Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math
♦ Page Protectors (floppy pages)-Another way to protect the pages is to cut the book apart, slip the
pages into page protectors and put them in a 3 ring binder. This works well if the child will be
"pushing" or "sliding" the page from right to left rather than "lifting" each page to turn it.
♦ Page Protectors (rigid pages)-If you want to use the page protectors and 3 ring binder, but need
rigid pages that will be "lifted" to turn, you will need to buy two copies of the book. You once again
cut the book apart and insert two copies of each page in the same page protector. Next put one or
more sheets of tag board or pieces of manila file folders in between the two identical book pages to
create a more rigid page and still see both "sides" of the storybook page. Once this is done these new
pages can be further adapted with the page fluffers, window shade pulls, or giant paper clips
described in the previous section.
♦ Adapting Pages for Interaction-You can also adapt books so that a child can interact more
specifically with the content. For instance, if a child was learning short vowels in consonant-vowelconsonant
patterns, you might adhere a small piece of loop Velcro to a place on the pages of a
picture book and then provide little laminated word cards with a piece of hook Velcro on the back.
The child could remove and replace the word that goes on each page (or fix them after you got them
"wrong").
♦ Electronic books-eBooks are another way to allow students with physical disabilities to interact
with text. These well designed books offer a way for students to be very interactive with the text.
Many of them come with songs, games, and other extension activities to save teachers work. They
are especially useful for students with physical disabilities who may not be able to hold or turn the
pages of the regular text version. But they are a good choice for all children with disabilities.
Generally these programs read stories aloud to students in digitized (recorded) speech. They have
colorful graphics, music and sound effects. The students can interact with both text and graphics.
Here are just a few of those available.
• Living Books ® (Riverdeep, Inc.)-There are currently more than a dozen titles in this series.
Several of them can be purchased in Living Books ® Frameworks that include thematic units related
to each story, bibliographies and other materials for implementation in the classroom.
• WiggleWorks (Scholastic)-This is a complete instructional program that features electronic
versions of several excellent children's books. Students can click on unfamiliar words to hear them
read aloud, record themselves as they read the soft cover copy of the book, and write or dictate their
own books, which they can then hear read aloud. The full program is expensive, but you can buy the
classroom library packs and reading packs separately.
• UKanDu Little Books ® (Don Johnston Incorporated)-These and the other CD Rom books from
Don Johnston Incorporated offer interactive books with first and second grade reading levels.
Students can choose words to complete the sentences and create their own stories. All of these work
great with a single switch interface.
• PJTs Reading Adventures (Microsoft)-Students can read the text, listen to the story as they read,
or have the story told to them. Click on any word to hear its pronunciation or definition.
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