Saturday, October 26, 2013

Assistive Technology on iOS devices and Macbooks

On Monday I went to an assistive technology conference at the Apple Office in downtown Chicago. It was great to be back there. We started the conference by learning about good apps for iPad. The first speaker was Bill Ziegler (bziegler@mac.com & billziegler.com). He shared quite a few iOS apps with us. These are the few that stood out for me.

Clicker Sentence $26.99
Clicker Docs $30.99
Abilipad $19.99
These 3 were suggested as alternatives to Proloquo2go which is $219.99. I have not tried any of them but I think they each have their strengths. They are not just for those with disabilities but for any beginning or struggling writer.
PaperPort Notes  Free
This one has speech to text and annotation features and it is FREE.
If you are into Pinterest a great person to follow for assistive tech is Lauren Enders. She pins new items almost daily.
Dexteria $3.99 and Dexteria Jr. $2.99
Develop fine motor and handwriting readiness skills
MeMoves $9.99
An app for calm and focus
Here is a great app that everyone can use. I had actually installed it months ago but never had the time to test it or use it. It must have been free when I downloaded it because I rarely pay for apps. It connects your iPhone or iPad with your desktop screen. It is a remote desktop app.
Splashtop for computer Free
iOS app  $4.99

We heard from 2 other speakers. The only other nugget that I gleaned from them was this
App Wheel for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Mark Coppin the creator was one of our speakers. This wheel is very well done. He said he created it because he saw an app list for kids with ASD and it had Angry Birds on it.

This document contains all the accessibility features that can be found on the Macbook and iOS device. It is quite extensive at 6 pages long. It is a great reference guide to keep around. There are so many options you could never remember them all. I'm sure there are some great You Tube videos out there too to support you if you need a visual.
Universal Access Features of Mac OS X & iOS

I hope you are able to find at least one thing to use with your students from this list.  

1 comment:

  1. Excellent article. Very interesting to read. I really love to read such a nice article. Thanks! keep rocking.
    IOS Training

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