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Are you doing anything to celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Week this year? Maybe you could share one experience of a positive nature you have with dyslexia. If so please make a comment here I will place it on our blog. In the meantime here is some information from TextHelp ( supplier of software that enables Dyslexic learners).

TextHelp Dyslexia Awareness Week

Received this from Kate Hudson of Valiant Technology Ltd about Roamer – floor robot – and Scratch programming app. She says :-

“Great News!

Roamer® Scratch X is one of the extensions chosen by MIT to feature on their site.

http://scratchx.org/#extensions

Here you will find not only an example activity but also documentation and videos showing how to use it.

A fabulous resource for special schools and parents of children with severe and complex needs. Please take a look at this subscription based service from Inclusive Technology and what they have to offer

100 Games and Activities 

Inclusive Technology has produced their latest catalogue for communication aids which is a source of great information from a variety of sources. It’s a handbook worth seeing. So take a click over to the link below:-

Click to access voca-communication-1516.pdf

Simple is best. This app allows books in epub format to be seen in a dyslexia friendly way. It doesn’t have a lot of features but what it does is keep it simple for the user to use. Backgrounds to the text are highlighted a line at a time for ease of use for the dyslexic user as well as pupils with tracking problems. Text can be enlarged to suit users with visual impairments. There is an on-board dictionary that speaks out the meaning of words. Text can’t be read back as this feature detracts form the reading that the student can do and keeping it simple was the main point of the software. There is a demo version for free which only has the ability for you to learn the main features of handy book. To add books to the library there is a “bookshelf” option and for £4.95 from the Play Store you can download the app yourself and add books to it. There isn’t a iOS version or PC version .

It has been evaluated independently and you can read this from their website :-

http://www.handysoftware.co.uk/testimonials/

For use as a kindle-type ereader it would be useful for schools to purchase a few cheap android tablets and have these as an additional tool for access to literacy for dyslexia readers. It does one job really well in my opinion.

Updates to Apple products will take place on September 16th including the much anticipated split screen , multitasking browsing experience. Other features include more enhanced capability for Siri to be more proactive in suggestions to help you get things done. And enhancement to the security, battery life and performance of the operating system. Read more about this and other features at :-

http://www.apple.com/ios/?sr=hotnews.rss

Mentioned this earlier this week but they have sent a more up-front notice in terms of my article. Please share with your colleagues and contacts if its of interest to you.

A New Special World

Special World.net is a great wealth of information and they have kindly printed my article “A learning adventure” which explains the work done with St John’s School and College , Brighton. Please share this widely if it’s useful to you!

http://www.specialworld.net/2015/09/04/a-learning-adventure/

Thanks to Fill McIntrye for sending out information about this:-

Beaumont College is recruiting an Assistive Technologist.
Beaumont College in Lancaster is an outstanding Further Education College for young people with a broad range of physical and learning disabilities.
This role will involve the provision of assistive technology based assessment, training and on-going support to the staff and students at the college and at three other satellite services within a defined area. The post holder is expected to work in collaboration with a number of others in order to deliver a highly personalised service to Scope’s service users.
Full details are available on the Scope website. http://www.scope.org.uk/jobs/assistive-technologist-beaumont-college
If you would like an informal conversation about the post please contact fil.mcintyre@scope.org.uk
The closing date for applications is Friday 18 September.

Please forward to any relevant individuals or groups

Inclusive Technology are offering free webinairs in September to schools and interested settings. You can book your place or catch on a previous webinair at:-

FREE Inclusive Webinairs