Creating Accommodation
for School

Christopher M. Lee, Ph.D.

www.amac.uga.edu

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Today’s Agenda

• Supporting Students with LD/ADHD

  • Handouts

• Self Advocacy

  • A Look into the Mind of a Creative Learner

• Trends

  • Universal Design for Learning

  • Alternative Media

    • Access

    • Standards

  • Assistive Technology

    • Research

  • Adaptive Mainstream Technology

• Technology that Works

  • Freeware & Shareware Solutions

• Resources

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Hands-On Software

• Premier Assistive Technology

  • Universal Reader

  • Text to Audio

  • Ultimate Talking Dictionary

  • PDF Magic Pro

• Microsoft Word Features

• ReadPlease 2003 Freeware

• Inspiration Software

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Font Readability

• Common fonts for Windows and Mac operating systems, such as:

  • Arial, (i.e. Illustration)

  • Book Antiqua,

  • Comic Sans MS,

  • Georgia,

  • Courier New,

  • Tahoma,

  • Times New Roman, (i.e. Illustration)

  • Trebuchet MS, and

  • Verdana (i.e. Illustration)

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1989 Research – GERBER
Characteristics of How to Achieve Success

Control: Internal

• Desire

• Goal Orientation

• Reframing

Adaptability: External

• Persistence

• Goodness of Fit

• Learned Creativity

• Social Ecology

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Action Plan: Trends & Issues

• Assistive Technology (AT)

  • Access to information

• Assessable Mainstream Technology (AMT)

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

  • Providing an equal access environment for education

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An UDL Environment Design Includes

• Multiple means of representation, to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,

• Multiple means of expression, to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know,

• Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

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Equal Access for Students

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Accessible Web Sites?

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Font Readability

• Using too many fonts can clutter the document and make it more confusing.

• CAPITALIZED content are more difficult to read.

• Screen readers do change the voice inflection with exclamation points.

• Blinking text and moving text will decrease the readability as well as increase the time for students with AD/HD and cognitive disabilities

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Font Readability

• Focus on high degree of screen contrast:

  • Yellow on black is good contrast.

  • Black on white is good contrast.

  • Maroon on black is bad contrast.

  • Green on read is bad contrast

• Browser Font Size (Internet Explorer >View>Text Size>Largest)

• 85% is a safe boundary to set your browser, percentage will vary according to font choose.

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Universal Design for Learning Instructional Solutions Chart Handout
catea.org/grade/

• On-line Lectures

• Printed Course Materials (i.e. textbooks and course packets)

• Portable Document Format

• PowerPoint

• Excel Documents

• Video Applications

• Word Document

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Accessing Digital Text

• Publisher Files

• On-site Productions

• Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic

• BookShare.org

  • www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html

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National Trends
Accessible Material Repository

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Mark Action Plan

• I am a 16 year old male with learning disabilities attending high school. I rarely read except for the times that I am really interested in the subject matter.

• When I need to read and study textbooks, I read out loud, tape myself and play back the tape repeatedly.

• I can get by with this method but I need a more efficient means to absorb what I read.

• “What can I do to stop the insanity?”

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Mark’s Action Plan

• Goals

  • High School degree

  • 4 year College degree

  • Speech Communication

  • Increase Reading and Writing skills

  • Drivers Test

  • Part Time Job

  • Personal Budget Planning

• Action Steps

  • LD Screening and/or Evaluation

    • Dyslexic

  • Assistive Technology Evaluation, Software/Equipment & Training

  • AT for reading and writing

  • UDL Classroom Strategies

  • Test Accommodations and Modifications

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Visual Perception & Discrimination:

• seeing likenesses and differences in shape and form, as in letters, words and numbers.

• Alternative Text

  • Electronic text (e-text)

    • Screen readers

  • Audio (tape, WAV, or MP3)

• Pictures & Symbols

  • Writing with symbols

  • Inspiration

• Vocabulary List of New or Visually Unfamiliar Words

  • Talking dictionaries

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Auditory Perception & Discrimination

• Difficulties affect the ability to hear likenesses and differences in sounds, as in sounds of letters, words, and numbers.

• Provide instruction in multiple formats

  • Drawings

  • Photographic essays

  • Diagrams

  • Slides and video

• Digital Tape Recorders for note taking

• In oral interaction situation, visually present and outline of key words

• Have student repeat information orally expressed

• Teach “asking question skills”

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Assistive Technology

• Refers to a broad range of devices, services, strategies, and practices

• Technology that helps an individual to carry out a functional activity is termed assistive technology.

