Reading

media type="youtube" key="TJVPG4e38Wo" height="340" width="560"

This assistive technology is called bookshare.org. I can't imagine not being able to enjoy reading because of a disability, especially when reading is such an integral part of education. However, this technology allows people with vision disabilties and fine motor weakness to be able to read on their own, not only providing them with a sense of enjoyment from reading, but also empowering them to be more independent. The books are available in larger font and the pages are turnable with the click of a button.

The Gohtit program is beneficial and can be used with the TTS to help children with reading disabilities like dyslexia. media type="youtube" key="aypu_zNdIZ8" height="340" width="560"The Gohtit is a program designed specifically for those who are Dyslexic. This assistive technology program helps point out spelling errors, the misuse of words that are out of context, this program also has an integrated dictionary. It also has text-to-speech, and text and word meaning. It also gives content suggestions for words or phrases if the student is stuck. I think that this program will be very helpful for students who are Dyslexic, especially when they become older and have to write many papers, this will make the paper-writting process go much faster and help the students to gain knowledge.

This video shows a wide range of different ways to help many different age groups for everyday skills. A text-to-speech (TTS) system is a part of speech synthesis which is a huge part of assistive technology. These systems take written text and change it into spoken word. This technology is readily available to anyone. Programs that translate text into speech can even be downloaded for free online. This is beneficial for students who have various reading disabilities among other imparments. Slow readers, children with dyslexia, or students who do not read at all. media type="youtube" key="V6J7bx8Z9aA" height="344" width="425"

This TTS system seems like it can benefit many people. One of the most positive benefits I think it that you said it could be downloaded for free! This could be a great classroom tool that the teacher could have ready for the struggling reader.
 * I thought that this TTS program is great for those who have both reading disabilities and hearing impairments as well. The Gohtit program that I used a few videos above, also used to TTS within the program although that is not its sole purpose. Having a program that puts any word into speech is beneficial in so many ways. My only question is would this program work in different languages? An example being Spanish. If I was to type in a Spanish word, would it be repeated back to to me in Spanish?

media type="youtube" key="HXchQnJ6PoE" height="344" width="425"

media type="custom" key="4737595" Many times when we think of assistive technology we think big. This video is a great example of how we can slightly adapt regular things so everyone can benefit from them. There are many inexpensive ideas that this video shared that would be of great use to some of our students in our class rooms.


 * Both of the videos that I had posted used very high tech equiptment for children who has disabilites. It is very important as a future to teacher to remember how to make simple adaptations so that all children have an equal chance to learn. I really liked the use of the "wikki stick" and how they can aid as a tool to keep the paper attached to the desk and to serve as a guide for writing.