has ceased trading – but still producing valuable assistive technology information
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:-
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 :-
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
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
“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.
Find out all you need to know about accessibility at:-
Came across this useful bit of information on text to speech input into Chromebooks, You can also use Voice Typing in Google docs as well. But what applications are there out there that controls the Chromebook? Let you know if I find some.
https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/chrome-os-chromebook-speech-recognition-2
This event occurred last week and there were at least three speakers I know – Hector Minto and Arran Smith (Microsoft) and Neil Millican ( Atos). Addressing the accessibility in Mainstream software they were looking at how assistive technology enable people to be employed and up front in all kings of organisations. Now I wasn’t there so why not take a look at this link for the whole event:-
https://futuredecoded.com/session/e9c8fee2-19b5-e811-bce7-000d3a2231dd
ChromeVox is the built-in screen reader that comes as accessibility tool as part of Chrome OS. It is quite useful and with it’s range of shortcuts powerful for those who are visually impaired on blind. I was testing a website on my chromebook and found that it was there!
If you have a Chromebook and want to try it out. Press CTRL+ALT+Z to enable it and to unenable it repeat the CTRL+ALT+Z. Use TAB to step through the options , speech guides you through. Search + space acts like enter and the cursor keys navigate in detail around a menu. Here is the help section link
AccessAbility Solutions 