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AT Evaluations

• Human Activity Technology (HAAT) Model

• Human: represents the skills and abilities of the person with a disability

• Activity: a set of tasks to be performed by the person with a disability

• Context: the setting or the social, cultural, and physical contexts that surround the environment in which the activity must be completed

• Assistive Technology: devices or strategies used to bridge the gap between the person’s abilities and the demands of the environment

  • Cook & Hussey

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Mainstream Technology

• Microsoft Word

  • Auto-correct

  • Auto text

  • Auto summarize

  • Outlook

  • Templates

  • Formatting

  • Highlighters

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Microsoft Accessible Technology

• Accessibility Resource Centers

• Resource Guide for Individuals with Learning Difficulties and Impairments

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Apple’s Accessibility Features

• Accessibility Technologies in Mac OS X:

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Accessible Mainstream
Technology Examples (AMT)

• Search Engine

  • • Desk Top Search

    • Images

    • Measurement conversions

    • Calculator

    • Phone Numbers/ Directions

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Premier Assistive Software Suite

• Complete Reading System

• E-Library/E-Text reader

• Talking Internet Browser

• PDF Magic Pro

• Scan and Read Lite/Pro

• Scan and View

• Talking Word Processor

• Text Clone Pro

• Ultimate Talking Dictionary

• Universal Reader

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Key to Access MP3 Players

• Designed to be accessible to students with to blindness or low vision and students with learning disabilities.

• 1 gigabyte USB MP3 Player (512 MB Free)

• Digital Voice Recorder

• Holds up to 16 hours of audio books

• Requires Windows 2000 or XP with 128 MB of RAM 

• 18-Month Warranty

• Tools include: scan and read, screen reader, talking word process, text to audio etc.

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Mobile Readers
www.moblereader.com

Have you tried reading ebooks on your 5th generation iPod? 

• Apple offers a handy iPod script that copies text from your computer's clipboard to the notes folder on your iPod.

• Hit menu when you're in the middle of a note, the next time you open that note it will pick up where you left off.

• One question still remains. Is the new, larger screen big enough for a comfortable long read?

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“Why is the word abbreviation so long?”

- Anon

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Universal Talking Dictionary (UTD)

• 250,000 words: The UTD comes with a standard, unabridged dictionary that contains over 250,000 words.

• Spelling

• Reading

• Power search

• Thesaurus

• Antonym Support

• Parts of Speech

• $39.00

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Voice Recognition

• Words appear on screen and in memos, emails, spreadsheets and other documents

• 160 words per minute

• Surf the web by voice

• Dictate into a handheld digital recorder for automatic transcription later

• Text to Speech

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Digital Voice Recorder

• Speech-to-text software

• Converts audio data to digital signals and compresses them for recording onto a Miniature Card.

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WordQ
http://WordQ/

• predicts what you are typing and presents you with a list of correctly spelled words. 

• 30 day download

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WYNN™
Literacy Software Solution

• Imagine Success — Improve Reading, Writing and Studying

• Enhance Reading, Writing, and Productivity

• Ease of use

• WYNN Reader includes all features except OCR and scanning. :

• The four color-coded, rotating toolbars have a simple point-and-click interface.

• Our custom settings provide targeted support for various learning preferences and specific educational activities, such as researching the Internet, studying and other specific situations.

• AT&T Natural Voices™ provide high-quality, human-sounding voices. English and Spanish languages are included, with other languages available.

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Graphic Organizes
Inspiration (www.inspiration.com/)

• Students process, organize and prioritize new information to improve their writing

• Students categorize information

• Students integrate new knowledge and ideas

• Free downloads

• $69.00

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Shareware and Freeware

• ReadPlease -http://readplease.com

(text-to-speech software)

• Easy Office - tucows.com

(offers 30,000 freeware/shareware downloads)

• Talk To Me - http://talk-to-me.net

(20 free trials)

• Click ‘n Type - www.lakefolks.org/cnt/

(on-screen virtual keyboard for problems with normal typing)

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Resources

• Grade

• Web AIM

• CAST

• JAN

• DOIT

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Creating Accommodation
for School

Christopher M. Lee, Ph.D.

www.amac.uga.edu