ALELDUniversalDesign2
From LiteracyTentWiki
From: RKenyon721@aol.com
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4867] Web Page Accessibility
Date: September 22, 2005 12:42:44 PM EDT
Dr. Lee,
I am forwarding a question from Dr. Debra Hargrove. If this topic is planned for another day this week, feel free to answer it at that time.
Thank you,
Rochelle Kenyon
Dr. Lee,
As a coordinator of a technology project in Florida, we are working hard to make our Florida TechNet pages accessible to adults with disabilities. In a previous post, you mentioned WAVE. I went to the website and "waved" the Florida TechNet page. I'm not sure what the difference is between having your page "wave" approved and "Bobby" approved. Can you shed some light on that?
Also, what's been your experience with web sites attempting to conform with Section 508 guidelines?
Thanks,
Debra L. Hargrove
Coordinator
Florida TechNet
From: christopherlee@mindspring.com
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4868] Re: Freeware
Date: September 22, 2005 1:42:23 PM EDT
Thanks Rochelle,
Also, the LDA conference will be in Jacksonville, Florida in February/March 2006. I am working with the FAAST (www.faast.org)to help run the assistive technology computer lab. Any additional volunteers from Florida TechNet that would like to participate in the lab --let me know! It would be a way for them to attend the conference sessions.
From: christopherlee@mindspring.com
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4870]
Date: September 23, 2005 11:29:12 AM EDT
For our last day I want to introduce you to Premier Assistive Technology
http://www.readingmadeeasy.com. They have a great product line and when you have the time check out their sight and demo some of the products. Please send
me any feedback you might have about what you see and use.
Some of the products include:
- Ultimate Talking Dictionary – This has some unique features.
- Text to Audio
- PDF Magic Pro – This does a nice job of converting PDF to other file
formats.
- Talking Word Processor
- Literacy Productivity Pack #1
If you like what you see then send an email to Info@readingmadeeasy.com and put “Class Promotion” in the subject line. Include your physical mailing address in the body of the email.
I have enjoyed this week and look forward to the feedback you send to Rochelle. I hope the information we discussed this week was useful to you.
Christopher
Christopher M. Lee, Ph.D., Director
Alternative Media Access Center
331 Milledge Hall
Athens, Georgia 30602-5875
Phone: 706.542.4589
Fax: 706.583.0001
www.amac.uga.edu
From: SUJones@parkland.edu
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4871] question ;)
Date: September 23, 2005 5:21:02 PM EDT
I have a question that came to me today (or I'd have asked earlier :))
I'm in a computer lab at a community college. E is taking an online psych course; lots of terms and definitions. She takes a whole lot longer to do things on the computer because of CP (she uses a wheelchair); she's managing to get C's on the no-time-limit, open-book quizzes (except for some aggravating issues with the system logging her off which have been dealt with). However, the final will not be open-book. She's gonna need to study this stuff. (The open-book C's are a mixture of, I think, physical logistical issues - makes guesses 'cause it would take too long to find the answer in the book, and sometimes really just doesn't understand what she reads (sometimes she's found exactly the right passage but selects the wrong answer, even though she knows what it says).
I often counsel students in making flash cards of imnportant terms but the time that would take and the quality of the product makes that an unfeasible option. Any ideas out there for her for ways to study? We've got access to Kurzweil down the hall and other odds & ends...
Susan Jones
Academic Development Specialist
Academic Development Center
Parkland College
Champaign, IL 61821
sujones@parkland.edu
Webmastress,
http://www.resourceroom.net
From: jn@cloudworld.co.uk
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4872] LD and intensive phonics
Date: September 23, 2005 5:27:16 PM EDT
Hello Christopher,
I am sorry I coming into this session rather late. I hope I am not too late to join in with some questions.
1. Do people with LD have different teaching requirements?
I am trying to find out whether there is any difference in the teaching requirements for teaching people with LD to read, and teaching people with dyslexia to read. I haven't found any factor to distinguish them, as regards their reading (dis)ability.
2. Is poor reading due to poor teaching?
Also I want to find out to what extent the poor reading, or non-reading, is due to misguided teaching. I often see that there are attempts to teach whole word recognition rather than word decoding, especially for people with LD, who may be considered incapable of the necessary phonological awareness. In the Clackmannanshire study, it was shown that a 'phonics first and fast' approach worked marvels for all the children, and by the end of primary school they were three years ahead in reading age compared to their peers taught by the 'conventional' teaching of a mixture of methods (including an element of phonics, together with guessing strategies, etc.). I suspect that anybody who has learnt to speak is also capable of the phonological awareness required for reading and writing, given appropriate teaching.
3. Left brain development for rapid decoding
Finally I wonder whether the right brain development in some poor readers is because they have developed skills for whole word recognition, and with the right teaching, their left brain would be developed to enable rapid decoding, even in older children.
Cheers from Chiswick,
John
John Nissen,
director Cloudworld Ltd
maker of the WordAloud assistive reader
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk
From: djrosen@comcast.net
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4875] Reviews of Assistive Technology Products
Date: September 25, 2005 9:25:16 AM EDT
Dr. Lee,
I am often asked about what are good assistive technology products for particular needs, and if there is a Web site that reliably reviews assistive technology products. One that I am aware of is abledata, http://www.abledata.com/ . Are there others? What assistive product review Web sites -- if any -- would you recommend?
Thank you for all your help this past week.
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
From: christopherlee@mindspring.com
Subject: [NIFL-LD:4876] RE: CP Questions
Date: September 26, 2005 9:28:54 AM EDT
Susan,
There are a few computer based programs out there - however, without knowing the functional limitations of "E" it is hard to point you in good directions.
1) I would recommend that she has an AT evaluation as soon as possible. I would contact your State Tech Act Project(http://www.resna.org/taproject/at/statecontacts.html )and see if you could set up an apt. with them. There should be "no" fee to set up an apt..
2)I would consider checking out voice recognition software (I am a fan of Dragon Naturally Speaking- http://www.scansoft.com/naturallyspeaking/) for student E. This will be a great tool if her CP prevents her access to the computer and she is going ot be declining.
3)Vocational Rehabilitation service might beadle to help with the cost of Dragon.
4)Kurzweil 3000, (check to see if you have 1000 or 3000) a text-to-speech program that combines the "reading" of text with an array of language and study tools.
New features in version 6.0 offer students flexibility in accessing and comprehending print and Web-based information. Students can select the features appropriate to their learning profile and objectives. Student "E" could benefit from the voice notes feature - mostly used for students with shot-term memory problems.
If student "E" finds reading challenging due not being able to turn a page the text-to-speech feature of Kurzweil 3000 is an invaluable resource. This is an improvement over books-on-tape support many students used previously.
With Kurzweil you have ability to create vocabulary lists, idea previews, and questions eases the pre-reading process. Susan students might find using the notes and sticky notes tools helpful if she can access them. However, to be able to access the "Sticky Notes" feature required us to scan and save the text in the .kesi extension-the Kurzweil file format. Although the documentation provided with the program is clear and comprehensive, the limitation regarding sticky notes is not apparent and can be a slight setback. Once comfortable with the use of sticky notes, students can easily margin-note as they go along. This will take some time for you to set up --
5) Susan I would be happy to talk with you over the phone about other resources and strategies.
Lots out there --
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