Trackball Mouse

Oversized trackball mouse

A trackball mouse is not necessarily an assistive technology—some people without disabilities simply prefer it to the standard mouse—but it is often easier for a person with a motor disability to operate than a standard mouse. Someone may, for example, use a trackball mouse in conjunction with a head wand or mouth stick. It is relatively easy to manipulate a trackball with these devices and much harder to manipulate a standard mouse. Someone with tremors in the hands may also find this kind of mouse more useful because once the person moves the mouse cursor to the right location, there is less danger of accidentally moving the cursor while trying to click on the mouse button. A person with tremors in the hands could also manipulate the trackball mouse with a foot, if there is enough motor control in the feet.

 

Orion 18 Braille Tablet - powered by Android

Orion's 18 Braille Tablet created by LevelStar, and developed in partnership with American Printing House for the Blind, has a 18 cell Braille display with router keys, and natural Ivona text-to-speech. This Braille tablet is the world's first notetaker for the blind powered by Android. Orion's 18 Braille Tablet has the following features: braille notetaker, access email, camera, ( which allows the user to take a photo of a printed page, and then convert the image to text) GPS, wi-fi, digital compass, 3G, 32 GB of internal memory, SD card slot, full size USB port, accelorometer, built-in stereo speakers, connected headphones, or a wireless Bluetooth headset.
The tablet comes with a home screen to make it easier to navigate around the system. It has a book reader that supports some of the specialized eBooks formats and a word processor tht can handle Braille documents. The tablet is also equipped with Adobe to bring DRM-protected eBooks to the device.

JAWS Screen Reader for the Blind

JAWS (Job Access for Windows and Speech) is a user-friendly screen reading program, and is designed to work with a speech synthesizer which increases a blind student's proficiency through reorganizing keyboard functions and automating commands. Students are able to add the power of JAWS to their computers at schoool and home without purchasing an additional synthesizer. JAWS also provides support for seven different languages.

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Students with ADHD Challenges - Reading Software

Students with ADHD sometimes struggle with reading. I have found some tools that improve their reading comprehension and fluency. Audio books and reading software - Recorded books allow students to listen to text, and they are available in a variety of formats. Special playbook units allow users to search and  bookmark pages and chapters. 

Natural Reader

Optical character recognition (OCR) allows a student to scan printed material into a computer or handheld unit. Then the scanned text  is read aloud by a speech synthesis/screen reading system. OCR units are available in stand-alone units, as software, and as portable, pocket-sized devices that display words on an easy-to-read screen. Scanning pens are a big help and are perfect for library research and other reading that doesn't involve a computer.    

                                                                 

Natural Reader Ultimate

Free downloads:  http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.php

Students with ADHD Challenges

Math Software
                                                          

ADHD challenged students are assisted by electronic worksheet software that enables them to recoganize and work through problems on a computer screen. Numbers that appear onscreen can be read aloud by a speech synthesizer. Some excellent AssistiveTechnology Tools to consider are MathTalk. (math level - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) For students computing decimals and fractions, MathPad Plus is a wonderful tool to assist students with this level of math.

 

Head Wand + Touch Screen= Success!

For people who have manual dexterity disabilities, a touch screen and head wand is a winning combination.

Foot Mouse with Programmable Pedal

The foot mouse and programmable pedal can help people with hand, arm, shoulder, or more generally, upper body stresses, and in some severe cases, such as amputation and/or stroke, by allowing the them

to do all PC entries by foot. It consists of a two-part device: one for cursor control (slipper) and the

 other for mouse clicks and shortcuts (the pedal). The pedal has a two-level design which prevents the user from stepping on the wrong buttons. The buttons not only mimic all "hand" mouse clicks, but also allow people to program their own customized shortcuts. (up to 10 shortcuts for each program)