Tools to Improve the Accessibility of Documents, Slides, Videos, and WebsitesExplains how to use accessibility features in the four most popular web browsers. I then go on to explain how to improve the accessibility of PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations. The third section of the handout covers improving the accessibility of videos that you use in your classroom. The fourth section covers accessibility options in Google Docs and Word documents. And the handout wraps-up with some notes about Microsoft's Immersive Reader tool.
Microsoft Office has fantastic tools for ELL Learners. *For those of you who do not have Office, there is a FREE web-based version (office.com) Tools Immersive Reader, Powerpoint Captioning in different languages, and Translator Video
Immersive Reader - designed to support students with learning a new language or dyslexia and dysgraphia. You can select text for it to read to you.
The ability to show syllables, verbs, nouns and adjectives from any text U
Use voice to text in the online version of Word and OneNote.
View Text one line at a time
Translate words to other languages and show an image depicting the word
Add audio to Powerpoint - To record your own sound clip (you must have a microphone attached to your computer) and add it to the slide, on the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sound, and then click Record Sound. Word Auto Summary Tool
Word Talk is a free text to speech plugin for Microsoft Word. Word Talk highlights text as it is narrated for you. An audio dictionary is also included in Word Talk.
SmartArt (Word 2007 & 2010) Visual organizers help students to study and organize information for writing. Word 2007 contains basic organizers for creating list through more complex Venn Diagrams click here for a handout on instructions.
Voicepods is a service that will turn any typed text or highlighted page text into an automated voice recording. Voicepods will read text aloud in your choice of voices and in your choice of ten languages. You can use Voicepods as a Chrome extension or by simply entering text into the Voicepods website. The Chrome extension lets you highlight the text on any webpage to hear it read aloud. As you can see in the following video, Voicepods creates a recording of the highlighted text being read aloud. That recording is then saved in your Voicepods account so that you can play it back whenever you like even if you don't have the original webpage open. The other way to use Voicepods is to simply go to the website and manually enter text. The text will then be turned into a voice recording that you can save, share, and playback whenever you want to hear it. Watch video to see how to use Voicepods without installing the Chrome extension. (www.freetech4teachers.com )
PowerTalk Automatic speech for PowerPoint presentations. PowerTalk is a free program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows.
Video tutorial Text to Speech on a Mac: Go to Preferences; select speech; check speak selected text and choose a key to activate it. You can also select a voice.
Speech option to hear any eBook read aloud. In addition, you can create eBooks from any MS Word file by installing the Add-in feature; an icon on the Word toolbar will provide the means to do this. Using this feature, you can locate any e-text file (e.g. from Project Gutenberg website), copy/paste/save it as a MS Word file. Click the new toolbar button and the file is converted into the eBook format for Microsoft Reader; it is added to its library.
Microsoft Reader (2.0) is a free e-book reader that will read any available e-book on your Windows computer and Pocket PC. After the Reader is installed, add the Text-to-Speech option to hear any eBook read aloud. In addition, you can create eBooks from any MS Word file by installing the Add-in feature; an icon on the Word toolbar will provide the means to do this. Using this feature, you can locate any e-text file (e.g. from Project Gutenberg website), copy/paste/save it as a MS Word file. Click the new toolbar button and the file is converted into the eBook format for Microsoft Reader; it is added to its library.
Wordit A free Windows text-to-speech plugin for Microsoft WordIt will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as it goes. It contains a talking dictionary and a text-to-mp3 converter.
WordTalk a free plug-in developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97 upwards), which can help people with reading difficulties use Microsoft Word more effectively.
PowerTalkautomatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. You just download and install PowerTalk..
