Students with Disabilities and the Web

Academic Success
bridges4kids: http://www.bridges4kids.org/ is a compact Web site that attempts to build partnerships
between families, schools and communities. You can click on a topic and find articles related to that topic.

DMM: Disability Museum: http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/index.html
This is a searchable, theme-based digital collection that exists only online offering documents and images related to disability history in the United States. Materials in the Library date back to the 18th century.

Disability Rights Advocates: http://www.dralegal.org is a non-profit legal center. Their Web
page features disability relevant publications and representative legal cases.

The Early Childhood Education Network has fun experiences for young children to
teach shapes, letters, reading and numbers: http://www.literacycenter.net/

Pilkey.com: http://www.pilkey.com/adv-text.php
Meet Dav (rhymes with "have") Pilkey, born March 4th, 1966. An illustrious school history was his! "And whenever Dav did anything bad, his teacher would snap her fingers, point to the door and shout, Mr. PILKEY-OUT!" From a teacher too, these words, "You'd better stop goofing off...You can't spend your life making silly books." Known as the "class clown" and diagnosed with ADHD and LD, Dav is now spending his life writing "silly books" kids love: The Captain Underpants Books, Dumb Bunnies, and Big Dog Little Dog series. Have lots of fun at his Web site and learn more about his "troubled past."

Position of the monitor is very important for the student. Most monitors can be adjusted. Be sure to adjust the monitor so the student can look at it at eye level.
If the student has a physical disability, such as a wheel chair, be sure the computer is at a table that is tall enough for the wheelchair to fit underneath. You can purchase adjustable tables that can be raised and lowered depending on the needs of the student. If an adjustable table is not available you can purchase adjustable keyboards. Younger, smaller students may need a much lower table.

In "Medicating Kids," FRONTLINE reviews the increase in the prescription of behavior-modifying drugs for children. Are these medications really necessary--and safe--for young children, or merely a harried nation's quick fix for annoying, yet age-appropriate, behavior? The program exams ADHD and the use of Ritalin. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/medicating/etc/synopsis.html

SERI - Special Education Resources on the Internet: http://seriweb.com/
Special Education Resources on the Internet (SERI) is a collection of Internet accessible in one location information resources of interest to those involved in the fields related to Special Education. The collection is organised into sections including Physical and Health Disorders, Behaviour Disorders, Learning Disabilities, Vision Impairment, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism, Speech Impairment, Gifted and Talented and Special Needs and Technology.

Special Needs: http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/specialneeds/index.htm
"Teaching today requires understanding the individual differences of all students in your classroom. Tap into all kinds of minds with these resources, chosen to meet the special needs of every student."

Strategies for Teacher Collaboration:
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-2941.html
A resource to help school-based teams bring collaborative teaching into practice. Provides 18 specific inservice activities to help teachers understand the dynamics of collaboration.

WrightsLaw: http://www.wrightslaw.com/
"Parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys come to Wrightslaw for accurate, up-to-date information about special education law and advocacy for children with disabilities."
How to Disagree with the IEP Team Without Starting World War III: http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/strategy.disagree.htm

Examples of Assistive Technology Devices
Synthetic voice, digital audio, or Brailee for people who are blind.

Screen magnification and large text fonts for people with diminished vision or dyslexia.

Descriptive text, captioning, and visual cues for people who are deaf or people who have hearing disabilities.

Specialized adaptartions for people who have physical disabilities involving the use of a keyboard, voice recognition mechanism, mouse, or other input device that requires a part of their body other than their hands and fingers to control a Web browser.

Screen magnifier--Usually a software application that increases the size of text or images on a computer screen. Special monitors and other types of hardware adaptations can be used to project larger images as well.

Refreshable Braille display is a hardware device that reads, translates, and subsequently renders electronic information from a computer interface to Braille.

Screen readers and voice browsers--Software applications combined with a synthetic voice that reads computer data back to users who are blind, or users who are more successful at auditory learning than reading due to a learning disability. This includes all screen objects (for example, windows and icons).

Synthetic speech--Combined with a screen reader application or browser.

Screen recognition--A software application combined with a speech input device (usually a separate or built-in microphone) that enables a blind user or a user with a physical disability to speak or issue commands that the speech recognition recognizes and then acts upon. Speech recognition can also be used for creating and annotating existing material.

