Author: AccessAbility Smyles

Assistive technology has the ability to transform the lives of your children who have dyslexia. Along with other more traditional strategies, we could see a generation begin to fulfill their potential . Can’t stress enough how AT impacts self-esteem. 

“The Power of AT” is a project that is close to my heart. 80% of schools in the UK have Assistive Technology. But how well is it used and how fit for purpose is the hardware and infrastructure in schools to benefit from it?  But there is something you can always do – even minimally. This series of films we want to give freely to schools shows its importance. 

We are also in an era where interoperability between the different platforms makes that dream of access possible. Two single most elements that are now in the mainstream operating systems are text to speech ( the computer reads to you) and speech-to-text ( you speak to the computer). Coupled with other technologies that will be demonstrated such as word prediction. They are powerful to enable your child or children who have dyslexia to benefit from AT and help overcome their barriers to recording. ​

Text to speech with highlighting can enable a student to hear and see the word being spoken in context. This can now be done in browsers. Also via extensions in Google Chrome using the ReadWrite extension or even Hyperbird  or Natural Reader free extensions. ​

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The value of cloud-based learning is that work can be saved and retrieved on any device in any location. 

The same applies to Microsoft 365. From Office 2016 and upwards the use of Dictate on the Home menu gives you speech to text whilst Immersive Reader allows any work put in to be read back and highlighted. At home this is powerful and not embarrassing to the child. Microsoft Edge has Read Aloud which allows any website to be read back and you can even change page backgrounds to make the reading easier. ​

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You can also have word prediction on your Windows 10/11 machine switched on by going to Settings and typing in Typing settings and switch on suggest as I type option.

Must mention Grammarly as useful tool for my grammer and your child’s grammar there is also a useful add-in to Word (https://www.grammarly.com/office-addin)

This is a short list of apps that I have found useful to suggest to parents.  Details of how to get hold of them and the costs involved are below:-​

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Claro ScanPen – £9.99 Claro ScanPen on the App Store (apple.com)​

Claro Speak – £free – ClaroSpeak – Literacy Support on the App Store (apple.com)​

Remember the Milk – To-Do List – £free –Remember The Milk: To-Do List on the App Store (apple.com)​

Class Timetable -£free – Class Timetable on the App Store (apple.com)​

Dyslexia.ai – Smart Phonics – £free Dyslexia.ai – Smart Phonics on the App Store (apple.com)​

Clicker Writer – £free –Clicker Writer on the App Store (apple.com) 

New Kid on the block – Chatgpt

This is controversial as it does the work for you! So in schools, this would be classed as plagiarism. It is using artificial intelligence to answer questions you put it and provides you with text. There are pros and cons.​

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Pros​

Enables children to find out things – like Google Search – buit have presented in a literate form​

Very fast – in seconds​

Gets children to learn how to ask the right questions​

It’s impressive ​

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Cons​

Not always accurate or up to date – so needs checking. Bing ChatGPT gives sources ​

Does the work for you when the teacher is asking a child to compose it themselves ​

Schools don’t know yet what to do with it​

I don’t know yet what to do with it!!​

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Comes with a warning! Maybe used for secondary aged children doing research. I think children should state they used Chatgpt to do their work

Customising your Browser

You can make your browser experience more accessible. Dark Theme may help your child to make reading a bit more bearable. Live captions are on Windows 11 and Google Chrome. Just follow these instructions:-​

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Microsoft Edge​

1. Go to settings​
2. Then Appearance – select “Dark”​
3. Then Theme – whichever colour you want your display ​
4. ​

Google Chrome​

1. Go to Settings​
2. Then Accessibility – live caption

This is an Artificial Intelligence natural language tool that automates processes by the user asking questions, This could be very useful for those with neurodiversity who find getting their ideas down on paper slow and laborious due to spelling and processing errors.

The creation of articles takes a few seconds and the responses are accurate up to 2021 when the language engine was made. Important to not that on the version I was using.There is now a ChatGPT-4 which gives even more functionality. If you want to see an example I asked it to write about itself and the link below takes you to the response.

https://webapp.chatgpt4google.com/s/MTg0NTcx

It certainly was a great time! So many good sessions and all the dyslexic organisations and suppliers under one roof was very impressive. Apart from the networking it was a great time to team up with people I have worked with and am working with.

It was a full event for my session on Assistive Technology in the classroom and workplace and I saw people making notes about the apps and hardware I recommended. It’s all in the presentation as well.

I think a bonus was Comic Con was taking place at the same time so seeing someone with a giant squirrel on their back and a lady dressed as a cone covered in flowers certainly adds the surrealness of this event.

Hope to see you next year! Keep up the good work!

Yes, just a few more weeks before speaking at The Dyslexia Show event on “The use of assistive technology in the classroom and the workplace” on Friday 24th March at 12:00pm. I have a few announcements to make that are really exciting as well. I can’t say too much now, but it involves a couple of projects I have been working on over the past few months. So why not come along? There are a multitude of speakers and opportunities to learn and network at the event. Click here to register

I am speaking at this event on Friday 13th January 2023 at 1:00pm. Contact https://www.dyslexialondon.org/contact-us/ to book your place.