August / September 2003

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Classroom educators are continually challenged to meet a maximum range of student needs with a bare minimum of available resources. In previous decades, there has been a focus on individualizing instruction for students who qualify for special education services. More recently, supplemental programs have been developed for groups of individuals with related needs: English language learners, students with exceptional gifts, and learners requiring remediation in reading or math.

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Most clinicians use pragmatics and an ecological inventory as basis for selecting their vocabularies for augmentative and alternative communication systems (Gossens’, Crain and Elder, 1992; Burkhart, 1993). Users of communication systems need to initiate interaction, maintain conversation by taking turns and need a way of terminating the interaction when bored or need to change the topic. This approach is important for interaction purposes and indeed has its merit, however, without the use of a sound method to support pragmatics with syntax and semantics, a communication system user would not be able to interact in a manner similar to his or her peers.

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Have you ever wondered how to go about developing ‘perspective’ with students with autism? As the number of students diagnosed with a PDD disability have increased in our Developmental Preschool, we have found this to be a true barrier to facilitating successful interactions among the children. Additionally, almost all of the other children were unable to determine emotions due to their primary disability, whether language disorder, ESL + disability, low cognitive abilities or ADHD/behavior. The only children in our setting who usually did understand others’ feelings were the children with phonological delays and apraxia.

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This month, PC Matt takes a look at some Web browsing alternatives to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Mac Matt’s on a brief hiatus while he enjoys Phoenix’s breezy 115-degree heat (yippee!).By Matt Wangeman and Matt Roberts Columnists.

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Arts and crafts Arts and Crafts projects set a wonderful context for all kinds of learning: language(understanding and following directions, sequencing, describing, requesting, etc.),fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, reasoning and thinking (what do youthink we should do next, how will these go together, etc.) while also providingcreative fun and open-ended art experiences. And when the projects are finished,children have a product they can keep, give as a present, and tell others about.Following are some excellent products for children of all ages. Sand Art: Sand Pictures Activity Kits (Alex: 800-666-2539, <www.alextoys.com>) These are fun activity kits for children ages 4 and up. Each package contains three 5 by 7-inch pattern cards that have pre-cut, easy-to-peel adhesive areas.

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Accommodation and modification are critical issues in today’s educational world. Recently, a fifth grade student asked a science teacher “If I can’t read the question, how am I going to answer it?”

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Henter Math announces the release of their first product, Virtual Pencil, computer software for interactive access to math. It is designed for those who are pencil impaired: unable to operate a pencil effectively. This might be someone that is blind, visually impaired, motor impaired, or learning disabled.

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Colligo Corp., an assistive technology solutions company, announces Web ReadingBar. Web ReadingBar is a cost effective and easy-to-use Internet enhancement using real Natural Voices from AT&T. From children to seniors, it advances Internet use for millions who suffer from many varieties of reading hurdles, such as blindness*, visual impairments*, dyslexia, and the 94,000,000 adult Americans that “show low basic literary skills” (Converge Magazine Jan ’03). Web ReadingBar for Windows.

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intelliTools, Inc. <www.intellitools.com> is pleased to announce that it has received a significant three-year grant award to conduct research and develop an in-depth, supplemental reading software program for grades 4-8 students.

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Continuing with its tradition of developing innovative software for children and adults with hearing impairments, the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training, Inc. announces the completion of eight products: American Sign Language Clip and Create, Clouds: A Paws Science Adventure, Spell Well: An American Sign Language Game, Marvin Teaches Fingerspelling, American Sign Language Songs for Kids, Vision Screen 9000, Con-SIGN-tration-3, and Con-SIGN-tration-4.

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Getting Started in Signing – DVD This complete program offers a simple, step-by-step approach to this rich and beautiful language for use in practical, everyday situations. The author is Dr. Elaine Costello - former director and editor in chief of the Galluadet College Press in Washington D.C.’s Galluadet College - the world’s only liberal arts college for the deaf.

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ALVA B.V., a leading provider of assistive information technology for the blind and visually-impaired, announced the ALVA, Mobile Phone Organizer (MPO), the assistive technology industry’s first fully-integrated cellular phone and personal organizer.

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ZoomText 8.0 enlarges, enhances and reads aloud everything on the screen, with unmatched quality and performance. Access to documents, e-mail and the Internet have never been easier or more accurate. The new ZoomText 8.0 comes in two great products: ZoomText Magnifier – a standalone screen magnifier, and ZoomText Magnifier/ ScreenReader – a fully integrated magnifier and screen reader.

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Niemeijer Consult has announced the release of version 3.0 of KeyStrokes, its popular on-screen keyboard software for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. KeyStrokes 3 offers the most advanced multilingual word prediction system ever on the Mac.

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Citrix Systems, Inc., the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, and GW Micro, Inc., have announced an alliance to provide visually impaired users with full, interactive access to their corporate desktops and to enterprise applications centrally hosted in Citrix MetaFrame XP Presentation Server environments.   GW Micro produces one of the industry’ s leading software screen readers called Window-Eyes, which gives the visually impaired the ability to hear and feel their Windows operating systems through speech synthesis and Braille displays, while Citrix access infrastructure enables anytime, anywhere, any-device, any-connection access to enterprise applications and information.   Together, the two technology solutions are a major breakthrough for the visually impaired.  Window-Eyes is currently available for beta testing on Citrix MetaFrame XP Presentation Server, Feature Release 3.

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The iCommunicator V.4.0 software program, a patented communication access technology, is now available. This powerful tool provides a multisensory, interactive communication solution for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and other persons who experience unique communication access challenges. The iCommunicator program converts speech to text and video sign language in real time.

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DynaVox Systems LLC, developers of high technology augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solutions, and Daedalus Excel, a design and product development company, received an Honorable Mention for their successful collaboration on DynaVox’s DynaMyte voice-output device in the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)/BusinessWeek 2003 Catalyst Awards.

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Niemeijer Consult announces the release of version 1.0 of SwitchXS, the first switch access software for Mac OS X. SwitchXS provides virtually complete access to Mac OS X and all standard Mac applications for people who can only use a single switch. It offers full mouse and keyboard emulation by means of a so-called scanning mode.

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The EP-2 is a split desktop platform designed to accommodate the DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard and also standard flat keyboards that are ergonomically split in two.The Ergoport Posturepod Ergonomic Desktop enables the body to maintain the safest posture while working at a computer terminal. Instead of the body having to adapt to conventional workstation design that causes muscular-skeletal stressing, the Ergoport fills the void between ideal body positioning and the desk. The Ergoport eliminates the need for keyboard, mouse, wrist and forearm supports, while encouraging correct posture to help eliminate back and neck strain.

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