Voice Comments Use microphone to record and embed audio files in MS Word documents Built into MS Word from Word 97 onward (can be problematic in Windows 7) Windows only Click HERE for more information
Auto Summarize Create summaries of MS Word documents Automatically highlight key points Built into MS Word from Word 97 onward Windows only Click HERE for more information
Equation Editor Toolbar offering mathematical symbols and notation for doing math in MS Word Built into MS Word from Word 97 onward Windows onl Click HERE for more information
Math Add-on for MS WordAdd-on for Word 2007 and 2010 that makes mathematical symbols and notation available conveniently in MS Word Click HERE for more information
Microsoft Mathematics 4.0Free standalone program from Microsoft Powerful and versatile math tool Graphing calculator (2D and 3D) Equation solver Formulas and equations library Unit conversion tool
Features for vision Every Mac is built with assistive technologies to support people who are blind or have low vision. The VoiceOver screen reader describes exactly what’s happening on your screen and lets you navigate using gestures or a braille display. Zoom gives you a powerful built-in magnifier. You can also make adjustments to cursor size, motion, and contrast to meet your specific vision needs.
Features for hearingSiri on Mac lets you quickly find and open files, set reminders, send text messages, and more, making it easy to handle the things you do every day.2 With “Type to Siri” mode, you can make requests using a physical or onscreen keyboard. And Siri can also predict your next word based on what you’ve said before, so you can minimize typing over time.
Mobility featuresCreate amazing things with your Mac without touching a mouse or keyboard. With Switch Control, you can navigate through onscreen keyboards, menus, and the Dock using a variety of switch options."
Explore all features for learning If you learn better when you can hear what you’re reading or writing, Text to Speech lets you highlight any text and have your Mac read it aloud. And you can choose from more than 70 male or female voices across 42 languages.
Accessibility Features built into iPad "Powerful assistive features are built into iPad to complement your vision, hearing, motor skills, learning, and literacy. So you can create, learn, work, play, and do pretty much anything you want to do, wherever you want to do it, more easily than ever.
Accessibility Features built into iPhone "The world’s most personal device was designed for every person. So a person who’s blind can take group selfies. A person who’s deaf can call Mom from overseas. And a person who can’t move from the neck down can send text messages to friends.
Ease of Access Centerprovides a convenient, centralized place to locate accessibility settings and programs to make your computer easier to use. The Ease of Access Center can be found in the Control Panel by selecting Windows logo key+U and also when logging into Windows.
Windows Speech RecognitionWindows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista empowers users to interact with their computers by voice. It was designed for people who want to significantly limit their use of the mouse and keyboard while maintaining or increasing their overall productivity. You can dictate documents and emails in mainstream applications, use voice commands to start and switch between applications, control the operating system, and even fill out forms on the Web. tutorial
Immersive Reader is a free tool available from Microsoft. As I wrote earlier this week, Immersive Reader will read aloud the articles that students have in their OneNote notebooks. Immersive Reader does more than just read articles aloud. It will identify to students the nouns, verbs, and adjectives within an article. Students can also choose to have every syllable of word identified for them. Video tutorial(Richard Byrne)
Chrome and Chromebook Accessibility Features
video Read AloudThis extension is especially helpful for people with vision difficulties, people with dyslexia, kids learning to read, language learners, as well as for those who prefer listening to reading. With a single click the extension converts the whole text into audio. Once it starts reading you can even navigate away to other tabs and the extension will still keep on reading the article in the background. Read Aloud supports over 40 languages and is also available for Firefox. video
Hear text read aloud: 'To have pages read aloud to you, turn on your Chromebook’s built-in screen reader. Follow the steps above, then turn on Enable ChromeVox. Learn more about the screen reader.
Read Aloud extension for Chrome. The Read Aloud extension does exactly what its name implies, it reads pages aloud. The Read Aloud extension doesn't offer nearly as many options as Immersive Reader in Edge offers, but there are a few customizations that you can make to it. You can adjust the speed at which pages are read, the size of the text as it's displayed when being read aloud, and you can change the size of the text box that is displayed when a page is read aloud. Watch this one-minute video www.freetech4teachers.com
Helperbirdworks is simple and easy: install the extension on your Chrome browser and start activating the numerous features it offers. As for the textual features, the tool helps learners adjust word and letter spacing, paragraph width, line-height and font size; apply a specialized font or change it to American sign language; and reduce motion support. HelperBird embeds Immersive Reader, a dictionary app, and supports translation to over 100 languages. Its optical character recognition enables learners to easily extract text from images. There are also the options to hide images and Gifs to improve reading focus, capture screenshots of any webpage, annotate text with highlights and sticky notes, emphasize links, line focus and many more. video
To have only part of a page read to you:
Follow the steps above, then turn on Enable select-to-speak.
