Author: AccessAbility Smyles

The above sites have different but complimentary functions. Both deal with conferences or meeting situations where feedback from the meeting participants are useful to the teacher/lecturer/speaker.

There is a reduced rate for teachers for Sli-do and Meetoo looks free or similar discount for teaching situations. If your participants want to ask a question Sli.do puts the question up on screen. You join a meeting via the Sli-do site and hashtag the meeting address.

If you want to survey your audienmce than Meetoo offers a simple and effective way to poll your audience. I found both these websites simple and easy to use both as a participant and a teacher creating them.

I intend to try them out with my university students next year.

Bath Spa and Nasen conducted a survey with Dr Helen Curran into the workload of SENCO’s in the UK. The survey attracted over a thousand respondents from state schools and 78% said they did not have sufficient time to do the role.

For more details and insights go to:-

SENCO National Workload Study

Apple talk at TechSharePro about the accessibility of their products which they see as not being a mandatory thing so much as an essential principle they adhere to and permeates through their entire product line . In other words learn one apple product you have learnt them all. For more information go to :-

Http://www.apple.com/accessibility

Google have free online courses covering mainly digital marketing but there are courses that as an individual you might want to take such as effective networking

https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/courses

waytoB  is your personal guide and direction finding app. Designed for people with learning disabilities it would help anyone who struggles with getting lost. A toll for Community Occupationalists and Support workers in supported and residential loving it could be used as  a travel training tool. It is Android based and needs a smart watch for alerts.

Twin Science are a new company with good ideas for control technology in schools for blind and braille users. These bricks are tactile friendly and labelled with braille so the user knows what they are handling

Also they have a nifty attachment to your blind stick which makes it a smart stick. You can connect with alexa, and answer your phone from the stick handle. Magic for blind users!

details about the company to follow!

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TechSharePro 2018

Attended the TechSharePro event At Barclays, Canary Wharf today. Here are some of the highlights

Google Accessibility

Voice access – control the whole of the device, voice control on a chromebook? Can’t wait to try it out!

Research – User research

Important ideas can come from just 5 people!

Accessible Media – 150,000 programmes with Audio Description

Channel 4 very good audio description

BBC no proprietry open standard format . Able to mix and create good audio description. Interchangeable media incorporating all types.

Samsung tv’s do have fairly good accessibility features

And a 32inch screen but alas you have to press the remote button to access voice control

Accessibility Theatre

National Theatre are using Smart glasses for open caption theatre. Brilliant idea and looks a cool place to visit if you are hearing impaired.

Great stats!!

Great plans for the future

Body mapping for non-verbal communicating children – didnt quite catch this talk but sounded interesting as body image is everything in our culture these days

Neil Millican – Sustainable Accessibility

IAAP & Apprenticeship, RNIB, HEX DESIGN, ABILITYNET – recognised profession

Trail blazer group first intake for Apprenticeship in 2019

Reduced reality – filter over stimulation

Make disability factors mandatory (Amen!)

VivifyMe – Android and apple in the future . Launching August 2019

Dementia friendly app but can’t tell you what it does yet ! Because i honestly don’t know!

Lewis Hine – “friend finder”

Http://Www.lewishine.org

http://www.nosolation.com

“Prom in a box “ – live prom link through A1 robot – great idea to get teens and young people who because of illness miss so much to attend a prom.