars will...

WikiSummerizer is a site that takes the key points of a Wikipedia article and summarizes them into bullet points. WikiSummarizer is great for long Wikipedia articles or getting the key points about a topic. The site uses an automated summary program that does a good job of taking...

The giant movie streaming company Netflix recently added closed captioning to its iOS Apps. The feature puts the spoken words of a movie into text that is displayed on the screen. This feature is great for people that are deaf or have poor hearing. To access closed captioning...

I tried out Google Voice Search and it works great. It is very accurate and works quickly. This feature is great for when you want to search for a word that you can not spell. To use voice search click on the microphone on the right side of the search bar. The feature is only available for Chrome use...

Bookshare.org is holding a summer reading program. To enter the program click here. The program is open to all Bookshare members and runs through August 19th. Everyone that is participating in the program is entered into a contest to win an iPad 2. There will be other prizes...

For people who are blind, have low vision, or other print disablities knowing what you are buying is a challenge. Food labels have small print but the information is very important. If a person is allergic to an ingredient, knowing the ingredients of the food is critically...

I have had the Intel Reader for about a week now and it is helping me a lot. I used it to study and read the newspaper. The Intel Reader is very easy to use and has  very large buttons. The software is very simple and there is the option to read the Intel's menu items aloud...

Over the last couple of weeks I have been exploring different ways I can use the HoverCam T3 in the work that I do. Just this past week, I had the opportunity to teach my graduate students all about the iPad and the various apps that are out there to support students learning and...

In Microsoft Word 2007 there is a feature that allows you to automatically summarize a document. This feature is very good for reading long articles quickly. To access this feature click on the customize quick start menu arrow at the top left of the screen. Then select more commands from the drop down menu. Next search for the Auto-Summary tool...

Watch this quick video about tips and trick for Kurzweil 3000. This video focuses on tools for completing worksheets in Kurzweil. Keep your eyes open for more tips and tricks regarding Kurzweil and other assistive technolo...

Today I had the opportunity to work with a teacher and show her how she could use PaperShow for Teachers in the classroom. As luck would have it, all of her students were going to be taking the NJ Drivers Written Exam and she needed to review the material with them. Rather than do...

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) uses a camera or scanner to recognize printed text. Both Kurzweil and the Intel Reader use OCR in order to read documents. Using an Android phone or an iPhone you can take a picture of text and have an app recognize it....

Watch this 52 minute video to learn all about Kurzweil 3000, or read the summary below:Kurzweil 3000 is writing and reading software that has many great features. Kurzweil is available for both Mac and PC, but the PC version has more features then the Mac version.  Kurzweil...

Yesterday, Google announced voice search for desktop. The same feature has been available on Android for a long time. Within the next week a microphone button will appear on the right side of the search bar. To activate voice search click on the microphone and speak your query....

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic changed its name to Learning Ally recently. Learning Ally still provides audio books for many titles. Learning Ally is also going to increase its advocating efforts for people who need print material in alternative formats. They will...

It was really exciting to learn today that my book that I coauthored several years ago-Emotionally Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, Socially Skilled Child [Kindle Edition], Elias, Tobias & Friedlander  is available in a Kindle Edition and is ready to be downloaded. You will find the book easy to read with...

I just received the Intel Reader that I won from the Care Innovations Facebook contest. Click here for more information about the Care Innovations Facebook giveaway. Watch the video to see an unboxing of the Intel Reader and some additional information. The reader is very small and light but has extremely fast text recognition. It is powered by an...

If you follow the mind mapping arena you will probably have noticed the blogs and videos that SmartDraw has created about the benefits of visual communication. The videos are done very well and really speak to the heart of the issue- with the right visuals we can all be more efficient...

Apple recently released an update to their iBooks app. The new version has a new feature called read aloud. At the moment the feature is only compatible with select children's books. In a compatible book there is a speaker in the top right corner. When the speaker...

This is a very interesting video on the Don Johnston website. It is about how people have rejected  assistive technology for many years. It is very interesting and unfortunate that some people still resist using or allowing students to benefit from the technology...

The Inkling app is a full featured textbook reader for iPad. The textbooks are compatible whit iOS's VoiceOver so they can be read aloud. Inkling has a great interface with intuitive navigation. The textbooks include images. The textbooks are costly but individual chapters are sold...

For many blind and low vision people recognizing what bill you have in your hand is impossible because all US bills are physically identical. With out any assistive technology the only way to keep track of what bill you have is to ask a sighted person and fold all bills differently....

The accessible book download site Bookshare reached 100,000 downloadable books last week. In a blog post on Bookshare.org the organization announced reaching the 100,000 book milestone. If you are unfamiliar with Bookshare check out my blog post to learn about what Bookshare is an...

Kurzweil Virtual Printer is a great tool to help read unsupported documents in Kurzweil. It works with any program that you can print from. Hope this tip hel...

Speak-it is a app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It comes with a couple voices that are of decent quality and has the option to buy more for $0.99 each. Speech-It's best future is that it highlight the word that is being read aloud. To have a passage of text read aloud cut and...