Select the part of the screen you’d like read to you:
On your keyboard, press and hold Search .
Click a line of text, or click and drag across an area of the screen.
Your Chromebook will read the section aloud.
Optional: To stop select-to-speak while it’s reading something, press Ctrl.'
2- Tap and drag your finger to move objects
'Under "Mouse and touchpad," turn on Enable tap dragging.
Click Open mouse and touchpad device settings.
Turn on Enable tap-to-click.
To use tap-to-click, double-tap the object and hold, then drag it to move.'
3- Click objects automatically
'Under "Mouse and touchpad," turn on Automatically click when the mouse pointer stops.
In the "Delay before click" drop-down, choose how long you’d like your Chromebook to pause before clicking.
To click without physically pressing your mouse or touchpad, hover over the object you'd like to click.'
4- Use keyboard shortcuts with one hand 'First, under "Keyboard," turn on Enable sticky keys (to perform keyboard shortcuts by typing them sequentially).
To use sticky keys, press Search, Shift, Alt, or Ctrl, whichever key starts the keyboard shortcut.
To keep a key pressed until you finish the keyboard shortcut, press the key twice.
To unpress a key, press it a third time.
Chrome The Chrome web browser can be customized to each user’s preferences regarding font size, font style, and spacing. Those setting choices can be made by typing chrome://settings/fonts into the address bar in Chrome. The choices will apply as the default wherever you go in with Chrome.
Podcastle- An Easy Way to Convert Web-based Text to Audio Podcastle is a text to speech Chrome extension that allows you to convert text into podcasts. This is an ideal tool for multitaskers who would rather engage in various tasks in realtime. Whether it's your favourite blog posts, news articles, or any other textual content from the web (barring PDFs), Podcastle enables you to enjoy listening to your favourite digital content while working on other things. The way Podcastle works is simple and easy. Head over to Chrome web store and install the extension on your Chrome browser. Now that Podcastle extension is installed you simply click on its green icon to start listening to the textual content of the webpages you open.
Document Accessibility Grackle Slides is a Google Slides add-on that will evaluate the accessibility of your presentation and give you suggestions on how to improve the accessibility of your presentation. Watch the short video below to see how it works. www.freetech4teachers.com
You can zoom-in or zoom-out on individual pages in Chrome by simply holding the control key then tapping the “+” key on a Windows or Chromebook keyboard or by holding the command key then tapping the “+” key on a Mac keyboard.
There are Chrome extensions that offer read-aloud capabilities. Read & Write for Chrome is one of the most popular ones for use in school settings. Other accessibility extensions can be found at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/ext/22-accessibility. www.freetech4teachers.com
ChromeVoxThe ChromeVox screen reader is an extension to Chrome that brings the speed, versatility, and security of Chrome to visually impaired users…ChromeVox was designed from the start to enable unprecedented access to modern web apps, including those that utilize W3C ARIA (Access to Rich Internet Applications) to provide a rich, desktop-like experience. This enables visually impaired users to experience the power of web applications while also giving developers a way to verify the accessibility of their web applications.
Broadcast WebsiteBroadcast allows you to broadcast audio to websites, social networks, desktops apps and mobile devices via a Flash Player. Features include scheduled events, live DJ mixing, interactive messaging and more. Works with Chrome and Firefox.
Podcastle- An Easy Way to Convert Web-based Text to Audio Podcastle is a text to speech Chrome extension that allows you to convert text into podcasts. This is an ideal tool for multitaskers who would rather engage in various tasks in realtime. Whether it's your favourite blog posts, news articles, or any other textual content from the web (barring PDFs), Podcastle enables you to enjoy listening to your favourite digital content while working on other things. The way Podcastle works is simple and easy. Head over to Chrome web store and install the extension on your Chrome browser. Now that Podcastle extension is installed you simply click on its green icon to start listening to the textual content of the webpages you open.
