April / May 2002

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Matt on Mac .66Imagine, if you will, that you are someone that deals with children that have the capacity to do strange things to your trusted Mac. Imagine that the aforementioned children have a rather unique way of altering, deleting or, in the case of one classroom that I visit regularly, renaming each and every file, folder and application on your hard drive. Now if you are starting to get an idea of what that would be like, take it one step further and imagine that everything has the same name or a variation therein: ".66." If you have never dealt with this before, consider yourself lucky.

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PlayStationSony PlayStation and PlayStation2 by Sony Entertainment (800-697-7266) are both stand-alone units that plug into the television and have two hand-held controls. Each of these controls has a collection of buttons: four on the left side control up-down-right-left movements on screen; four on the right side are multi-functional (pick up things, jump, etc). There are also buttons for starting, pausing, etc.

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Perhaps you have encountered this problem: A student with a disability is included in the general education classroom but has an independent reading level many grades below his or her peers. As a result, the majority of the reading assignments are far too difficult for the student.Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common as it plays out in hundreds of thousands of classrooms each day. Whereas inclusion has provided students with disabilities physical access to the general education classroom, what can be done to make the curriculum cognitively accessible?Students with disabilities and other struggling readers face extensive challenges throughout their educational careers given the predominant instructional model, which places a premium on learning from text.

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As a good craftsman will tell you the nature of his work is dependent on the quality of the tools that he uses. This is no less true of the tools educators use in their toolkit as they try to find a good match between the tool and the student. As an assistive technology consultant, I am always striving to find tools that are flexible and can be easily adapted for the individual.

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Specialized software programs for students who struggle with learning are plentiful. Many are well designed, powerful, and truly helpful. On the other hand, most students can benefit from creative strategies based on the built-in features of a common, inexpensive program like AppleWorks.

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People with severe vision impairment caused by macular degeneration and other retinal diseases require high levels of magnification to accomplish the tasks of everyday living, such as reading mail, writing checks and checking prescription bottles. In the early stages of such diseases, hand held optical magnifiers can be adequate, but difficult to use. Electronic magnifiers, also known as CCTVs, provide a degree of magnification and ease of use not possible with ordinary hand-held optical magnifiers, but their cost has been prohibitive to many potential users.The PRIMER is an entry-level electronic magnifier that works with any television set to provide magnification beyond that possible with hand held optical magnifiers, up to 15 times, using a 20-inch television set.

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ErgoQuest, Incorporated, a manufacturer of adaptive computer workstations, has recently introduced the ErgoQuest Model 300 Sit/Stand/Recline Workstation for home, school, office, and hospital applications.

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It's difficult for many adults to remember just how big the world really was when we were small. Growing up was hard enough without dealing with the oversized items we, as adults, take for granted. Case in point, the now familiar and essential computer keyboard.With this in mind, Datadesk Technologies, has developed LittleFingers, the world's first adult-quality keyboard specifically designed to fit children's smaller hands.

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Computers offer children with special needs the opportunity to partake in certain activities that their physical limitations prevent them from participating in. For example, a simple wooden puzzle with three shapes could be an extremely difficult activity for a child with limited motor skills. With this in mind and with the input from therapists and educators, Judy Lynn Software, Inc.

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Clarity Solutions is proud to announce their newest product for the visually impaired, the ClarityAF Mobilemate. Now you can roll your CCTV around wherever you need it! The Mobilemate system consists of a ClarityAF Classmate video magnifier with desktop and distance viewing, a 15-inch LCD Display, an 8-hour heavy duty battery (comes with battery charger), all mounted on a sturdy rolling cart (height adjustable, ranging from 27-37 inches).This product is ideal for situations where fast and easy mobility is important. Both individuals and organizations such as schools and museums will find the Mobilemate the answer to their needs.

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Students who are deaf and hard of hearing are able to view real time captions of what is said while in educational settings such as classrooms, lecture halls, assembly halls and gymnasiums when using technology developed by Personal Captioning Systems, Inc. The captions allow students with a hearing impairment to participate in educational presentations while sitting with their non-disabled peers, at their desk in the classroom, in the audience during a lecture or assembly, or in the bleachers during a basketball game.

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Do you know a struggling reader? Do you know about Read Naturally? Read Naturally is a research-based, teacher-developed reading program that helps students improve their fluency, comprehension, and self-esteem.The Read Naturally strategy gets results. For over 10 years, students all over the country have made significant improvements in reading fluency and comprehension. A number of case students provide evidence of these successes.

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Scan and View is the latest product added to our accessibility suite. It is an alternative to purchasing a CCTV. Scan and View takes a standard scanner and turns it into a CCTV.

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