Assistive Technology for Reading

My last few post have focused on assistive technology for writing. I'm going to switch gears and focus on reading. On the Tools for Life wesbite by Georgia's Assistive Technology Act Program the assistive technology specialist gives tools to help student's when reading. The webinar is short but provides readers with several resources to help minimize the barriers for students with disabilities. The first screen compared and contrasted a screen reader and a text reader. The text reader is for students with adequate vision but may have a reading disability, whereas the screen reader is for students with low vision capabilities. The screen reader is able to read all elements of a screen.

The next few slides focused on where to get to get electronic text from websites such as bookshare.org. 

At the conclusion of the presentation assistive technology specialist gave several ways text and programs can be modified to help students when reading. No different than curriculum, the tools will need to be altered to fit the student's need. Many programs come with various features such as the ability to highlight key information, changing the rate of speech, and can include a language translator. The ability to change these features allows the device or program to be customized for the student's specific needs! Check out the webinar below! 

Assistive Technology for Reading Webinar