The Assistive Technology Blog

Click on http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/magic/MAGic11-promo-dl.asp to access "the MAGic® 11.0 promotional release...a trial offer that lets you try the newest MAGic screen magnification release, which can run with or without the latest release of JAWS® 9.0. This promotional version operates without interruption until September 2008, so that you can try out the most recent product enhancements or take the opportunity to try MAGic in combination with JAWS."

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember hearing about the KNFB reader?

"Combining a state-of-the-art digital camera with a powerful personal data assistant housed in a custom-designed, attractive case, the knfb Reader Classic puts the best available character recognition software together with text-to-speech conversion technology, all in the palm of your hand. Hold the Reader's camera over print - a restaurant menu, directions, or a memo from your boss - and snap a picture. In seconds you can hear the contents of the printed document in clear synthetic speech. Scan, read, and discard pages; store them for later reading; or transfer to a computer or Braille-aware PDA. The Reader even has a headphone jack so you won't disturb your neighbors...a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies and the National Federation of the Blind."

Well, we all thought that the knfb reader is cool, but hearing the success stories is cooler:
http://www.knfbreader.com/stories.php.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are two websites that allow you to record PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, ,RSS news feeds, emails and web pages and convert them to speech automatically. These files can then be used to imbed into a powerpoint file, website, or placed on an mp3 player.

Check out Spokent Text or Read the Words

Posted by Mona at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you coming to today's Tech Tuesday session on "Advanced Digital Video Projects"? If so, the link to the wiki for today is http://udl4literacy.pbwiki.com/Digital+Video+Projects. If not, poke around on the site, read some of the ideas generated from the last session, and try out our step-by-step instructions for creating movies for alternate/alternative assessment or just for fun learning with your students!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

13th Biennial International Conference of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Designed for speech and language pathlogists, families, individuals who use AAC and/or who have speech challenges, teachers, occupational therapist and anyone else who who like to learn more about communication.

The conference will take place in Montréal, Québec, Canada, from August 2-7, 2008. In 2010 the conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain.

Continue reading "ISAAC 2008 Biennial Conference" »

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.microsoft.com/enable/news/newsletter/jul08.aspx to read "Accessibility in Action: Microsoft Lead Software Development Engineer Talks About His AT Solutions for Low Vision." In a video clip, a Microsoft software development engineer talks about his AT solutions for low vision including screen readers, multiple monitors, and screen settings.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)