August / September 2000

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The setting is Monday morning; the time is 8:58 a.m. An all-too-familiar scenario unfolds. The early childhood teacher and the paraprofessional have spent the last twenty minutes organizing and setting up the classroom for the children who will soon burst through the door with joyful anticipation of beginning a new day of learning.

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The use of augmentative and alternative communication systems (AACS) with school-aged children who have either a neurodevelopmental or acquired condition fortunately is becoming increasingly more common. As clinicians, teachers, and family members, many of us have dutifully attended workshops and learned to operate complex equipment. We have acquired the knowledge to negotiate countless funding mazes and we have spent hours adapting curriculum and writing IEP goals and objectives.

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New academic standards have given teachers a chance to look at their curriculums and make changes that will maximize performance for the greatest number of students. As special educators work with regular education teams in this development phase, the door to building universal design and technology assistance into the curriculum has been opened not only to assist students with identified special needs but those who struggle at the margins of class performance as well.Science for All is designed to help students with special learning needs thrive in the middle and high school science classroom. The science standards support curriculum that promotes hands-on or technology-based learning, which focuses on scientific process, action and inquiry rather than traditional style memorization of science facts.After talking with local science teachers, three areas of concern were identified in implementing the new science standards.

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Bryant Center is a center-based program run by Northville (Michigan) Public Schools, which provides an education to students with mild to severe cognitive impairments, severe emotional and/or physical impairments. Students range in age from 12 to 26. Because of the age of our student population, the focus of our program is to assist our students in becoming productive members of their community.

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Identifying a means of accessThe method your student will use to access a voice output communication aid (VOCA) is an important part in creating their communication system. Any of these methods can be implemented using the strategy discussed in Part II of this series (Closing The Gap, April/May 2000). Access method describes how your student will select the messages they wish to communicate.

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Richard is on hiatus for this installment of All Things Mac but he'll be back in time for the next issue. Meanwhile, let's briefly revisit the topic of launching programs then take a look at CD burning and what it takes to get started.The key to launchingIn the last issue, I explained how to customize Apple's Launcher application for your own use. Shortly thereafter I received the following e-mail from Karen in Austin, Texas:"Thank you for the hints about (using)..

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Measuring the success of student and teacher technology training The importance of training is widely acknowledged as a key variable influencing the effective use of assistive and instructional technology. Over the years, advances in interface design have made many products intuitive to learn and use. Sometimes, these developments have been interpreted as meaning that teachers and students need less preparation, assistance, and support to use technology.Inadequate and insufficient training is an often-cited problem that prevents many computer users from capturing the full potential hardware and software products have to offer.

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Special needsAt least once a year, I like to review new and innovative products that have been designed and published for individuals with special needs and to say a special thank you to those publishers who take the time and effort to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities. Following are some very creative products, both adaptive equipment and software, that will help to make life and learning a little bit easier for this population.TouchFree Switch (Edmark: 800-362-2890) This new switch combines a digital video camera with switch software, allowing users to send mouse clicks to the computer without pressing a switch or a mouse button. The TouchFree Switch is easy to set up.

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Based on US Department of Education figures, by 1991 over 5,000,000 children, ages 6-17, were receiving special education and this population has grown by an estimated 125,000 children every year. Currently, about 10 out of every 100 students need special education. Educators, researchers and developers of equipment for individuals with special needs strive to create tools to address these needs.

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These project planbooks, by Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite and Gretchen Hanser, are the combined efforts of a speech-language pathologist and an occupational therapist, both with extensive experience working with students with severe disabilities, including student who are nonspeaking.R.E.A.D.! Really Easy Activities for Do It Yourselfers! This project planbook presents instructions for nine projects (e.g., book easels, page fluffers) including illustrations, case examples, tips and one page of tip labels. ($6 plus $2 shipping and handling)W.R.I.T.E.! Writing for Really Innovative Tools for Everyone. Ten projects are described in step-by-step format in this planbook (e.g., Velcro poetry, writing slant board).

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The latest version of ZoomText Xtra has been unveiled by Ai Squared. The new release of the magnifier/screen reader version 7.04 features CompatibilityOne – support for all Windows operating systems in a single package.Ai Squared is the first accessibility vendor to support Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and the new Windows 2000 with a single product. CompatibilityOne saves the end user money and time, alleviating the need to purchase and install new accessibility software when upgrading to new operating systems."Our competitors all charge a premium for their Windows 2000 and NT versions," said Ben Weiss, President of Ai Squared.

