ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

I'm on the road today and stopped into a Panera's to have some coffee and use their free wifi on my recently purchased Acer Aspire One. Many of the schools and students that I am working with have been asking me about these netbooks and I thought that it was time to invest in one so that I could try it out and use it with some of the students that I'm presently working with. When I saw the Acer Aspire One on sale at Staples for $299 dollars I knew it was time to jump in. The 2.2 pound Acer Aspire One has worked famously and while the keyboard is a little smaller than the typical laptop keyboard it is fine for some light typing. In fact I'm blogging from my Acer Aspire One right now without any difficulty. I typically have the screen zoomed in so that it is easier for me to see te text. By putting two fingers on the trackpad and gesturing towards the side of the computer you can easily zoom in which makes it a lot easier for me to see the text. For younger students with smaller hands and better eyesight the screen and keyboard should not be an obstacle.

I have installed some of my favorite applications on the Acer Aspire One, which has a a 160 Gb hard disk drive running the Intel Atom processor with 1 GB of RAM. The Acer Aspire One runs surprising well and is very responsive even running larger applications like Microsoft Office 2007 and MindManager 8. Having used the Acer Aspire One for the past couple of weeks I has lead me to believe that this could be an ideal assistive technology tool for students with writing disabilities. I have used the Acer Aspire One with a couple of students who have used Inspriation 8 in the writing process and it worked like a charm complete with text to speech. Transferring the student's work to Microsoft Word from Inspiration was very fast. I was also able to install NaturalReader the free text to speech application which worked well right within Microsoft Word. All told I have been really happy with the Acer Aspire One and look forward to seeing how other will benefit from this technology. At just 2.2 pounds and a battery life of around 2.5 hours this could be a great assistive technology tool.

XMind v3.0.2 Released

Thank you for your long time support. XMind, a leader in mind mapping, visual thinking and collaboration software, today announced XMind 3.0.2, the most feature rich, easy to use visual thinking tool to date.

This version designs some new useful features, such as "Security" to let users set the password for XMind files, instead of worrying about losing data.

For the corporate environment, XMind v3.0.2 includes some new templates, such as Meeting Template letting your meeting efficient, Personal Management Template letting you manage your life and work clearly, Project Management Template letting you work easily.

Please visit the download page and select the proper package for your computer:
XMind 3: http://www.xmind.net/downloads
XMind Pro 3: http://www.xmind.net/pro/downloads

It has been a very busy two weeks for me doing a number of Web 2.0 workshops and consulting to some of the schools that I regularly work with. The more I show Google Docs the more it resonates with teachers- giving them new ways to work with their students. In my workshops I have been showing off the capabilities of the various Google applications and while the teachers have been impressed with the word processing and presentation tool-many of them have just begun to think about how to use Google Forms with their students. Google Forms allows teachers to set up surveys and publish then on the web which can be completed by students. Once students enter their responses Google Forms will aggregate the data and provide you with both the individual student responses as well as a summary of their responses. In a nutshell that is how Google Forms works.

While I was sitting and working with a special education teacher last week in dawned on me that Google Forms could be a great tool to create an accessible test when paired with a text to speech tool. So what better way to test out my idea but give it a try and so I did. My colleague and I opened up a new form and we created a 3 question test and then published it to the web using Google Forms. Once we were given the URL for the form we opened Cast eReader which is what the schools uses and pasted the Google Forms URL into the browser window. Within seconds the form opened within Cast eReader and all of the questions on the test could be read by the program.

Here is an example of a simple current events quiz that can be created with Google Form. After you have completed the quiz click here to see the results added to the Google Spreadsheet.


When you have completed creating your test you can get the published URL and give that to your students so that they can access the test on the web. Using Kurzweil 3000, WYNN, Cast eReader, TextHelp, ReadOutloud, or NaturalReader you can give the students access to text to speech, making the test totally accessible to them. If you want to try taking the test with one of the aforementioned text to speech applications here is a link to the test on the web. Once your student's complete the quiz you can see their individual responses as well as the aggregated summary on the Google Spreadsheet. Give it a try and let me know how this solution works for your students.

I want to thank LaCie for sending me a iamaKey USB Flash drive to test. Looking at the design of the iamaKey USB Flash drive you feel like saying to yourself "How come I didn't think of this?" With so many different USB flash drives to choose from today in the marketplace, Lacie has created an inspiring design for their latest USB Flash drive that takes the form of a key. If you are like me you probably have several USB Flash drives in your desk, in your briefcase, or in your pockets. Inevitably you will misplace or lose one at any given time. So the idea of creating a USB Flash drive in the form factor of a key is really fantastic. Simply place the iamaKey USB Flash drive on your keyring and you are ready to go.

The iamaKey is scratch as well as water resistant and has gold connectors (Gold SIP) making it very durable. The iamaKey is extremely thin and lightweight and supports High speed USB 2.0 read transfer rates of up to 30 MB/s; and write mode of up to 10MB/s. The iamaKey USB Flash drive is compatible with both Windows and Macintoshcomputers and is available in a 4GB and 8 GB model. I had a chance to test the iamaKey USB Flash drive this afternoon and it worked beautifully-the transfer rates when copying and moving files were very fast and having the ability to place it on my keyring is really a dream come true. Now I know that when I need access to one of my files I can always count on it being on my keyring. The 4GB model of iamaKey is $17.99 and 8 GB model is $27.99. Lacie has added two additional USB Flash drives with a key form factor which they are marketing as LaCie itsaKey and LaCie Passkey USB Flash drive. The LaCie PassKey includes both a USB Flash drive as well as a micro SD card reader.

