Assistive Learning for Education

          Hey everyone, this week is assistive technology in education. Special education is a subject near and dear to my heart. After graduation, my goal is to return to school to improve my teaching degree by adding a Special Ed degree to the end. I have worked with many special needs individuals. They are great people and deserve all of the advantages and extra help the can get!
         Children with disabilities sometimes need and are entitled to special equipment and services. Assistive technology helps to level the playing field. It allows both learning and physically challenged students to succeed in the "mainstream" world. It helps to create normalcy and preserve self-esteem. 
Assistive technology includes both devices and services. IDEA defines it as: "an assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functionalcapabilities of a child with a disability, (34cfr 300.5) An assistive technology service means any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection. acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device (34 CFR 300.6)  (http://idea.ed.gov/).
     I have decided to focus my blog on those students that have trouble communicating with others. The North Central Regional education Laboratory has an extensive listed on assistive technology devices that addresses all different disabilities. Here is a list for communication disability devices:

 

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Assistive Technology for Communication: Aids students who have difficulty in communicating effectively (i.e., they are unintelligible, have no or very little verbal skills, or have limited language proficiency).

Pictures, photographs, objects Communication boards Communication books Eye-gaze or eye-pointing systems Simple voice-output devices Word cards or word manipulatives Word window Writing guides Voice-output devices with levels Voice output with icon sequencing Communication software (allows for communication boards and visual displays) Augmentative communication devices (visualdisplay, printed or speech output) Dedicated augmentative communication system Text-to-voice and voice-to-text software Talking word processing with writing support Word prediction, abbreviation, or expansion options to reduce keystrokes Software that allows communication via pictures and symbols Head-pointing devices Touch screens Translating devices: voice language (e.g., English) to output different voice language (e.g., Spanish) Electronic and software dictionaries http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm

           I specifically chose to look at text-to-voice software. This software allows people who have difficulties with speech to "speak" through a computer or other voice synthesizer. It also allows sight impaired people to upload text that can be read back to them aloud. Some programs like vozME even allows the user to chose what language they want o hear the text spoken. vozMe is a free downloadable program that provides text-to-voice technology. If you would like to try out this software, go to:

http://vozme.com/index.php?lang=en . These downloadable software programs are most often compatable withWindows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris, OpenSolaris, and GNU.

         Technology, even assistiveinternet is in my opinion by far the best way to stay on top of this ever change field. Using the internet is a great place to start!