October / November 2009

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This issue of DISKoveries contains reviews of some new software and related products, developed by companies especially for those with Special Needs. If you are attending the Closing The Gap conference, be sure to check your conference program. Many of these companies will be in the Exhibit Hall and/or presenting workshops on their products. Pulse Smartpen (Livescribe: www.livescribe.com) The Pulse Smartpen is an amazing tool for students who need help with notetaking and classroom lectures (and for many other applications too.) The pen records the lecture (or any selected audio) and links it to what you write.

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Whether we are speech-language pathologists (SLP), educators, parents or friends of children or young adults with severe speech-language deficits who are unable to communicate their messages using verbal speech, we know from experience and from what a number of notable authors and researchers have told us - that people who use augmented speech, meaning they speak primarily through a means other than oral production, are often passive communicators. Why? A number of reasons add up to this factual conclusion: communication partners don't know how to talk to them or they do so in a limited fashion by only asking questions that we find out they can't answer anyway. Because of this, they have significantly limited peer-to-peer interactions and their social circles often involve adults who interact with them because it's part of their job rather than because of shared interests or experiences.

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For students who struggle with reading and writing, the difficulty and stress of school can often be overwhelming. In addition, struggling students often have low self-esteem because they have judged themselves as being intellectually, and often socially, inferior to their peers. The good news is that for students who have learned to read and write the best they can, but still find that they are frustrated, literacy support technology interventions are available to help them bridge the gap in their ability to learn. Teachers and parents can offer a powerful tool, Read&Write GOLD, to their struggling students long before stress levels escalate and long before any thoughts of defeat enter students' minds.

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Life changes when people believe that a person can communicate and that they understand what is said to them. They are more likely to be offered choices, have their preferences acknowledged and honored, and are able to be a more active participant. Lifeworks believes that communication skills are the gateway to adults learning and being able to live self-directed lives.Lifeworks is a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities live fuller lives that are integrated into the flow of community experience.

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Miguel is 14 years old. He is very social, enjoys school and has just finished the 8th grade. Miguel also has Downs syndrome.

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My first classroom teaching position, in August of 2001, was at a smaller rural school classroom for Kindergarten through sixth grade students with moderate and severe disabilities. Just prior to this classroom position, I was running an applied behavior analysis program for very young students on the autism spectrum that I started a couple years earlier. It was during my four years in the classroom teaching position that I became aware of the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

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In this third article of the series, we'll look at using resources from the Web. In the first article, we learned strategies to create virtually real experiences in activities like the ones you can download from Annie's Resource Attic. In the second, I discussed how to use your digital photos to construct such activities.

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HumanWare's handheld talking GPS units are empowering the blind to lead more active, independent lifestyles - and even to embark on some extraordinary adventures. Trekker Breeze units have recently accompanied blind users on hikes up Mount Kilimanjaro and across the US, as well as on horseback excursions. The talking GPS units are user-friendly, handheld devices that announce names of streets, intersections and landmarks in five different languages.

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Virtual Motor Skills is a software program designed to give the user with limited motor skills the virtual experience of performing tasks by picking up, putting down, and moving objects around using 1 or 2 switches, a mouse click, or the computer keyboard. In many of the activities, the user controls a life-like hand to complete tasks such as picking up colored pegs and placing them in their matching colored slots.Animated Toys II is composed of 25 segments, each containing a toy animated on the computer screen. The toys are activated by the single press of a switch, mouse click, or the keyboard "enter" key.

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Lingraphica, maker of the Lingraphica speech-generating device for aphasia, announces the release of the SmallTalk mobile accessory. Incredibly portable and light, it fits easily into a pocket or purse for communication and practice on the go. Users can take along a selection of phrases, icons, and videos to have with them at all times.

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Ai Squared is proud to announce the release of ZoomText Express – a simple and affordable solution to computer eyestrain that magnifies everything on screen up to 2x.As a user of the full ZoomText product, we recognize that ZoomText Express may not fulfill your personal needs. But as a dedicated ZoomText user, you understand how a lighter version of ZoomText could help a family member or friend finding it a little more difficult to read text on their computer screen. If you know someone who squints and leans forward to read e-mail, Web pages and other information on their computer screen, then ZoomText Express is the perfect solution for them.ZoomText Express helps relieve the stress and strain of computer use by providing a gentle boost of magnification (up to 2 times), making everything on screen larger and easier to read.

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Bookshare (www.bookshare.org), the world's largest online accessible library for individuals with print disabilities has announced a partnership with Shinano Kenshi Corporation, Ltd. (Japan and North America), a global leader in advanced technology hardware and precision electronics. This partnership will allow Bookshare members to easily download and read tens of thousands of accessible books, periodicals, New York Times best sellers, educational books, textbooks, general fiction, non-fiction and literature on the new PLEXTALK pocket portable digital DAISY player and recorder. DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) players, like the PLEXTALK Pocket, easily convert Bookshare's digital text files to speech so books and newspapers can be read aloud.

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ABISee, Inc., a leading developer of advanced hi-tech products for people with low vision, blindness and hearing imparments, has announced the release of Eye-Pal SOLO, a simple and self-contained device that instantly reads from any book or printed material. The product was introduced to attendees of two conferences - one sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and the other by the American Council of the Blind (ACB).The Eye-Pal SOLO is a simple, self-contained, electronic device that instantly reads from any printed materials. Newspapers, books, magazines or other documents are placed face up on the Eye-Pal SOLO, and the device reads them aloud.

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Individuals with print disabilities can now choose new, low-cost mobile technologies to read more than 50,000 digital books and periodicals thanks to a partnership between Bookshare, the world's largest online library of accessible books for people with print disabilities, and Code Factory, Barcelona Spain; a leading global provider of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for a wide range of mainstream mobile devices. The Mobile Speak screen readers for mobile phones developed by Code Factory use synthesized speech to read aloud information displayed on the mobile phone screens including ebooks stored on their phones. Using this technology, Bookshare members who are blind or have visual impairments will have new alternatives and features like navigation, bookmarking and text search, to access digital books for work, study or reading pleasure.

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