Changing lives one person at a time with assistive technology
Millenium Comunity Solutions is a unique venture in the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark to reach out to the black community who have disabilities and need the skills of the future. Do contact via Eventbrite at:_
Skills for Tomorrow: Information session Tickets, Wed 25 May 2022 at 12:00 | Eventbrite
I had a request to help with a client who is blind to be able to write into Word using speech input and then have it read back to her. Voice Over does not work because it clashes with Speech input.
This has been done via an iPad as the client needs a light tool to use as the client is bed bound.
I then looked at Voice Control which I have been impressed with and actually does work effectively as a dictation tool. Now, the problem was how do I get the text to read back. Read Aloud provided a workable solution which enables the user to use commands such as :-
“Go to the beginning “. “ Go to the end”
“ Press Play” will begin the text to speech.
The only thing that is needed is to keep Read Aloud open and ready to accept control by the Voice control tool. Here is what it looks like:-
I have just joined the Dyslexia Box team as a freelance trainer. I hope to branch out my skills into the workplace setting. For more information about what Dyslexia Box do please take a look at their website https://dyslexiabox.co.uk/
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-s4btv-11eea87
Fabulous time at the ABLE Conference in Beirut and The Dyslexia Show
www.podbean.com/ei/pb-s4btv-11eea87
Learn about assistive technology in the Lebanon as well as what happened at The Dyslexia Show at the NEC Birmingham
After two years of postponement due to COVID 19 I was able to travel to Beirut and take part in this important summit on Accessibility and Inclusion in the Lebanon.
I gave a 2 talks in the end:-
“ Smart Future for the Disabled”
&
“Making the Impossible, Possible”
These talks were decided last year and the position hadn’t change in the country then. I was impressed as all of us who were speaking were all saying the same thing . Things like:-
“On size solutions don’t work”
“It’s all about matching the technology to need”
“It’s about making an individual impact by working together as a team”
“Can we be 2% better than we were before?”
Both talks came and went and it must have gone well as there were people who came up to me to talk. Even students did that which I was pleased about. They even wanted selfies with me! Rock star status! No, I don’t think this septuagenarian can think that.
I did my best to encourage them to continue and make a difference. Explaining my own Make a difference story with my name on a high speed train!
I am in Beirut now for the 2022 ABLE Summit. I thought it would be good to re-publish this .
An experiment to see if a real-time event can be shared to a website. I will let you know when I have done the session tomorrow at The Dyslexia Show – ” Using assistive technology that makes a difference. ”
Here is a link to a handout for that session. Feel free to share!
Assistive Technology That Makes a Difference Handout
This could carry on after the show and therefore useful for engagement beyond an event – and beyond the classroom. In fact a classroom could ( hypothetically!) be running 24/7, 365 days a year!
Here are a list of dates and conferences I will be speaking at in the next couple of months. Do feel free to come along and speak with us at the The Dyslexia Show or join us on the online virtual conferences I will be doing on:-
17th March British Dyslexia Conference
Speaking on ” Building confidence in using Assistive Technology”
25th March The Dyslexia Show
Speaking on: ” “Using assistive technology that makes a difference.”
https://dyslexiashow.co.uk/for-education/education-seminars/
23rd April PATOSS Virtual Conference and AGM
Speaking on ” Free and Accessible Software”
In working with the above organization and the black community it is interesting to note that dyslexia occurs in the black community as well. I was approached to train a group in the use of Assistive Technology and questions were asked about translation from African languages such as Swahili. Also is there anything that works and speaks with Jamaican Patwah(Patois). I came across this information which may be of interest to you.
I have been looking into what can be done to help translate. I can see that Google Translate works with Swahili, Somali for African nations. Anyway, here is a link to try that out-
This is the one I demonstrated:-
https://translator.microsoft.com/start
It does a similar thing.
There are these websites that deal with Jamaican to English that might help.Jamaican Patwah – Patois/Creole and Slang Dictionary
It has this translator tool on it:-
AccessAbility Solutions 