Blog Post 12

There are many useful Assistive technology tools that I can use in my classroom. Every student that goes to school have different needs. Some students may not be able to hear well or see well. That’s why it is useful to know about the different Assistive technologies available for students with disabilities to use.

For instance, apple I-Pads are very useful to have while teaching a vision impaired student. Apple I-Pad has a Voice-over control that speaks before you click on an app. It also has shortcuts that are easy to remember which help vision impaired students access the I-Pad without having to look at it. There are also some great apps that you can download that are easily accessible for visually impaired people. One app that I thought would be very useful is called Ever-note. It supports Voice-over and can store voice notes and text so they can be accessed over any device. Another great app that can be used by the visually impaired is LookTel Money Reader. LookTel Money Reader allows you to take a picture of paper money, and tells you what the monetary value of that bill is. To find out some more useful apps check out this link.  http://appadvice.com/applist_ipad_client_view/apps-for-the-visually-impaired

Braille Note Takers are another useful tool for the visually impaired. Braille Note Takers can help the visually impaired student type up documents using a braille keyboard. This product can connect to your computer using a USB port. I think this is a very helpful product because visually impaired people can easily tell which letter is which, and it allows them to type up documents for school or work. Find out more about Braille Note Takers at this link. http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/blindness/braillenotes

Many children who wear hearing aids still have difficulty hearing and understanding a parent or teacher’s words when there is lots of background noise and over short distances. This communication challenge also applies to many normal-hearing children who suffer from concentration-related disorders. A useful tool that can be used in the classroom to help solve this problem is a personal frequency modulation system or an FM system. FM amplifier is an interesting tool that helps eliminates background noise and transmits sounds directly to the student’s hearing aid.  A personal frequency modulation system consists of a transmitter microphone that the speaker wears, and a pair of headphones that receives the information the speaker is saying. This is useful if you have a hearing impaired student, or a student who has trouble concentrating with noise in the background. The child hears the speaker’s words directly in their ears, without any distracting background noise, allowing them to enjoy and participate fully in every conversation. I think this is a great way to include every student even if they have a disability. http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/FM-Systems/

Brittany Stanchio did the PowerPoint on Assistive Technology.
Amber Warren and Daphnie Pugh did the written part of the blog post.