Read Aloud extension for Chrome. The Read Aloud extension does exactly what its name implies, it reads pages aloud. The Read Aloud extension doesn't offer nearly as many options as Immersive Reader in Edge offers, but there are a few customizations that you can make to it. You can adjust the speed at which pages are read, the size of the text as it's displayed when being read aloud, and you can change the size of the text box that is displayed when a page is read aloud. Watch this one-minute video www.freetech4teachers.com
Helperbird Whether you need speech to text, text-to-speech, Opendyslexic font, highlight tools, note-taking, clutter removal, Immersive Reader, etc., this tool has all of your favorite accessibility tools rolled into one! video tutorial
Midomi: A search engine that is based on sound rather than text. It can be a more intuitive way to find things if you respond better to sounds.
FireFox with AccessibilityA collection of free accessibility add-ons available from Firefox. FoxVox and CLiCk-Speak are great.
Read AloudThis extension is especially helpful for people with vision difficulties, people with dyslexia, kids learning to read, language learners, as well as for those who prefer listening to reading. With a single click the extension converts the whole text into audio. Once it starts reading you can even navigate away to other tabs and the extension will still keep on reading the article in the background. Read Aloud supports over 40 languages and is also available for Firefox. video
CLiCk,SpeakText-to-speech for websites open in Firefox Three-button toolbar Works especially well in Firefox on Windows [As of March 2011, works only Version 3.6.15 or earlier. Older versions of Firefox can be downloaded HERE.]
Fire Vox (Firefox Add-on) Fire Vox, which, along with CLiCk Speak and CLC STAR, is developed by Charles Chen, is an open source, freely available talking browser extension for the Firefox web browser. Think of it as a screen reader that is designed especially for Firefox. In addition to the basic features that are expected of screen readers, such as being able to identify headings, links, images, etc. and providing navigational assistance=
Speaking Fox Text-to-speech for websites open in Firefox Works only in Firefox on Mac OSX
Theme Font & Size ChangerFirefox add-on that changes font and adjusts font size of theme options, eg. address bar or menus Access from 'Tools' menu, or install button on toobar
Chrome Add-ons
Google ChromeIncreasingly accessible web browser. Access facilitated by extensions and 'apps' created by Google and by third-party developers. Click HERE for more information
SpeakIt!Google Chrome extension. Text-to-speech for reading web content in Google Chrome. Select text, click icon, listen
ChromeVoxThe ChromeVox screen reader is an extension to Chrome that brings the speed, versatility, and security of Chrome to visually impaired users…ChromeVox was designed from the start to enable unprecedented access to modern web apps, including those that utilize W3C ARIA (Access to Rich Internet Applications) to provide a rich, desktop-like experience. This enables visually impaired users to experience the power of web applications while also giving developers a way to verify the accessibility of their web applications.’
MicNote is a free Chrome and Android app that allows you to create voice recordings, text notes, and image-based notes on one concise notebook page. The notes that you record with your voice can be time-stamped by clicking on your Mic Note note page while you’re recording. You can also take notes without recording any audio. All notes support inclusion of images and links. The best part of Mic Note is that you can sync all of your notes to your Google Drive or Dropbox account. Watch the video below to see how you can create notes in MicNote. video tutorial
Read&Write is a Chrome extension that provides scaffolds and supports for struggling readers. Step 1: Go to the Chrome Store and install it on your Chrome browser. free premium for educators for students still works after trial period Step 2: As you travel the Internet, create a Google Doc, or read a PDF, an icon will appear on your address bar. This icon lets you know that Read&Write can be enabled. Select the icon and you will see a variety of tools to help your struggling readers. Play and listening to entire document (highlighted sections of the text) being read to me by a non-electronic sounding voice. Read&Write is a powerful accessibility tool for all student to gain confidence with not only reading, but writing as well. Here are some of it's awesome features :
See the meaning of words explained with text and picture dictionaries
Hear text translated into other languages
Get suggestions while you are typing for words to type
Highlight text in documents or webpages to use in other documents later.