I'm sold on the iamaky USB Flash drive, and now all I need to remember, is not to try to use it to open the door to my home with it :-) Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I am happy to share with you that the eBook, Technology Supports for Writing has been released today. Joan Green and I have teamed up to write and design this very innovative eBook on writing supports for individuals with disabilities. The book title, Technology Supports for Writing not only includes a rich source of information about various software and hardware tools but includes over a dozen videos showing you how to use the supports built-in to the software and how these tools can be used. You can download your copy from www.innovativespeech.com



Look for a webinar coming soon on technology supports for writing that Joan and I will be doing shortly.

I have written extensively about the new features in Adobe Acrobat 9 over the past several months and continue to be very excited with all of the possibilities. In fact recently I have done several presentations with a focus on using Adobe Acrobat 9 for digital asset distribution. As a faculty member, I have found the ability to create PDF Portfolio's indispensable for the work that I do. Now that I am able to embed videos, SWF files, Word documents and deliver it as one unified PDF file it has made my life that much easier for posting materials onto BlackBoard.

As much as Adobe Acrobat 9Professional has helped me, I have found Acrobat to be extremely important in the work that I do with students with motor impairments. For the past several years I have relied on Adobe Acrobat to allow me to create accessible worksheets and documents for students that have difficulty using pencil and paper. Whether, if I am converting a worksheet that was created from Microsoft Word or scanning a worksheet into Acroba,t having the rich feature set in Acrobat has allowed the students that I work with to complete the worksheets on the computer as their peers would. With Acrobat's Form Recognition feature I am able to quickly set up the worksheet without too much touching up. The Form Recognition feature automatically looks for underlines and will place field boxes so that the student can type into the worksheet. This feature alone has saved teachers an incredible amount of time as they set up the worksheet. Teachers can also manually add form fields as well as create dropdown boxes, radio buttons and checkbox buttons for students to respond with. Using the tabbing function the student can move from one field to another quite easily. And lets not forget that Acrobat 9 also supports text to speech which can be enabled within the document which can be turned on from the View menu. Adobe Acrobat 9 also makes it easy for students to zoom into an area without any degradation in the clarity of the fonts. Likewise, students can use the various annotation features built into Adobe Acrobat to markup the document. I have had students use the arrows to complete worksheets that have involved telling time as well as some who have used the stamp feature to respond on the worksheet. All told Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional can provide students with a way to access a worksheet or page on the computer that can be filled out. With the release of Adobe Acrobat 9 it is now possible to have the teacher set up the document and email it home so that the student can access it with the Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. It is important to note that if the teacher wants the student to have access to the annotation features, then when the PDF file is created you must select Extend Features in Adobe Reader.. from the Advanced menu.

While I'm sure the folks at Adobe did not intend to develop an assistive technology tool- Adobe Acrobat 9 has proven to be an incredible tool to provide students with a way to make worksheets accessible on the computer. To view a quick Jing screencast on using the Form Recognition feature in Adobe Acrobat click here.

I want to thank Gaelen from Mindjet for the fantastic interview that she did with me as part of her Customer Focus series in the Mindjet Connections Newsletter. You can read the entire interview and how I am using MindManager 8 in the professional work that I do. Also check out my video tutorial on how to use the "To Do" List in MindManager 8.

I have known Joan Green for a long time and have always been impressed with her knowledge, passion, and innovation in the way she utilizes assistive technology with the clients she works with. Joan is now presenting this information through her webinar series making it easier than ever to find out about new and exciting practices that can make a big difference for individuals with disabilities. See below information about the webinar that Joan will be hosting this week.

Joan and I have also teamed up and will be releasing later this month an innovative ebook on writing supports for individuals with disabilities. The book title, Technology Supports for Writing not only includes a rich source of information about various software and hardware tools but includes over a dozen videos showing you how the features and how these tools can be used. During the webinar Joan will give you a sneak peak of some of the videos in the book and whet your appetite. Joan is a rich source of information and if you have the time please sign up for the webinar. Look for a webinar coming soon on technology supports for writing that Joan and I will be doing shortly.

Information about the webinar

Joan L. Green, M.A. CCC-SLP
301-602-2899/ 1-800-IST-2550
www.innovativespeech.com
www.ittsguides.com
Author of "Technology for Communication and Cognitive Treatment: The Clinician's Guide"

Please sign up for my e-newsletter at www.innovativespeech.com

Listen to what we hope will be the first of many podcasts on the topic of visual mapping. This past weekend Wallace and I over Skype had a chance to sit down and talk about visual mapping, the Visual Mapping Body of Knowledge (VMBOK) and my upcoming presentation at the VizThink 2009 North American Conference. Listen to our banter and enjoy. Look for more podcasts coming soon that will be posted here at the AssistiveTek Blog. Enjoy!