What did I find, but the Apple associate pulling me over to their iPad display to show me that Proloquo2Go is on the new demonstration image. When I first envisioned an AAC app on the iPhone over three years ago, I believed that it would help people and be a wild success. Little did I know how each step in the journey would unfold. What came to my mind was that this is a huge success for people with disabilities. This is a stake in the moon for accessibility. Apple has championed accessibility for a long time. Now, as the world of computing shifts beneath our feet, it is more important than ever to be considering how to build things to be universally designed. The exposure and conversations that people checking out Proloquo2Go across Apple Stores and Best Buys is powerful.

Here is a picture of me today at the Apple Shop inside my local Best Buy holding an iPad with Proloquo2Go.

Samuel Sennott holding an iPad with Proloquo2Go at an Apple Shop in Best Buy

Proloquo2Go, the most popular full featured Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) iOS App is featured on iPads at Apple Retail Stores and Best Buy locations in the United States. There are over 200 Apple Retail Stores and 1,000 Best Buy Stores in the US.

As a co-creator of the original Proloquo2Go and a PhD student at The Pennsylvania State University it means a lot to see the AAC App that I worked tirelessly on being exposed to thousands of people. When I contacted David Niemeijer of AssistiveWare about collaborating, I learned a valuable lesson. That lesson was that by collaborating you can accomplish goals better, more quickly, and in unique ways. My dream quickly became a reality, as Proloquo2Go has been one of the most successful AAC products ever created. The grassroots community that rallied behind using the iOS as a tool for people with disabilities has been simply fantastic.

As a co-creator of the original Proloquo2Go, I feel so thankful to have been able to receive so much help in spreading the word that people with disabilities who have difficulty speaking, when given the opportunity and right supports can learn to communicate. AAC is not just an app. It is a whole field dedicated to helping people get the communication systems they need. That means good assessment and evaluation. It means customization and individualization. It means teaching people to use language in augmentative and alternative ways. It means reading and writing for some and photographic symbols for others. It means high tech tools like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, but it can also mean sign language, gestures, and paper based communication books. Most importantly, it is about the people and those people harnessing the magic and power of communication, which Janice Light eloquently says is the essence of life.

So as I buckle back down to my PhD studies this weekend, I’ll take a last walk of the day and take a deep breath into the cool December air. I’ll think about that two years ago, I was breathing even cooler air in Vermont where much of the work of Proloquo2Go was completed together with David Niemeijer way across the ocean in Amsterdam. As I put my pen to the page tomorrow in my studies I will think about all the people I am working to help and I’ll think about all the people who have worked to help me. And I’ll know from personal experience, that if you believe in a project, seek the help that you need, and work hard enough, that very special things are possible. It is simply amazing grace.

So thank you to all the people who work at Apple, for it is because of you that a few more people will see and feel the power of AAC.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

VSA arts and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., are seeking artwork from artists with disabilities, ages 16-25. This year’s event, entitled Accelerate, is the largest award program in the country for emerging artists and will give a total of $60,000 to 15 finalists at a reception on Capitol Hill in the fall of 2009. Artwork will be displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, before beginning a nationwide tour.

Theme: Starting from zero, ideas take shape, momentum builds, creativity gathers speed, and a new work of art is created. How does art propel your success and provide you freedom of expression? As an artist, what sets you in motion—and how do you fuel your imagination?

Deadline: June 19, 2009, midnight (MST)

http://www.vsarts.org/PreBuilt/showcase/gallery/exhibits/vw/current/index.html

Grand Prize: $20,000
First Award: $10,000
Second Award: $6,000
12 Awards of Excellence: $2,000

VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith. For 35 years, we have been creating a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with resources and the tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for people with disabilities. Each year millions of people participate in VSA arts programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in 55 countries around the world. VSA arts is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Download the PDF:  building-and-using-a-wiimote-whiteboard-in-education guide

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Things are changing. The second generation OLPC laptop will have dual touchscreens and will be designed to function like a book. What does this mean for early childhood education, special education, and augmentative and alternative communication? Over the course of this summer, we will be exploring this with the goal of being ready for these new technologies. Also, the goal is to be able to play a part in the universal design for learning of this powerful new initiative. For now, enjoy the pictures of this upcoming device.

This opens up amazing possibilities for customized keyboards for all kinds of learners!

Let’s Chat!

Overall, this is probably the best news we could have heard. As many of us have been holding the OLPC touchscreen vigil, the time is here. Much thanks to Pixel Qi for pushing the hardware design to new levels. AAC stakeholders may be interested in their new motto: The future of portable computing is all about the screen.

Additionally, many will be interested to note that Windows XP will be available on the XO.

I originally read about the update to the OLPC at: Xcomony.

This picture is inspirational when considering the accessible books project we are working on!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nEAIuFMTW4]

Here is a portion of the presentation announcing the update.

Other Related Articles

1. PC World
2. OLPC News

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Check out the Talking Photo Ball by Brookstones for creating a simple four location story telling voice output device.

Each of the four sides has a switch that can hold a recorded message. This could be a helpful tool for sharing short co-planned sequenced social scripts for direct selectors. Theoretically you could switch adapt each of the four switches. For the reasonable $15 price tag, I might get out the soldering iron myself and give it a try.

