Body implants

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

Recently I was involved in a car crash as I fainted at the wheel of my car and drifted across the white line into an oncoming car. No one, including myself was hurt which is amazing,

As the medical profession invested the cause I have been fitted with a sub-dermal heart monitor to keep an eye on my heart rhythms. This was decided in a few minutes so had little or no time to think about it.

Since that has happened some really interesting thoughts have been happening and felt it useful to share chance any readers face a similar situation.

Here are some of my initial questions:-

“Will it blow up inside my body?”

“Can they switch me off remotely?”

“Can the government track my location through it?”

“Will it get infected inside my body?”

Some questions are irrational. No it won’t blow up in my body or I won’t be switched off. Third parties do have access to the data for the purpose of improving their product but who controls the data? No, the government can’t track my location as it’s monitoring my heart beat not using GPS. Perhaps the only thing of concern is infection as it’s a foreign body under my skin but not inside my body.

I could ring the hospital and discuss my questions with them. I think that should be part of the process in any case for any implants as it;s invasive to the person and requires a minor 10 minute operation to complete with local anaesthetic.

“How long will it be there? Surely, it’s temporary till they sort the problem out?”

Well no, it will be there for at least three years. That’s the life span of the device. Which means the sending unit I will have to do everyday now. The heart monitor has to be scanned to a unit which sends the information off to the hospital via a 4G phone signal. When I am out and about and have a dizzy episode or God forbid another fainting episode I can send the details off via a remote pickup device.

What is the company doing this? Medtronics.

The Dyslexia show 2024

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

Friday 15th March

I am doing a workshop at The Dyslexia Show to show ways to encourage your child if they have dyslexia. The link below will take you to the information I will be sharing.

 Encouraging your child to achieve using assistive technology

Saturday 16th March

On Saturday I am speaking to educationalists on the subject of our film series which is free to download and use to promote the use of AT in the UK and beyond. Go to the website link and fill out a short form and within 24 hrs you will have the films. They are wonderful even though I say it myself!

The Power of Assistive Technology

https://bataonline.org/impact

Nasen AT Miniguide

As a follow on if you are a teacher or SENCO you might want to download the nasen miniguide that Julia Clouter and myself wrote this year. Great advice to share with your school or setting. A guide on how to do it.

https://nasen.org.uk/atminiguide

Encouraging your child to achieve using assistive technology

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

One of the most important ways you can help your child is to encourage them to use the assistive technology that is available to them. In this short article there will be some resources you can use that may help that goal.

First of all – relax. I know it sounds trite but kids soon pick up the anxiety of their parents and it stresses them, which I know is the last thing you want. So be a good actor and convince them you know, you listen and you empathise. Kids want to fit it and anything that makes them different means they will stand out from the crowd, which may be the last thing they want to happen.

What Assistive Technology is out there to help?

For many children with dyslexia the main barrier is the words on the page. If they struggle to read them it makes life difficult in our text-rich schools. It’s everywhere from the text on the walls to the books in the school library. How can we make this less threatening?

Try different fonts – here are some suggestions and links:-

Download Lexend from Google Fonts https://fonts.google.com/download/next-steps

Download Open Dyslexic from https://opendyslexic.org/download

Claro Scan Pen –£9.99 on iTunes App Store –https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/claro-scanpen/id994933713 – I know mobile phones are not encouraged to be used in school but maybe an alternative such as iPad may be allowed. This tool can enable any printed or screen to be read back to them.

Scanning Pens £274 on Amazon gives an in-your-pocket solution that your carry around with you. Discreet and with a set of ear plugs totally personal.

Immersive Reader in Microsoft 365 this can really help a child to decode the text in a classroom setting. You can also put it on the Home toolbar to make more accessible as this video explains.

