PUBLIC MARKS with tags "assistive technology" & district

Video-described media for persons who are blind and visually impaired. Development of the first guidelines for educational video description through our partnership with the American Foundation for the Blind. A new, searchable information portal, including links to information from major educational and consumer groups. A redesigned Web site with expanded media search options. A new "DCMP for Kids" section that offers separate student accounts, which allow students direct access to the DCMP under the monitoring of teachers and parents who will determine which subject areas are accessible. Enhanced delivery methods, which include downloading media and access to streaming via both Real Player and Windows Media Player.

Alt-Click in Windows or (Mac OSx Command+Option+G) on any word in any program on your screen for an instant, pop-up AnswerTip that won't interrupt your work. For vocabulary words, instant definitions and real voice buttons to hear the word aloud.

VoyCabulary makes the words on any webpage into links so you can look them up in a dictionary or other word-reference-site of your choice, by simply clicking on the words.

Download PDF or PwerPoint tutorials for Intellikeys and Overlaymaker

This section is a resource for assistive technology specialists and others who use technology to promote learning and the inclusion of students with disabilities in the school setting. Here you will find a collection of technical tips, step by step directions and fact sheets on a wide variety of software programs and adaptive hardware.

Richard Walters' in-depth guide to making your own talking books is written especially for those with no experience of multimedia creation. This guide covers the construction of books in Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation software. It also available for TAG Software's HyperStudio and Crick Software's Clicker. The guide includes step-by-step instructions on how to scan pictures, add symbols, record speech and put together a talking book. Fully illustrated with screen shots, these guides are useful for teachers, parents and professionals who want to give young people access to any story.

OATSoft is dedicated to improving Assistive Technology and computer accessibility through the power of Open Source development techniques. OATSoft makes the best Open Source Assistive Technology Software (OATS) easy to find. Users and developers meet at OATSoft to create better software. Users can find useful software and discuss and work with developers to get the features that you want.

PowerTalk is a free program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. You just download and install PowerTalk and while you open and run the presentation as usual it speaks the text on your slides. 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. Speech is provided by the standard synthesised computer voices that are provided with Windows.

From the Northern Grid for Learning web site... "SENSwitcher is a suite of programs designed to help teach early ICT skills to people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, those who need to develop skills with assistive input devices and very young children new to computers. It is, we believe the first time anyone anywhere has developed an online switch enabled application which targets ICT skills from purely experiential through cause and effect, switch building, timed activation, targeting and row scanning." Available for MAC!

StarOffice 4 Kids has been uniquely designed for easy customization by individual teachers to support specific learning objectives. It is aligned to the needs of a teacher and his or her specific teaching materials and not vice versa. StarOffice 4 Kids allows the teacher to handle an interactive learning process according to learning steps that he or she considers appropriate. Not only according to the age-specific steps of the class, but also in regard to the individual learning progress of the class or a selected group of students. Adjusted to the learning speed of the students a teacher could, for example, easily focus on the fundamentals of word processing. The teacher could start with work sheets with just the functions for using of texts in different fonts and font sizes. Once the students have learnt how to use those functions, the teacher could add new functions to the function toolbar and teach those in a next step. StarOffice 4 Kids makes it easy for the teacher to produce documents for the exercises in class. A teacher can easily transform usual office documents into task sheets for the class and store them into the subject specific folders. The students will find them in the workspace of their class. They will work on them and save them in their own workspace. This workspace only contains the personal files and that is protected from the access of other students. StarOffice 4 Kids documents and user interfaces are based on an XML data format, augmenting the open source StarOffice/OpenOffice format. That way StarOffice 4 Kids guarantees smooth integration and immediate use of external teaching material as provided by publishers in education. Teachers could directly take on the teaching material they need and use it in class.

WordTalk is a free plug-in developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97 upwards), which can help people with reading difficulties use Microsoft Word more effectively. It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes. It contains a talking dictionary to help decide which word spelling is most appropriate. It sits neatly in your toolbar and is highly configurable, allowing you to adjust the highlight colours, the voice and the speed of the speech.

The nation's educational library for those with print disabilities.

A variety of video presentations for various assistive technologies. Includes Clicker 5. Browse the entire center for more resources.

A parent's guide to learning difficuties

-this web site is a resource for service providers, teachers, parents, consumers and their circles of support -this web site incorporates an assistive technology evaluation, and information on specific difficulties (i.e, reading, writing, memory organization and math) also incorporated are success stories of adolescents and adults using assistive technology to help them live more independently -this web site does not substitute for one-on-one information with an assistive technology provider, whether in the school system or in a rehabilitation setting.

Mouse Skills online testing, assitive technology learning and access tools, typing tools

GPAT has developed resources to assist educational teams in the implementation and integration of assistive technology into instructional activities. These resources address the development of assistive technology intervention plans and technology enhanced lesson plans. Sample lesson plans related to state educational standards are also available. these lesson plans include set-up and follow-up activities for each lesson. Tutorials, technology tips, and supplemental materials are also provided.