Simplify and summarize text on web pages
Voice Recognition (former Dictation) is one of the most popular speech recognition apps in the Chrome store. The app, which works right from your Chrome browser, makes use of Google’s integrated API speech’ software to transcribe your voice into textual words. You can use it to type long documents, emails and essays without touching the keyboard.’
Dictanote Speech Recognizerapp available for free through the Chrome Web Store. To use the Dictanote Speech Recognizer just install it from the Chrome Web Store, launch it, then click the microphone to start taking and recording your voice. The Speech Recognizer will type out your text when you finish recording. You can then copy and paste your text to the paragraph box below the Speech Recognizer or to a document you have open in Google Docs.
Dictation.io Chrome browser only On Dictation.io you can simply click "start dictation" then start having your voice transcribed into a text document. No registration is required in order to use Dictation.io. More than two dozen languages are support on Dictation.io. The video
Mic Noteis a free Chrome and Android app that allows you to create voice recordings, text notes, and image-based notes on one concise notebook page. The notes that you record with your voice can be time-stamped by clicking on your Mic Note note page while you're recording. You can also take notes without recording any audio. All notes support inclusion of images and links. The best part of Mic Note is that you can sync all of your notes to your Google Drive or Dropbox account. Watch the video
Voice SearchUse speech-to-text for Internet searches. Click icon, speak search term. Works with multiple search engines
8 Chrome assistive tech tools
Readability ReduxRemove clutter from websites (ads and distracting graphics. Set margins, select style and adjust font size. Can be activated by keyboard shortcut set by user
ChromeVisMagnify and change the color of any text selected. Use mouse or keyboard to move selection Click HERE for ChromeVis manual
Voice RecognizerGoogle Chrome App Speech to text application that works whether user is online or offline
Announcify Chrome and Android options: Announcify is a browser extension for those times when you'd rather just listen. All you have to do is browse to any article and click the Announcify button. Announcify still shows you the text it's reading to you in a more readable format. It also blurs out everything but the paragraph it's reading to make it much easier to follow along. You can set the voice that reads the text, its speed, and its pitch so you can hear the articles the way you want.
Select and Speak is a simple text to speech Chrome browser extension. Select and Speak installs with just one click and does not require a browser re-start. Once Select and Speak is installed just highlight any text on a webpage, click the Select and Speak icon in your browser, and listen to the reading of the text.
Read & Write is a free Google Chrome Web App that increases the accessibility of the text of documents in your Google Drive account. After installing the app you will see a Read & Write tab appear at the top of your browser window whenever you have a document open in Google Drive. Clicking that Read & Write tab will open a menu of accessibility options. Some of the accessibility options include a picture dictionary and a talking dictionary. To use either dictionary just highlight a word then click on the dictionary that you want to use. The dictionary that you select will pop-up in your document. Read & Write will also read the text of your documents aloud. In the settings menu you can select from nine voices and three playback speeds.
Tools that Compensate for Handwriting Issues Consider using these tools to bypass output issues, for example, as an alternative way to record homework assignments, and get ideas recorded or as an alternative to paper-based posters.
Dial2Do - lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things. . It's easy and handsfree. Watch the video here.
Vocaroo - very easy to use online audio recording service; can email, download or post the recording to the internet.
Dictanote provides you with a rich text editor where you can instantly speak or type in your notes and format them the way you want. It provides almost all the editing features you would normally find in most popular text editors. It also supports a wide variety of languages. You simply select the language of your choice and start voice recording or typing your notes. To save and share your notes you will have to be registered. You can copy and use your notes in an email or a word document. You can also share them through a generated link. Dictanote does provide a pro account with more advanced features for $9,99 a year.
Voice Dictation FREE Dictation accurately transcribes your speech to text in real time. You can add paragraphs, punctuation marks, and even smileys using voice commands.
Voxopop- create message boards that use recorded audio, not text
Tools to simplify articles on the Web and save paper
Print What You Like is a simple web tool that lets users select just a portion of a website. This is particularly useful for printing articles from websites or blogs that do not have a "printer friendly" option.