Lastly, for some children with Dysexia getting it down on paper is the issue. Having great ideas but just can’t get it spelt correctly and my handwriting is so messy. So the following may help

Google Voice Typing in Google Docs on the Tools menu can help – Free with a Google Account

Dictate on the Home Tab in Microsoft Word, and in Powerpoint and OneNote – part of Microsoft 365

Read Aloud – The Edge Browser

Grammarly – free add-in for Microsoft Office https://www.grammarly.com/microsoft-office

Finally, from the talk here are links to the apps mentioned

Clicker Writer – £free https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/clicker-writer/id1487619204

Post-iT £free https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/post-it/id920127738

Glean – subsciption – https://glean.co/

Cantoo Scribe – £free in the Microsoft Store – https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9mv9zfv2rn3k?hl=en-us&gl=GB

iOS app £free with in-app purchases – https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/cantoo-scribe/id1583463899

TextAid – Subscription – https://www.readspeaker.com/solutions/text-to-speech-online/readspeaker-textaid/signup/

TextHelp ReadWrite – subscription & free – https://www.texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-and-write-education/

Goodnotes 6 -£free – in-app purchases – £9.99 a year £29.99 one-off purchase – https://apps.apple.com/us/app/goodnotes-6/id1444383602

Thursday Thirty @ CENMAC

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cenmacs-thursday-thirty-the-power-of-assistive-technology-at-miniguide-tickets-798202855227

Thirty minutes explaining why we did “The Power of Assistive Technology .” Book at the link above. It’s completely free . That’s happening tomorrow Thursday 14th March art 3:30 – 4.00pm

The Power of Assistive Technology – The Dyslexia Show 16th March

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

To download the films go to https://bataonline.org/impact

We collect some information so we can measure impact

Assistive Technology Miniguide can be downloaded as a PDF once you’ve joined Nasen at https://nasen.org.uk/atminiguide

Here are some free tools you may be interested in using in your school or educational setting:-

PC – WORD PREDICTION ON A PC 

Go to settings

In the search window type ” Typing ” and select Typing suggestions as you type.

You now have a basic word prediction to write the words they want to use.

CHROME EXTENSIONS THAT YOU CAN GET FROM THE CHROME WEB STORE ARE:-

Helperbird – suite of helpful changes to colour and layout

Readlax – strips any webpage of images to concentrate on text.

Natural reader – get any pdf document read or ebook 

ReadWrite – text to speech reader

Voice In – speech to text

Lightkey – AI word prediction tool

Ginger – spelling

Grammarly – sentence structiure and grammer checker

GOOGLE

Voice Typing – Google Docs has this feature in the Tools menu

Dictation in Gmail – adds voice input to emails

Chrome Browser – toolbar now has both voice search and picture/image searching

Google  Keep – note taking

APPS

Popplet Lite – £free  simple mindmapper with PDF, JPEG exports

Popplet Lite on the App Store (apple.com)

Clicker Writer – £free  – construct sentences using cells.

 Clicker Writer on the App Store (apple.com)

Claro ScanPen £9.99 – easy to use whole page text to speevch reader  https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/claro-scanpen/id994933713

Claro Scan Pen Premium OCR scanner  £free – worth trying to see how you like the approach

Claro Speak Plus £9.99 – on screen  https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/clarospeak-plus/id845128025 

MICROSOFT 365 

(can be run on a Chrome book)

Dictate – speech to text on Home tab in Word

Immersive Reader – text to speech  with lots of visual tools  as well

ReadAloud – in Word and in The Edge.

Chromebooks need wifi

IPADS

Spoken Word for text to speech

Microphone on Keyboard 

Swiftkey to provide word prediction  on the onscreen keyboard – you add a swiftkey keyboard

The Power of AT films – signup from http://bataonlone.org/im[pact

Nasen miniguide – 

https://nasen.org.uk/atminiguide

A white background with black text Description automatically generated

st dominic’s school handout for inset day

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

PC – word prediction on a PC 

Go to settings

In the search window type ” Typing ” and select Typing suggestions as you type.

You now have a basic word prediction to write the words they want to use.

Chrome extensions that you can get from the Chrome Web Store are:-

Helperbird – suite of helpful changes to colour and layout

Readlax – strips any webpage of images to concentrate on text.

