Reading and Writing Technology for Individuals with Learning Disabilities

September 4, 2009

Spell Checkers for atypical spellers:

Text to Speech Software:

Free Alternatives

Mac OSX Software

Reading Devices

Word Prediction

Scanning Books

Speech Recognition

Hardware Based Writing Tools

Graphic Organizers

Notetaking

Getting textbooks in Alternative Formats:

Cast.org / LDOnline – Alternative Formats Article

http://www.ldonline.org/article/16308

Up coming Webinars: (This section will become dated very soon)

  1. Dragon Naturally Speaking in Education:
    https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/995277705
  2. Bookshare 101 for Parents:
    https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=ll2pjyowqtgi
    pre-recorded version here:
    http://bookshare.org/assets/webinars/2009-02-18/index.htm
  3. Using Visual Learning Techniques to Improve Academic Performance with Inspiration (Pre-recorded)
    http://www.inspiration.com/videos/Inspiration
  4. Kurzweil 3000 v11 Overview (Sept. 8th and 22nd)
    http://www.kurzweiledu.com/webinars.aspx

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Posted by atjimster

Scan and Read Resources for Persons with Learning Differences

September 4, 2009
I presented to a great group of people last night in Douglas County, Colorado. We met for about an hour and a half during which time I completely overwhelmed them with a barrage of Assistive Technology resources for individual’s with learning differences. That was of course by design; I warned them up front that I wanted them to see a variety of possibilities rather than just one or two products.

By way of making ammends for the whirl wind tour that was last night. I’ve decided to compile some resources in my blog to help clarify several of the topics on which I spoke. I primarily covered reading tools during the talk starting with Scan and Read systems. So that’s where I’ll start now.

Scan and Read Systems

These programs are designed to scan and read printed documents out loud (this does not include handwriting). The two big players in this area are Kurzweil 3000 from Cambium Learning Systems and WYNN Wizard from Freedom Scientific. Both programs offer several features to assist with the reading, writing and study skills. However, their core purpose is to convert the printed word to editable text which can be read by the computer. This can include textbooks, magazines, novels, newspapers … anything with printed text. Both programs excel in this area. I’ll outline a few of their other features here:

  • Simple interface
  • High quality speech (less computer like)
  • Highlighting of words as they are read
  • Exact view of the scanned document (the page on the screen looks exactly like the document that was scanned).
  • Ability to read web pages, PDF files, Word documents, text, and limited DAISY support
  • Integrated study tools such as highlighting, annotations, bookmarks, and a variety of noting tools (footnotes, bubble notes, voice notes, etc..)
  • Integrated editor with advanced word prediction
  • Save a document to MP3 format for use on a music player
  • Integration with online resources such as WikiPedia, Bookshare.org, Baen Free Library and more..

Here are screen shots of each program:

Kurzweil 3000

WYNN Wizard

There are of course many more features not listed here.

While these two products dominate the this category of software, there are other programs that offer quality features, including scan and read capability, at a lower price point. These include:

  • TextHelp! Read & Write Gold from TextHelp! Systems
  • Claro Read from claro software
  • Scan and Read Pro from Premier Assistive Technology
  • Last but not least is FreeOCR from FreeOCR.net. While this product will not read on its own, it can be used with a variety of free software programs to read the text its recognizes. Its hard to beat a free tool to perform opticalcharacter recognition.

Many of these companies offer demos of their software for trial use. Contact each vendor’s website for more details.


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Posted by atjimster

Caption Your YouTube Videos

September 4, 2009

YouTube offers an amazingly rich amount of information on various assistive technologies. Videos range from user created tutorials to manufacturer produce overviews of their products. Unfortunately, most of these videos have not been captioned for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired.

Google provided the capability for captioning early on for its Google Video site and brought this technology to YouTube after acquiring the site. AS of this time, YouTube captioning supports two formats, SubViewer and SubRip. These are basically text files that specify the timing and text for the captions. The problem is that creating these files by hand in a text editor is labor intensive and time consuming. Fortunately a free tool exists to make the process more efficient. Enter CaptionTube, a free Google Appspot tool designed to make the captioning process more convenient.

captiontube.appspot.com (Log in with your Google ID)

captiontube interface

The interface is easy to learn and hides all the complexity of time codes and formatting required by the .srt captioning format. Once you’ve finished captioning your video you can have a YouTube compatible caption file sent to your email address or downloaded to your computer. Once you have the file (with an .srt extension) follow these instructions to add the captions to your video:
(from the YouTube help page)

After logging into your YouTube account:

  1. Mouse over the ‘Account’ link in the upper right corner of every page.
  2. Click ‘My Videos’. You will then be directed to a page showing your uploaded videos.
  3. Find the video to which you’d like to add captions/subtitles, then click the ‘Edit’ button.
  4. Click the ‘Captions and Subtitles’ link in the menu bar.
  5. Click the ‘Browse’ button and find the caption/subtitle file to upload. Additional options will appear. Select the appropriate language. If you wish, you can also enter a track name.
  6. Click the ‘Upload’ button.

That’s it. Google will do the rest of the work for you. Wait a couple of hours and your video should now play with captions.

Chris Parillo created a short 3 minute video on the topic check it out.
(YouTube teaching YouTube, gotta love it!)

Overstream
Overstream is an alternative resource for captioning YouTube videos. The site offers a few more features for captioning but overall provides the same result; a YouTube compatible caption file in .srt format. It’s also free and worth a look. (You have to register and login to the site to use the captioning tool)

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Posted by atjimster

How to Create a FREE Talking Web Browser in Two Easy Steps

September 4, 2009
I spent a portion of my talk the other night discussing free alternatives to some of the commercial products for individuals with learning differences. Among these options was a set of freely available plugins to Mozilla Firefox (an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer) coupled with free web services such as Google Docs. With these plugins installed, Firefox gains speech output capability and becomes a powerful reading & writing tool.So the big question of the night was how can I do that? Well it takes 2 fairly simple steps which I’ll outline below.

Step 1: Install Mozilla Firefox

  • Visit www.mozilla.com and start the process by clicking the download button. Choose the save file option.

  • Double click on “FireFox Setup 3.5.xx.exe” file to launch the setup
  • Follow the steps shown in the setup wizard
  • Look for the Firefox icon to browse the web

Step 2: Install CLiCk, Speak: A Talking Extension for Firefox

Charles Chen has created an excellent plugin which adds simple point and click speech support to Firefox. Installation is quick and easy:

  • Visit the down load link on the CLiCk, Speak website.
  • Choose Save to Disk when prompted. Its easiest if you save the file to the desktop.
  • Start Firefox and drag the file labeled “clickspeak_bundle_v1.5_release.xpi” onto the firefox window. Click on “Install Now” in the box that appears.

  • Restart Firefox

When FireFox restarts you will see a new toolbar that looks something like this:

Whoila! That’s all there is too it. I’ll post again on using CLiCk, Speak to “speak” the web.

Here’s a video of the final steps for installation:

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Posted by atjimster

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