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For people with learning disabilities, visual disabilities, and reading impairments, print-based text can be completely inaccessible. While in recent years software developers have created electronic screen readers that convert text to speech, few of these programs offer effective control over how the text is displayed and read, nor do they provide flexible reading features that allow teachers to both support and challenge their students. Therefore, for those with learning disabilities, visual impairments, reading disabilities, or language proficiency problems, even electronic text can be difficult to decipher.

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SuperSwitchEnsemble (SSE) is a music performance program written specifically for children with special needs. It will turn your existing adaptive equipment, such as switches or an IntelliKeys keyboard, into musical instruments by tapping into the exceptional music and sound capabilities built into your computer. SSE enables your students to experience the thrill of playing jazz piano, improvising a heavy-metal guitar solo, or even conducting a classical string quartet.SuperSwitchEnsemble works great with individual students but is most powerful as a tool to enable groups of students to play together as an ensemble.

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Have you been using the Recipes4Success and hoping that Tech4Learning would add additional titles to the series? Well, wait no more. Tech4Learning, Inc. announced the release of five more titles in the Recipes4Success professional development series – Access, AppleWorks, Kid Pix Studio Deluxe, HyperStudio - HyperLogo, and PowerPoint."We have had such an incredible response from the educators using the Recipes4Success that we began development of the next set almost immediately after the first Recipes were released," says David Wagner, President of Tech4Learning.As with the previous Recipes, each of these new titles in the Recipes4Success series teaches software in the context of a classroom project.

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This completely revised word processor from IntelliTools combines speech, graphics, and text in exciting new ways.Reading and writing can present formidable challenges - especially for students with disabilities. The dynamic new features in IntelliTalk II are designed to help students meet challenges and experience success by giving every student the support he/she needs.For the teacher, IntelliTalk II offers an array of features that make it easy to develop meaningful activities.o Insert graphics from textbooks or other sources.o Use on-screen palettes as word banks or prompts.o Create worksheets using locked text and set up student portfolios.IntelliTalk II comes with pre-designed activities, writing templates, toolbars, and hundreds of picture items for teachers to use in their activities. IntelliTools has provided a comprehensive Teacher's Guide with lesson plans adapted for different age groups.

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Homework problems are characteristically found in children with ADD/ADHD. Parents of such children have often become frustrated and frazzled in attempting to help their child deal with their problem. The Homework Skills Improvement Kit, developed by Grad L.

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Learning in Motion, Inc. announces the release of Knowledge Forum 3, a powerful database with note-taking, searching, and organizational features that make public discourse a priority. The cross-platform version of this sophisticated database is now available.

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More than a decade ago, Tom Street was in a catastrophic automobile accident that left him a quadriplegic. Determined to get on with his life, he entered school to learn AutoCAD, a program that for the most part requires a mouse. He punched keys by holding a stick in his mouth.Trudging his way through the curriculum, Street hit upon an idea for an alternative pointing device that he could control with his mouth and puffs of breath.

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Edmark, developer of educational software for children, has announced the release of the Stories& More Series. This series is designed to optimize children's comprehension and reading aptitude by stimulating prior knowledge, promoting the recall of text, and increasing learning opportunities through expansion of story ideas."At Edmark, we strive to help build thinking and comprehension skills in children. Stories& More provides many learning opportunities that go beyond just testing for comprehension," explained Amy Chan, Edmark senior product manager.

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This update includes improvements to the Active Area feature and some additional enhancements. The functionality of outSPOKEN 3.0 SR1 is the same as outSPOKEN 3.0.outSPOKEN 3.0 SR1 is compatible with Windows 95/98/98SE and is tested with Windows Millennium Beta3. From Alva Access Group's Web site you can download the 1000-keystrokes demonstration version of outSPOKEN 3.0 SR1.outSPOKEN 3.0 SR1, screen reader software for computer users who are visually impaired, is available in two versions.

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The National Council on Disability (NCD) has found that federal policies constitute a barrier to individuals with disabilities who wish to learn about, obtain and use assistive technology (AT) devices and services, such as telecommunications equipment and services for the deaf and computer software for adults and students who are blind. “These barriers translate into poor quality of life for people who need the AT they cannot get,” said NCD Chairperson Marca Bristo. NCD's findings and recommendations are contained in its report, Federal Policy Barriers to Assistive Technology.The barriers that NCD found:Existing laws and policies that fund AT have gaps that fail to address the needs of many individuals with disabilities; laws and policies are frequently misinterpreted or implemented inappropriately by those charged with service delivery and oversight; federal agencies and others that implement federal policy (such as states and local agencies) commonly lack the expertise and resources necessary to implement existing AT laws and policies; and today's policies are a maze of conflicting definitions, eligibility criteria, philosophical models, and requirements for access to AT.Ms.

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