One drawback is that the switch tops are removable and could be a constant temptation to pull off. Definitely check this out next time you are in a mall, as sky is the limit with ideas for this tool. Here are six:

1. Use it to send home a story from the day. Print out four pictures and co-construct the script.
2. Write four line poems and put the text from each of the lines on each of the four sides.
3. Buy 7 of them for $105 and you can put one letter of the alphabet on the sides. Countless games can be made up with this from taking all the caps off and matching them back on, to using it in a game with alphabet key words.
4. Try putting the weeks word wall words and chants on them and use them during your word wall instructional time.
5. Use it for providing key lesson instructions that student may want to hear repeated.
6. Use it during the memorization or reminder phases of writing strategy instruction.

Feel free to leave more ideas in the comments section.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

I have tried a number of file sharing sending and sharing sites and Wikisend is my new favorite.

Check out the clean interface and nice 100 MB limit.  The upload and download speeds were fast.

From their website:

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

The SETT Framework, by Joy Zabala, a popular consideration framework in the field of assistive technology, a subset of special education, has made a significant impact since its inception in 1995. It has also made a significant impact on me personally as a practitioner. SETT stands for Student, Environment, Task(s), Tools and is meant to help in the assistive technology consideration process.

Here are some simple Templates that I have created and find especially useful to provide to teams helping gather information previous to an assistive technology evaluation.

Letter Size

the-sett-framework Template Letter Size

3 by 5 Card Size

3 by 5 Index Card Size: sett-notecard-1

3 by 5 Card Size (Four Cards)

sett-notecard-4-card

Direct Download of the SETT Framework Paper:

2002 Update of the SETT Framework

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

Update New Site: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/FreeIconToSpeech

Current Article: http://s54379.gridserver.com/software/applications/free_icon-to-speech_open-source_speech_for_disabled.html

IconSpeak is the first attempts at a dynamic display augmentative communication software for the XO laptop. Recently, I posted about Speak, which IconSpeak is built on. Check out the main screen, as of Thursday 4/3/08:

You can see that there are sign language based icons, mixed with English words. Most of the cells, or buttons, link to additional pages. Check out the “eat” page.

You can move the cursor to the cell, click it, and the word that corresponds with the icon moves to the message window at the top. You can then activate the play icon for the message window to speak.

Presently,  it does automatically clear the message window when you speak a message with the play button. Yet, if you make a mistake by entering a wrong icon, you will need to backspace on the keyboard to clear the display.  For those not familiar with the most popular AAC softwares, check out theseProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

hots from Speaking Dynamically Pro, Dynavox, PRC’s Unity software, and the newest Tango software respectively:

SDPro running the Picture Word Power Set (above) Video Demo

Dynavox Series 5 Software (above)

PRC Unity 45 Location Overlay (above)

Blink-Twice’s Tango Software (above)

So it is very clear to see that compared to the much refined commercial softwares, the initial prototype for IconSpeak still needs some work. Also, two switch step scanning needs to be considered for this software. Using tab or the arrow keys helps you navigate, but enter, the logical key command for entry does not work. There may be another key command I did not try that works, but nonetheless switch scanning would be a welcome addition to future builds. Features like switch scanning are representative of much more for this software to be fully valuable to a broad range of users.

Whatever the drawbacks, this software shows what is possible. This software release clearly demonstrates the potential for an open source AAC software running in Python on OSX and Windows. : ) The ability to quickly add your own images, ideally from the XO’s digital camera, would make it a potentially useful AAC tool very quickly. There is much more to be discussed about this software, but as they state on the wiki page that it will be updated rapidly, so we look forward to that and following the progress. So we watch, wait, and see if we can co-participate, knowing that the most important step is the successful release of a touch screen modification for the XO. It happened for the EEE PC.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

There looks to be some significant initial drawbacks to the iPhone  platform.  The most important drawback, that only one application can run at a time, has come to my attention in a personal communication and in the form of this TechCrunch post.   This will make the scanning software, as well as some of the overlay controls much more difficult to configure.  As I look at working with the iPhone as a tool for special education as a long range project, it is good to note this and other major challenges.  Another major drawback is that the SDK is limited to only US developers presently.  Nonetheless, as Dan Herlihy often shows, when there is a will there is a way.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post 

The iPhone SDK has been released! Why is this important? Because it could become a key platform for learning and communication tools for people with special needs. From a 9 location pragmatically organized communication set up for an elderly individual, right down to utilizing digital images and visual scene displays with our youngest learners, the iPhone/Touch may prove to be a more easily accessed avenue to the use of AAC and AT. Truly there are limitations at this time, but there are significant rumors about larger form factors and even the seemingly destined tablet. Some of the features are very exciting, like the ability to capture pictures and also the amazing multi-touch potential. One key feature of the SDK that could prove interesting is the iPhone emulator. While on one hand this is helpful for giving designers a chance to test their applications, on the other it is helpful because it gives a platform for running an application created for the iPhone for users to take advantage of.

See a picture gallery of the simulator here: http://www.tuaw.com/photos/iphone-sdk/686613/

Additionally, I see this tool and genre of tools being a key piece in the implementation of a one to one computing initiative. I look forward to dialogging with friends about this.

Watch the Presentation held on Thursday March 6th, 2008

Go to the Development Website:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action

---

Downloads

• iPhone SDK
• iPhone SDK Readme
• iPhone SDK Agreement

Read some of the reviews of the SDK announcement:

MacRumors

• Quicktime Stream of Apple iPhone SDK Event-MacRumors

• Apple Releases iPhone SDK, Demos Spore, Instant Messaging

• iPhone SDK Details, First Look

• iPhone 2.0, iPhone SDK, and iPhone Apps Frequently Asked Questions

TechCrunch

• iPhone 2.0: Enterprise Ready. Developer Ready.

Tuaw

• iPhone SDK picture walkthrough

• iPhone Roadmap Event Metaliveblog

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post