Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

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Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math Learning and Studying There are a variety of tools that can help a student who struggles with the basic tasks of learning and studying. Things like organizing time, organizing information, and retrieving information can be critical to a student’s success. Here are several suggestions that can help the student who struggles with these problems. ♦ Print or Picture Schedule For the student who doesn’t read or doesn’t read well, a picture schedule that uses symbols to remind him of the activities of his day can be very helpful. This is especially true of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. If the student can read, then a printed schedule can be used. For the student with short term memory problems, such as those resulting from Traumatic Brain Injury, checking off or crossing out each activity as it is completed may be necessary. ♦ Low Tech Aids to Identify Materials Items such as color coded folders, index tabs, color coded notebooks and other low tech aids can make a real difference for some students. We have had great success with Hefty tabs from Lee Products Company. They come in five different colors and are removable, so they do not damage textbooks. Textbooks can be coded by placing one color of hefty tab in the Table of Contents of each text, another tab for the index, another for the glossary and another floater tab to mark place in text. ♦ Highlighting Text As described earlier in this chapter under Reading, the use of highlighters and Highlighting Tape can be very helpful in identifying important information for later study. Different colors can be used for different information, color coding information about specific dates in green and about specific people in orange for example. ♦ Recording Material Sometimes it helps to record important information such as dates, key facts, or questions that have been identified as being on the coming test. If material is recorded, especially whole lectures, it is important to identify the location of the information. Wanderman (2000) suggests using a digital tape recorder and making at least minimal notes on a piece of paper which identify the location of significant information by noting the digital number which was showing when that fact was recorded. Digital recorders can also be used to record voice notes. The voice notes can then be downloaded into a computer and transcribed into text using voice recognition software. Many cell phones and handheld computers offer a voice note feature. ♦ Voice output reminders There are a variety of voice output devices that can be used to record reminders, steps of a task, complex directions, etc. There are many types of small voice message reminders available at places like Wal- Mart and Target. They range in price from $6-$25. Some have better voice quality than others, so it pays to check them out. Slightly more expensive items can be useful for a student at a lower cognitive level. The Little Step-by- Step Communicator from AbleNet, Inc. has a total of 75 seconds of recording time which can be spread over several levels. Recording one step on each level allows the student to hear only one step at a time. Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 138
Chapter 5 – Assistive Technology for Reading, Studying, and Math ♦ Electronic Organizers These great new tools are relatively inexpensive and can be helpful for the mature student who doesn’t lose or drop things! There are a variety of brands available at places like Radio Shack. ♦ Pagers and Electronic Reminders Again there are numerous products appearing on the market. The Watchminder ® is a tool that looks like a watch. It can be set with a short vibration to remind the wearer to pay attention or modify a specific behavior and a long vibration to remind the wearer to do a specific task or activity. Multiple messages from a list of over 75 preprogrammed messages regarding school and life in general can be activated at specific times during the day. When activated, a continuous vibration for three seconds accompanies the displayed message. The wearer can set up to 16 alarms each day with an eight character display for each message. ♦ Single Word Scanners For studying, the single word scanners such as the Quicktionary II Pen can be useful to hear the pronunciation of a key word or to get the definition without needing to look it up in a dictionary. ♦ Hand Held Scanners When students are studying or looking up material in a reference book and need to copy that information to another source, a hand held scanner such as the QuickLink Pen from WizCom Technologies LTD or the Siemens PocketReader can be a wonderful tool. The IRISPen express is a pen scanner that works with any Windows or Mac application. It is small, lightweight, USB, 8 to 22 point font recognition and recognizes up to 1000 characters per second. ♦ Software for Concept Development and Manipulation of Objects For students who struggle to understand difficult concepts, there are many instructional software programs that can make the complicated more understandable. This is especially true for visual learners or for learners whose ability to read is well below their ability to understand. This category is included here to remind the reader that software that allows a student to increase or improve a functional capability such as studying is indeed assistive, even though it may have been designed to be instructional. ♦ Software for the Organization of Ideas There are several software programs that can be used to help organize information. The outlining feature in word processing programs such as AppleWorks 6 and Microsoft Word are examples. Another exciting product for older students who are struggling with comprehension of material is Inspiration ® from Inspiration Software. Inspiration ® is an outlining tool that can help students organize or map information. The research conducted by Anderson-Inman, Knox-Quinn, & Horney, (1996), found that it is not enough to just give computers to students. You must also teach them strategies to use to manipulate and utilize information. This software can help them do that. Inspiration ® has now been adapted for younger learners in Kidspiration ® . Kidspiration ® has been designed for students in grades K-5. Kidspiration ® includes audio playback of the written words. Draft:Builder ® from Don Johnston Incorporated leads students through the three key steps in creating a first draft: organizing ideas, taking notes and writing the draft. It models the logical, progressive steps of draft-writing and displays a visual representation of the process. The display gives students a framework to generate, manipulate and connect ideas and information. Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 139
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Chapter 2 - Computer Access A CONTI
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Chapter 9 - Documenting Assistive T
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Chapter 10 - Funding Assistive Tech
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Assistive Technology Vendor Table C
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Assistive Technology Vendor Table M
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Assistive Technology Vendor Table N
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Assistive Technology Vendor Table C
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Assistive Technology Vendor Table V
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Appendix Additional Vendors: Assess
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WATI Product Catalog WATI PRODUCT C
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WATI Product Catalog Assistive Tech
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WATI Product Catalog School Profile
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WATI Product Catalog Wisconsin Assi
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Assistive Technology Assessment For
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Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

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