Posts Tagged ‘assistive technology’

Balance Returns to Fiona’s Life

A woman seated at a desk. Papers in front of her and a laptop to the side.

Fiona is a professional engineer in Kelowna, creating software programs that automatically run the machines in industrial plants. She also designs the graphical interfaces for the plant operators to start machines and monitor measurements such as temperatures and pressures within pipes and vessels.

“Creating the software requires a lot of design meetings with customers, equipment manufacturers and colleagues so that we get the details correct for successful and safe automated operation,” she explains.

myHomework

a student writing notes, with a laptop in front of him

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.

How to: Use the Livescribe Symphony Smartpen

A LiveScribe pen and notebook

When it comes to students who struggle with notetaking, we often recommend smart pens. The main advantage of this type of technology is that handwritten text is instantly converted into a digital format which can then be searched, shared, converted, and synced to other apps. These pens also often have a recording feature, which allows handwritten notes to be synced with recorded audio, thus giving smart pens users a seamless, multi-sensory approach to learning.

But Smart pens are not only useful for students who struggle with writing/notetaking. Anyone who takes notes for any reason, regardless of their learning style, could benefit from universally designed smart pen technology. That being said, Smart Pens are considered a high-tech assistive technology, and there is a bit more of a learning curve when using a smart pen compared to a more straight-forward note-taking app such as OneNote.

Easy Converter Express

student typing at a laptop

When it comes to serving individuals who require assistive technology (AT), the ability to provide alternative formats to standard text is critical. And while there are already a lot of ways to tackle this issue, especially when using mobile devices which can also function as mobile scanners, PC based options are a bit less common.

Dolphin Easy Reader

student using headphones while taking notes and looking at a laptop

For users with reading challenges or visual impairments, the process of learning to read can be particularly daunting. Thankfully, there are many apps available that have been designed for struggling readers, and many of them are even available for free.

Socratic: A Companion App for Learning

a student using headphones while working on her laptop and writing in a notebook

With the advent of the internet, our ability to independently learn and research has grown immeasurably. It’s almost hard to imagine today that students once had to rely solely on textbooks, books, or encyclopedias for research. And while that method might have worked fine for the majority of students, what about individuals with disabilities related to reading, learning, vision, or even mobility? These days we have the technology to ensure that these different learning styles can be appropriately addressed, and with a world-wide shift towards universally designed education and products, learning and studying has never more accessible.

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400 – 3999 Henning Drive
Burnaby, BC V5C 6P9
778 945 1215
hearingsolutions@neilsquire.ca
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