Over the past several years, Microsoft has been gaining ground in the battle for most accessible computing systems. During that time, Windows has made vast improvements in its out-of-box accessibility. And now with a new Windows OS on the horizon, it’s evident that Microsoft has embraced the concepts of universal design and accessibility in a big way.

Windows 11 seeks to pack in even more accessibility features than the already impressive Windows 10. In today’s e-bulletin, we’re going to dive into those features a bit, but keep in mind, some of the features that we’re looking at today might change or be updated as OS continues to evolve.

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Watching Philippe sing his songs, you’ll notice he can be a bit of a one man band — he’ll sing, he’ll play the guitar, he’ll do the percussion all at once, sometimes he’ll even throw in a harmonizer effect to create harmonies by himself.

Born blind in Clair, New Brunswick, Philippe started his musical journey at five years old, and he can play almost any instrument you can name. He learns songs by ear and adds his own flavour to them, and is a prolific songwriter himself.

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Our friends at the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation are recruiting Canadian subjects to test two new assistive switch designs. If you have ALS or Muscular Dystrophy and would be interested in participating, see below. Even if you are ineligible to take part in the research, there is an opportunity to help improve the designs, which will be released on the Makers Making Change library when the study concludes.

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With so much conversation being shifted to the digital realm these days, grammar apps have become increasingly popular. Most of these apps correct user’s grammar mistakes in real time rather than teach the fundamentals of grammar, as those apps are typically designed for users who are already familiar with basic grammar but might need a little extra reminder from time to time.

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Do you use Microsoft Lens? Today we’ll explain how you can scan from your Microsoft Lens to OneNote on your iOS device.

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We were thrilled to welcome MLA, Brenda Bailey, Parliamentary Secretary for Technology and Innovation, to our head office yesterday in Burnaby. Ms. Bailey received a hearing evaluation in our fully accessible Hearing Solutions lab, demoed some assistive technology in our Solutions lab, and visited our Makers Making Change lab to learn about affordable open source assistive technologies.

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In the last couple decades, educators have learned a lot about effective study techniques. And while there isn’t a one-size-fits-all option that works for everyone, it’s become apparent that keeping students engaged in the material is of the upmost importance in ensuring students actually retain what they learn. This is especially true in 2021 where most of us are hyper-connected to our smartphones and social media and all the distractions that come with it. Not to mention during the current covid-19 pandemic, not every student is getting sufficient access to teachers, aides, tutors, or even their peers.

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Read our simple 10-step instructions for using Microsoft Lens’s Immersive Reader on iOS devices.

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Here is how you can use ClaroPDF to scan and read aloud on your iPad.

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For many students, properly planning, organizing, and completing their homework is one of the bigger obstacles they’ll face in school. This is especially true for students who struggle with attention-based challenges such as ADHD or other executive functioning disorders. Of course, every student is typically given a paper agenda/calendar at the beginning of the school year, but what if the student struggles with print-based disabilities, or they simply lose or don’t use their paper agenda? As we’ll see from the app that we are going to be looking at today, there are many advantages to planning digitally, and these advantages extend to all users regardless of their learning ability.

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