Movie on Switch
Access:
I wasn’t quite sure what low incidence and high incidence
disabilities meant, so I looked it up.
Low incidence disabilities are rare such as visual or
hearing impairments, autism, traumatic brain injuries etc.. High incidence
disabilities are more common such as LD and ADHD.
Helping kids with LI disabilities requires “creativity,
planning and teamwork”. The individual’s peers are part of the team, and the
teacher should model communication and interaction with the student for the
rest of the class.
I thought it was very powerful that during Michael’s part of
the video, they mentioned several times that the rest of the class learns to
care about student with special needs. The fact that Michael’s peers know he
learns differently and have experienced some of his medical issues actually
make them more accepting of people with disabilities. Kids tend to be scared of
the unknown, so involving them in Michael’s education may ease their fears.
Sadly, interactions between teenagers tend to decrease a bit
as pointed out by Todd’s and Justin’s stories in the video. I really liked how
little “jobs” were built into the activities, so that even though Todd couldn’t
do the math, he still took part in the activity. I also liked that they pointed
out the benefits of his peers: by allowing them to read to him, they actually
practiced their reading skills. It was also great to see Justin participate in
cooking and art activities.
I absolutely loved that Joy interacted with the younger
students. To go back to my earlier point, kids fear the unknown, so by
interacting with Joy socially, they’ll get to know her and learn to care. (On a
side note, a EZ Cracker from the $store may help Joy out in the kitchen J ). I am thinking maybe
Joy would benefit from trying out EyeGaze to access AAC?!
I really liked how one of the principals mentioned that “All
kids should be in school together!”. It’s all about relationship building and
hopefully these skills will transfer outside of school and people will become
more accepting and aware of individual with disabilities.
By the way, I have been at the same school now for 4 years,
and I have not once seen or heard of an Occupational Therapist visiting our
school. There have been at least 2-3 students that could have really benefited
from getting some extra support within the school.
Station Work:
Station #1 Powerlink and different Switches: These switches
may teach an individual about cause/effect relationships and allow students to
turn on/off items such as a night lamp, radio, buzzer/timer, blender, blow
dryer, stereo, massage pillow, TV, microscope, ray box, fan, vacuum, mixer,
paper shredder.
Skills needed: some gross motor – switches operate with
simple movements, some ability to reach
The science teacher in me loved the pneumatic system switch,
but it may be hard for some to grab onto it. The different sizes and textures
definitely make the switches usable by numerous people with different
strengths and challenges.
I was trying to think of some activities using switches that
could allow students to participate in class. This document is really good
describing “jobs” for several subjects.
I found it really hard to think of items that could be
turned on and off only by turning power on and off. Many of our electronics
these days have so many settings that unless it has been pre-programmed, many of
them are becoming inaccessible via the switches.
Station #2: Scanning Activity on Laptop with Trackball
I would get really frustrated using the hover and scan
options. I think patience is the key here. I like how the on-screen-keyboard
has word prediction, but one definitely needs to have good vision to navigate
between keys for scanning and hovering. The scanning option is definitely
helpful for someone that has troubles independently navigating between keys, so
staying on the spacebar may be easier. The user must be good visually and
cognitively to be able to use these options.
The trackball mouse is definitely great for someone with
limited finger movement.
Station #3: Switch Accessible App
Joanne brought up the point that the switch can easily be
mounted to a wheel chair. She said that she had a student before that would
have thrown the iPad if given the chance, so just having the switch near him is
helpful. I think the switch is great for someone who has erratic hand/arm
movements. I think the Apps itself are great for encouragement/motivation,
develop fine motor skills, teach timing and patience.
Apps:
- Treasure Island
- Light Box
- Big Bang Patterns
- Jungle Adventure
- Racing Cars
- Switch Access Trainer
- Sensory Room
- Switch fan
- Switch Accessible Puzzle ($10.99)
- HelpKidzLearn
- Switch Accessibility Math
- Little Lost penguins
I also found this document with a table of Switch AccessibleApps
These Apps are great for communication, education and FUN!
Station #4: EyeGaze ($2000)
I think this technology is worth the money. It was so easy
to navigate and very sensitive to my eye movements. What a great tool to help
people with, for example, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, a traumatic brain injury or
suffered a stroke to communicate and access the laptop. Individuals with very
low mobility can still access the computer using their eyes.
I also really like the game like calibration aspect (pie in
the face). This would make it a lot easier to train a child how to use it.
EyeGaze could be used for AAC, typing, scroll and select,
make choices, play games, access computer control panel or accessibility
settings and so on. Most importantly it gives individuals control and a bit of
independence!
I can see though that students using this device may grow
tired very quickly. I know when I stare at a screen for too long, I am
exhausted and get headaches.
Station #5: Alternate Keyboard etc.
This keyboard is great for someone who may need bigger
buttons or the high visual contrast (yellow/black); however, it may be a pain
to carry that around everywhere.
I have downloaded Read&Write but have never actually had
a student use it. The features are great. I love the vocabulary list maker.
This tool would be great for some of our LD kids or kids that have trouble
reading. I think even for someone who is editing a paper and can get the
software read it back to him/her to make sure it sounds right, this would be
great!
I have watched the accessibility Chrome video yesterday
morning and commented on it on my blog post yesterday. There are some great
options that I could personally use as well.
Station #6: Android
There are so many accessibility options such as voice
assistant, talk back, dark screen or colour inverter, magnifier,
text-to-speech, google subtitles, left/right sound balance, tap&hold delay,
dominant hand pick…this is great! I started looking through all the
accessibility options on my iPad after and it has many of the same features.
When going through Google Play we found many Apps that help
with accessibility including one App that scans other Apps for accessibility
options and then gives suggestions as to how to improve it (“Accessibility
Scanner”). We also found Google TalkBack, Easy Touch, Google Braille Back and
many more.
Station #7:
We really liked these 3 videos because they showed an
evolution of abilities over the years. The little British girl was just starting to use assistive technology and you can see as she gets the
hang of it, she smiles more and more. Maddy, on the other hand, is using her knee switch to access her AAC technology, and then finally
Christopher uses a combination of technology to access and navigate his laptop
and is even taken an IT certificate online. It is clear that not one piece of technology is enough but that a
combination of technology allows these kids to be more independent and
communicate.
I have to admit that I spent more time writing notes into my
notebook to be able to type them up later for my blog post than I did playing
with the devices. In hindsight, I wish I had left the note-taking until after
and just focused on “playing”, but I was so worried about forgetting stuff.
yy
ReplyDelete