Natural reader – get any pdf document read or ebook 

ReadWrite – text to speech reader

Voice In – speech to text

Lightkey – AI word prediction tool

Ginger – spelling

Grammarly – sentence structiure and grammer checker

Google

Voice Typing – Google Docs has this feature in the Tools menu

Dictation in Gmail – adds voice input to emails

Chrome Browser – toolbar now has both voice search and picture/image searching

Google  Keep – note taking

Apps

Popplet Lite – £free  simple mindmapper with PDF, JPEG exports

Popplet Lite on the App Store (apple.com)

Clicker Writer – £free  – construct sentences using cells.

 Clicker Writer on the App Store (apple.com)

Claro ScanPen £9.99 – easy to use whole page text to speevch reader  https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/claro-scanpen/id994933713

Claro Scan Pen Premium OCR scanner  £free – worth trying to see how you like the approach

Claro Speak Plus £9.99 – on screen  https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/clarospeak-plus/id845128025 

Microsoft 365 

(can be run on a Chrome book)

Dictate – speech to text on Home tab in Word

Immersive Reader – text to speech  with lots of visual tools  as well

ReadAloud – in Word and in The Edge.

Chromebooks need wifi

iPads

Spoken Word for text to speech

Microphone on Keyboard 

Swiftkey to provide word prediction  on the onscreen keyboard – you add a swiftkey keyboard

The Power of AT films – signup from http://bataonlone.org/im[pact

Nasen miniguide – 

https://nasen.org.uk/atminiguide

Download Lexend from Google Fonts https://fonts.google.com/download/next-steps

Download Open Dyslexic from https://opendyslexic.org/download/

Putting immersive Reader on word’s home tab

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

Grateful thanks to TechAbility for this little tip which puts Immersive Reader more visible and therefore more accessible to users. Just follow the link below to LinkedIn and watch the video following the clear steps to make it work for you.

Putting Immersive Reader on Word’s Home TAB

HOMEPOD MINI Smart speaker

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

I had to try and solve a problem where the Homepod Mini required a password to use AirPlay. On investigation it became clear that it wasn’t possible to use the Home app on my iphone to change it. So I thought it best to take the HomepOd Mini back to my home and work on it in the morning which I did.

After some research it wasn’t clear how you set it up. But I did find how to reset the device which involves holding down a press on the top of the device in the centre. This gives a factory reset and then releases the Homepod to be re-initalised with your iPhone or IPad device.

The Homepod mini now plays from the iPhone or IPad and appears to work as it should without passwords.

Echo connect to be discontinued

Posted on by AccessAbility Smyles

The above device is being discontinued. I presume to fit in line with digital devices that no longer need a landline. It’s due to finish at the end of February. I have a blind client who depends on this device to use her answerphone and access phonelines with auto answerting systems.

This raises the point. Does progress always have to involve changing the status quo? In disability accessbility this is a key question. Sudden and often inexplainable changes are foisted on the disability. Let me give you some recent examples .

  • smart speakers cannot access emails since 2015
  • TV guides no longer give information on local regional programmes
  • smart speakers don’t switch on TV’s , even though they can switch them off
  • smart speakers can no longer search for phone numbers and ring them

In the UK we have this thing called GDPR ( General Data Protection Regulation) which is there to protect individual rights. But when it actually blocks the rights of disabled person communication it becomes a barrier to access. At least I think some of the above changes are due to GDPR. All the above were once done on smart speakers.

Technicians love to change things. Again for disabled people change can mean the difference between access and non-access. Especially if you are blind and using a screenreader. I was helping someone this week who was blind and he was trying to navigate ChatGPT and there are broken and orphan links all over the site. The webpage looks visually fine but obviously changes have been made and not removed they remained and they are “visible” ( excuse the pun) to a screen reader! Making access to the site less navigable to a blind person.

If consideration is for all surely standard practise should be the inclusion of disabled people into the design process of any website or equipment to check whether it works for them. Apart from providing employment to disabled people it could give valuable inclusive practises that could be vital for the growing numbers of disabled people int the world.