Assistive Technologies

There are many ways that technology can assist families and teachers. A basic feature of apple computers that many people many not know about is the text-to-speech app. Once the feature is activated all one has to do is highlight text from any application on your screen and it will be read out loud by the computer. This could be with students with hearing problems. Teachers notes or student notes could be download and then with headphones could be listened to.

I also recently learned about an application call Proloquo2Go is product from AssistiveWare that provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It brings natural sounding text-to-speech voices, close to 8000 up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a large default vocabulary, full expandability and extreme ease of use to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Talk to Me Technologies is a local store that assists people with significant speech impairments in obtaining assistive communication technology known as “augmentative communication” or AAC.

PE Central is website that offers lessons, ideas, and suggestions on various sport activities for students with special needs.