PrintFriendly strips away all of the ads and side bar content allowing you to print only the article on the page. There are two ways to use PrintFriendly. You can copy and paste an article's url into the PrintFriendly homepage or use the PrintFriendly bookmarklet. I tried it both ways and much prefer using the bookmarklet as it doesn't require any toggling between browser tabs or windows. Video
Printliminator is a handy little bookmarklet for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Printliminator allows you to highlight a webpage and select only the elements which you wish to print. You can install Printliminator in seconds by just clicking and dragging it into your browser's toolbar. video
Print Edit is a Firefox add-on that allows you to edit the content of a webpage in your "print preview" screen. With Print Edit installed once you enter the print preview screen you can highlight and delete sections of a webpage before you print them
Accessibility for Mobiles These are all free (or cheap) and provide both effective Text-To-Speech (thus access to content) and those with Word-by-Word highlighting help build sight-word recognition. One of the best uses of text to speech is to support writing with "read back" editing.
Biggrips-
available for the iPad 1 and 2. The Big Grips Frame helps keep the
iPad from slipping out. It is made out of foam, which protects against
accidental drops. It also has a stand that can be purchased separately. The
case is $39.95. Purchasing the case and stand together is $49.95.
Bupcap- Does
your child keep hitting the home button when working on an app? Bupcap
will prevent this with 3 different types of caps from regular to
maximum protection. These covers fit over the home button. The cost ranges from $5.00 to $6.99.
Keyguard- Bumpers to prevent the student from accidental activation of a key. This is especially great for apps such as Proloquo2go. The guard is $19.95.
Mouthstick Stylus $40.00
Stylus a solution for quadriplegics, people with ALS, MS or other
disabilities where they cannot use their hands. It has a default stick
size, which can be altered when ordering. It has two working solutions: A
fully conductive mouthstick with a Stylus Sock on the tip or a
separate Stylus Sock that you can wrap around your own mouthstick plus a
slice of the same conductive fabric that connects the sock to the iPad
body.
iPad Steady Stylus
$40.00 This T-shaped stylus has a wooden handle with a grip made from
transparent rubber wrapped around a wooden stick. The pointer is made
from aluminum with a conductive fabric sock plug as the tip. Especially
good for people with limited strength in their hands.
Stylus R Us has a wide variety of telescoping styli ranging in price. The average price is around $40.00.
_Talking calculator tool for
students with learning disabilities! Students with learning disabilities
often need more modes addressed - seeing and hearing is a great start
and that's just what the talking calculator does. Best of all it's
free! Download it to your computer
Power ReaderA dyslexic text reader/learning tool, a
graphical, interactive text reader integrated with computer
text-to-speech whose level of focus, complexity, and detail is
adjustable according to the user's needs.
_eStoryMakerA simple means for assembling text, picture and sound files into an e-story that supports multiple access means.
Create & Convert: a free and easy way to make accessible text. It brings together in one neat package a range of open source
programs that can quickly and capably translate electronic documents
into an accessible alternative format, such as audio or a talking book. Create & Convert works with any document that is
editable form such as Microsoft word. It is a free download and works
from both a portable usb key or can be downloaded to a desktop.
Check it out: http://eduapps.org/?page_id=10
pVoice an application for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).Disabled people who cannot speak and have very little possiblities to operate a computer can use pVoice by selecting photo's or symbols to generate speech output. _
Dasher a zooming interface. You point where you want to go, and the display zooms in wherever you point. The world into which you are zooming is painted with letters, so that any point you zoom in on corresponds to a piece of text. The more you zoom in, the longer the piece of text you have written. _
_Large PointersExtensive set of cursors to meet wide range of needs Windows only
WWAAC Web BrowserThis is a talking, keyboard, switch and mouse pointer
accessible web browser with page summarising tools. It has a highly
configerable user interface
_ Mouse Tools and Alternatives
1. DwellClick (from
Sensory) provides dwell selection for those who may have trouble clicking mouse
buttons. You just hover the cursor over a clickable target for a user
configurable amount of time and DwellClick sends the desired mouse event to the
target. It supports left, right, double
clicks and dragging operations. It also has a 'sleep' mode that temporarily
turns off clicking so you don't have to be vigilant. You resume dwell clicking
by just hovering over a small green button. You can adjust the target size,
dwell time and dwell tool bar all with dwell clicking. Requires VB runtime dll.
