Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 3 – Assistive Technology for Writing
Word Processing
All of the basic word processing programs and the student writing programs provide the
opportunity to produce legible, neat looking written material, and significantly reduce copy
time when editing previously typed work. The alternatives for different fonts and sizes can be
a delight for students who have struggled to produce attractive written materials. The School
Font Collection by Mountain Lake Software, Inc. offers three handwriting-style fonts
commonly used on classroom materials.
♦ Portable Scanner with word processing software
Many companies are now producing portable handheld scanners that work like a digital
highlighter. The handheld scanners read text from books, magazines, newspapers, and other
printed documents; captures the text in its memory and allows the user to download the text
to their PC via the serial cable at a later time. This tool would allow a student to capture
important information from textbooks, glossaries, research materials, etc. and download it
directly into a word processor.
• The QuickLink Pen from Wizcom Technologies, Inc., LTD is another handheld
scanner. The QuickLink Pen can scan full lines of text from 6-22 point size, store it,
and then transfer it to a computer, Palm Pilot or text enabled cellular phone.
• The SuperPen Voice from Wizcom Technologies, Inc., LTD is a hand held scanner
and translator. The pen combined the functionalities of the Quicktionary II and the
QuickLink Pen. This pen allows the user to scan full sentences of text and to receive
instantaneous auditory word-by-word translation. The pen weighs 3 ounces and is
capable of storing up to 3000 pages of data.
♦ Voice Recognition Software to word process
Voice recognition technology can benefit students who have learning disabilities that
interfere with their ability to spell and write. While many such students benefit from standard
word processing, the visual-motor demands of keyboarding can be a major stumbling block
that compounds the writing process. Similarly students who are the poorest spellers are
frequently unable to effectively use standard spell checkers. For whatever reason, if students'
oral language skills far exceed their ability to generate text with pencil and paper or standard
word processing, voice recognition may enable them to become successful writers.
Voice recognition is a computer application that lets people control a computer by speaking
to it. In other words, rather than using a keyboard and mouse to communicate with the
computer, the user speaks commands into a microphone that is connected to a computer.
Students can write using speech recognition in conjunction with a standard word processing
program. When users speak into the microphone their words can appear on a computer
screen in a word processing format, ready for revision and editing.
Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 86