Resources
Amaya: http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ is the World Wide Web Consortium's own Web browser that also doubles as an authoring tool within the same window. It contains a Zoom feature in the View menu (Alt + or Alt - on the keyboards) that enables users to increase the size of text and graphics as they appear on a Web page. Amaya includes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing interface. Assuming you have write access to a particular Web page, you can first browse a Web page and then edit it within the same window simply by single-clicking within the editing window. However, the authoring interface is not accessible to windows screen readers.

CJT Enterprises: http://www.cjt-yes.com/

The Darci Institute of Rehabilitation Engineering: http://www.westest.com/darci/

Dierk's Page: http://www.anicursor.com/
Different type of cursor for students with VI, autism, LD, etc.

The Early Childhood Education Network: http://www.literacycenter.net/
This site has fun experiences for young children learn shapes, letters, reading and numbers.

HandSpeak: A Sign Language Dictionary Online: http://www.handspeak.com/

To help educators and parents understand the difficulties children may experience, the coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities has pulled together many resources, including bulletin boards that examine teaching issues.

Linux Accessibility HOWTO: Physically Disabled: http://www.linuxselfhelp.com/HOWTO/Accessibility-HOWTO/physical.html

National Assistive Technology Research Institute (NATRI): http://natri.uky.edu/

Net-Tamer: http://www.nettamer.net/tamer.html
This is a browser that can browse the web, get/send your email, or check the time and date. It will get email and usenet groups, then log off so you can use the included offline reader, or you can choose to stay on and look around. It will also do a download/ upload of mail or usenet on a timer. The program is speech friendly to users of talking programs for the visually impaired.

PleaseRead: The world's most popular text-to-speech software- and still free!: http://www.readplease.com/

SymbolWorld: http://www.symbolworld.org/index.htm
"Symbolworld has been set up to provide a web site with material suitable for symbol readers of all ages. The internet is an important medium which many people really like to use. Sadly there is very little material that is appropriate or accessible by people with learning difficulties."

Microsoft Accessibilty Technology for Everyone: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/ tells about built-in accessibility features in Microsoft products that you can adjust to meet your needs and preferences.
To specify font characteristics in Internet Explorer, including color, size, and style, click the Tools menu, select Internet Options, and then click the Accessibilty button. The Accessibility property sheet is displayed.

Products to buy
Enhancing Internet Access: (EIA): http://www.elr.com.au/eiad/index.htm
This is a specialized Web Browser, suitable for touchscreen systems, with fully integrated Web awareness, assessment and training modules. Designed for Internet training and access for people with disabilities and other special needs rehabilitation centres, libraries and public Internet access sites, disability support environments, private clinics, and specialised individual use. It is compatable with Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser.

Infogrip: http://www.infogrip.com/
"... specialize in providing our clients with all of their assistive technology and ergonomic product and training."

Job Access for Windows (JAWS): http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp is the kind of screen reader that reformats a Web page. For example, JAWS reformats list links alphabetcally and posts the results in a list box. Subsequently, the user can then easily scroll through each link. JAWS also reformats tables using a simple function key (F5) operation. The table is converted into a single column of text including the appropriate column headers.

The Opera Browser: http://www.opera.com/ includes full keyboard navigation, mouse gestures, keyboards shortcuts, a full-screen reader, and an easy-to-use zoom function that is particularly helpful for low vision users. The Zoom Document function on the main browser window provides variable levels of screen magnification for users who find Web page text and/or graphics too small to view. Beyond its accessibility features, Opera is a fully functional browser, providing all the features typically found in more popular commercial browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internte Explorer. Its accessible features are an intergral part of the interface.

Pulse Data HumanWare: http://www.humanware.com/ specializes in assistive technology for persons who are print impaired due to blindness, low vision or learning and reading disabilities.

Speaking Dynamically Pro: http://www.mayer-johnson.com/software/Speakdyn.html
"An invaluable tool for creating talking interactive activities such as books, writing activities, student portfolios, social stories, schedules, symbol dictionaries, and much, much more."

Super Switch Ensemble: http://www.switchintime.com/
"Super Switch Ensemble enables groups of students with mixed abilities to play together in a cooperative setting; each individual working at his/her own level while contributing to the overall performance. With Super Switch Ensemble, players don't interact with the computer; they interact with each other." They say that no musical expertise is required. There is a free demo at the site. This is for Macintosh computers.

Window Eyes: http://www.gwmicro.com/windoweyes/, is a screen reader developed by GW Micro.

This site began in March This page was last updated on October 16, 2011 .
Email questions and comments to: studyplans@yahoo.com