Blog Post 12

Assistive technologies are very helpful in many ways. A few ways could be:

1) enhance learning

2)remove barriers

3) push boundaries

4)give hope

5)challenge the way we think

1 in every 2500 children in Australia have a vision impairment. This a very high number, about 1 child a day received the news that they have a hearing impairment. There are many new ways technology is helping these impairments, such as text to speech devices, talking calculators, screen magnifiers and also note takers. Although these advancements do not cure the problems they help impaired children on a daily basis.

iPad usage for the blind-Voice over is an enhancement on the iPad for the blind. When voice over is turned on, your options on the iPad are read to you as you scan your finger over them. This is very helpful teachers of the impaired. I think this would be a very helpful tip to use in my future as a special education teacher. I look forward to learning much more about many more advancements in technology when I become a teacher.

Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child Is Learning On the iPad. In the next video I chose was a mother learning what her blind child does on the iPad at school. This is an eye opening experience for her. The same as the top video they are using voice over. In this example the teacher is showing the mother notes. This is a very well used application. In this app there are many different typing modes available for notes. This would help in the classroom as no child's condition is the same. There are also applications you can down load free on and iPad that may be of help such as, voice amplifiers and a translator from English to American sign language. These and many other applications are very helpful for he blind and hearing impaired.