Quirky under Vistahttp://www.sensorysoftware.com/dwellclicker.html Camera Mouse Instructions
2. Point-N-Click
This is undoubtedly the most full featured dwell selection program. As a result
it takes the longest to learn all its features including Shift-clicks, Control-clicks
various repeating click modes and more. You can build your own mouse function
toolbar that has as many, or as few tools as you want. The dwell user can have
complete control over all features. A great freeware program that woks well
under Vista.http://polital.com/pnc/
3.ClickAid – ClickAid, by the same authors of Point-N-Click, is a
virtual mouse aid designed for anyone who has difficulty switching between
mouse buttons or double clicking on a physical computer mouse. It can increase
the functionality of a program like CameraMouse which has an dwell click
feature, but no accommodation for right-click, double-click, shift-click etc...
http://www.polital.com/ca/
4.Mouseketeer is
yet another dwell clicker that is nice and small. It has all the basic
functions: click, double-click, right-click, and it has suspend clicking mode.
No setup complications. The website that has Mouseketeer has many other
assistive technology utilities including many supports for low vision users
including various cursor sets, cursor enhancers and a really huge mouse cursor.http://www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm
5. mmFollow quite simply adds a cartoon character to the mouse cursor. It ensures rapid location of the pointer, and obviously adds a little fun to using the computer. In use, the application adds an icon to the Windows Taskbar area. By right clicking on this icon, you can vary the character Scroll down site to locate. Scroll down site to locate.
6. Bigger Cursors A selection of bigger cursors for anyone who finds the existing cursors too small. Simply download the zip file and extract into the Windows/Cursors folder and you are ready to go. Scroll down site to locate.
7. Chunky Cursors A selection of chunky cursors for anyone who finds the existing cursors too small. Simply download the zip file and extract into the Windows/Cursors folder and you are ready to go. Scroll down site to locate.
Web Cam Mousing
Enable Viacam -
This program, like CameraMouse, uses a web cam to track the user’s head
movements and convert them to mouse cursor movement. Unlike CameraMouse, Enable
Viacam identifies and tracks facial orientation. There is no single point to
click on for tracking. But, there is a button to click once the user has aimed
the camera or positioned themselves into to the web cams view field. It also comes with an easy to use dwell
click feature. http://eviacam.sourceforge.net/eviacam.php
Camera Mouse Website Camera Mouse enables you to control the mouse pointer on your computer screen just by moving your head. Camera mouse will be of use to those who do not have reliable control of a hand but who can move their head.
_Onscreen Keyboards:
There
are really only a few worthwhile free onscreen keyboards. The best have
features that may include resizable layout, switch accessibility, word
completion, customizable layouts, program launching, macro capability, and
other system interaction functions.
1.
Osk.exe keyboard, the one that comes free with XP and Vista (and works
with Win2K), but it is not resizable. It actually supports switch access, but
it is hard to imagine that that would be too useful without a more global switch
accessibility strategy like what is potentially possible with SAW. It is also included with the PortableApps
onscreen keyboard distribution. It is typically found in: C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe and can be copied for
portable use.
3. Big Screen KeysMac 10.2.x - 10.6.xBig Screen Keys is an on-screen virtual keyboard designed to help individuals who find using a keyboard difficult or impossible. By clicking the on-screen keyboard keys, Big Screen Keys will type to the active window. Big Screen Keys can also be resized to quickly adjust to the user’s needs.
4. Click-N-Type Accessible onscreen keyboard, with word prediction Windows only
_MyStudyBarToolbar with set of applications to support reading, writing, planning and vision. Install on computer, or run from USB drive Click HERE for demonstration of using MyStudyBar with Windows 7 Speech Recognition Video tutorials HERE for tools on MyStudyBar Windows only Click HERE for more information