Author: AccessAbility Smyles

RightHear is a free app for the visually impaired to navigate around there surroundings. It is often difficult for a visually impaired person to locate where they are in relation to their surroundings. This clever little app tells you what is nearby and what is further away. Similar to Microsoft Soundscape I think this app is better as it gives clearer locations. I have a blind client who needs this so I will test run this app with him and get him to tell me how useful it might be

This is an app that I came across from the Teacher’s Development Trust. The app itself asks teacher’s 3 questions each day. The results are shared in the form of an article the next day. You can download the app for free and if you are a teacher you can join in.

Who can input questions? I found this on the website:–

Who Can Ask Questions in the Teacher Tapp Survey?

We have some ground rules, but most businesses, organisations, researchers or policymakers will be eligible to submit a question. Gain fast insight into the products and services that teachers want and need, boost your advocacy position or scope a new research project. The Teacher Tapp app gives valuable insights to your questions within hours. Find out more about how to submit a question here.

Teacher Tapp is available in app stores in the UK (and a small group of northern European countries).

And this I found when I searched how to submit a question:-

https://teachertapp.co.uk/targeted-opportunities-for-teachers/

So why have we gone red during Dyslexia Awareness month. Here is three reasons why AccessAbility Solutions are doing this

There is also a new feature called search. The above information was sought by using search window at the Top in the middle of the blue title bar. And by using smart look up was able to use and find the photo that I wanted. This feature will allow you to look at files and information and directly add them to your text within Microsoft Word and not having to leave it I’ll go in search elsewhere I also like the idea that for research purposes it includes some text along with this information.

This is a new feature which is in beta stage and obviously will be built more into the package but you can actually add it to your Microsoft 2019 package and start using it to see what it can do to aid students work and research methods. All this and no additional cost other than having the use of this package or paying a subscription for it. Simple ideas like this can really enhance learning. And I’m also using it with dictate to create this article which makes it even more interesting as a fully integrated method of working. Well done Microsoft for this feature which will help a lot of dyslexic students!

(Written with a combination of voice (major part) and keyboard(for editing)

This article is about Microsoft Word and the dictate function contained within it. I’m using a headset connected to a desktop computer which I originally had from dragon dictate. It is a bog standard headset with a 3.5 Jack.

So what I’m doing here as I’m writing with my voice. This new feature can really help me with my work especially when I’m thinking out loud.it does not contain all the full features of dragon dictate naturally speaking but it does have much value in just getting work down which is a strategy that can be used.

There are a few grammatical and sentence paragraph making tools. For instance i used..

..To create this paragraph. (Voice Command – “new paragraph”

It is actually quite efficient that creating dialogue and narrative. So it would be useful for children to get their ideas down in a flow kind of way. But any more complicated editing will require a more powerful package such as dragon dictate naturally speaking . I am pleasantly surprised about its accuracy for me. It does seem to be able to pick up my particular phraseology without any training whatsoever. It is most definitely a tool I will use in writing my blogs uncertain free flowing articles.

How does it cope with names and addresses? The answer is not particularly well the more complicated tool would be much more useful! As Some of the editing tools are very basic I feel the best way to use this is by a combination of keyboard and voice. This gives the best and most accurate results with a fairly free flowing movement which is pleasing impractical and not complicated.

Conclusion

 Microsoft Have done a great  job in creating a simple tool that would be of great value to those who don’t require a great deal of editing and more complex solutions. I feel it is a tool that can be very useful for those who want to practice speech recognition find out what its impact without too much fuss and bother. In fact it could be a first tool that people use in order to test out how good this would be for them in the future where they would move on to more complex packages.