AT Supporting Reading

Some children have problems with reading.  In a previous post, I mentioned learning disabilities and sensory disabilities and the use of AT in both of those categories.  Some children, who do not have disabilities, do have difficulties with reading as well and there are a variety of programs that can help help students who struggle with reading. Electronic text is available through AIMS, and accessible instructional materials - like:

www.cast.org

www.gimc.org

Book Share (www.bookshare.org) is another great use of instructional materials that would be great for these students who would need electronic text. You can qualify for this if you are orthopedic, visually, or learning impaired.  These students need to have an IEP, and some 504 plans are covered under Book Share. There are many great resources about finding books, reading books, and even extra software available. 

Text-to-Speech software has various reading support features:

• quality of voice
• modify text interface (how the program reads or chunks the text)
• ability to control rate
• built-in dictionary
• ability to insert, create, or modify a scaffold for the reading (allows the teacher to guide the reader)
• can read directly from book share (without any conversions)
• can OCR documents (optical character recognition)
• consistent format for internet and other reading 
• converts text file to a sound file on mp3 player or other electronic device
• language translator

There are obviously many tools to choose and resources available for AT devices to support reading. Take a look at the websites provided, or check out the website listed below where I pulled all my information from for this blog.  There are also other great webinars available on this page that will provide any educator with great resources!

http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki/index.php?title=Webinar_Archives