ATMac

Round-Up: iPad User Stories

Ricky Buchanan — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:06:33 +0000

There have been a plethora of stories in the mainstream news and in blogs about the iPad and the amazing positive effects it’s having for people with various disabilities. Children with autism are the subject of many of these stories, but there are plenty of others who are getting amazing results from their iPads too.

I haven’t been able to keep up with all the stories, but here’s a round-up of some of them. If you know of more, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post:

Making weird cool - Robert Rummel-Hudson talks about why he thinks the iPad is a game-changer for AAC and why it’s important to have devices that don’t say “I have a disability!” as soon as you walk into a room with one.

Zach’s A Mac - Zach is a 3 1/2 year old boy with cerebral palsy who’s learning to use an iPad.

I use my iPad while wearing fingerless gloves to help prevent accidental touches by the palm of my hand.

The iPad: a Near-Miracle for My Son With Autism - Shannon Des Roches Rosa writes about her son Leo and how the iPad has helped him.

iHelp for Autism by the SF Weekly is a long and well balanced story which explains some of the iPads possibilities as well as its limitations, talking to teachers and other experts as well as parents of kids with autism. This article also includes sections about Leo and Des Roches.

Opinion: Why The iPad Isn’t For Me - Paul has quadriplegia and is an ardent iPod Touch user but for him the iPad would be a step backwards in terms of accessibility. In this article he explains why.

Karen Janowski has written Why I Love the iPad for Education: Initial Observations. Karen is an assistive and educational technology consultant who writes excellently and makes many good points.

From the wonderful Katilea, an adult AAC user, we have several great posts about her new iPad:

N0thingbuteverything has written several articles about the iPad as used by her 5 year old son, ‘S’, who has cerebral palsy:

Proloquo2go and the iPad Review - a detailed review of Proloquo2Go and the iPad
Proloquo2go…what I learnt next - More reviewing of Proloquo2Go, as well as a wish list of things she’d like to see in future upgrades.

Kate Ahern from Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs has written iPossibilities for Those with Significant Special Needs and their Teams listing many apps suitable for those at the more severe end of the ’special needs’ spectrum.

Trying out an iPad in Russia - this is definitely a world-wide phenomena.

Eric Sailers, a speech language pathologist who writes at SLP Sharing has also written several iPad articles:

Finally one of my favourite bloggers, Glenda Watson Hyatt, who has cerebral palsy also got herself an iPad and has been surprised by its usefulness:

In personal news, I have just got my own Mac back after it spent two weeks out of action after the video card, so I had only the iPad and my iPod Touch to keep me occupied. I learned a lot about using the iPad which I’m going to show you in future posts. Unfortunately I also got tendonitis in my hands from using them too much, and I have a hernia repair operation scheduled in a week’s time, so I’ll be at least partially out of action for a few more weeks and ATMac will be slow. Please be patient with me while I work on healing!

Hope you enjoyed the stories above - what other iPad disability-related stories have you seen?

- Ricky Buchanan

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This article was originally published at "Round-Up: iPad User Stories" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

Apple announcements For September 1, 2010

Ricky Buchanan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:10:42 +0000

There was an Apple event today which unveiled some exciting updated products. Unfortunately my own Mac has a broken video card and is at the local Apple shop for urgent repairs, but rather than delay telling you I am going to post this abbreviated account from my iPad (which has been invaluable while my computer has been away!).

Announcements included:

Upgraded iPod Touch: This iPod Touch has all the cool stuff recently added to the iPhone, including FaceTime video calling, the high definition Retina Display, and it’s own forward and rear facing cameras.
Upgraded iPod Nano With Touch-screen: The iPod Nano now sports the same type of touchscreen that the other iDevices have, including VoiceOver and most of the same other accessibility features found on the iPhone and iPads.
Upgraded iPod Shuffle: This new iPod Shuffle sports physical buttons again, as well as VoiceOver, and support for playlists.
Upgraded Apple TV: it’s smaller, sleeker, and black! Seriously, though, if you are an ardent Mac/Apple user this looks like a great way to integrate your setup with your existing TV/stereo system.
iTunes 10: iTunes 10 has a social network feature and TV shows can now be rented. And, of course, it works with the newly upgraded devices.

That’s all from me until my Mac is back in service, which should be early next week. What do you think about the accessibility implications of these announcements?

- Ricky Buchanan

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This article was originally published at "Apple announcements For September 1, 2010" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

ATMac Is Now An iTunes Affiliate

Ricky Buchanan — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:41:18 +0000

Greetings Dear Readers,

The good news is that we have been accepted into the iTunes affiliate program! This means that whenever you use a link on ATMac to buy an app from the iTunes App Store- like Proloquo2Go - a small percent of the price will be paid to ATMac and hence to me. The price for you as a user is the same, and it means that I can get some money to help ATMac grow by doing things like paying other writers, and paying myself for some of the time ATMac takes to run.

ATMac is already an affiliate for MacSpeech Dictate and Amazon.com, and the income from those things helps me a lot.

Because I want you to know that opinions here are not influenced by any income opportunities - at least as far as human psychology permits - at the end of any post with affiliate links you will see this disclaimer:

Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase the products that I've linked to I'll get a commission - a small percentage of the sale price. It won't cost you anything and it will help to support me and ATMac.

Or one with very similar wording but telling you exactly which product links are the affiliate ones. You may already have noticed these around on posts about MacSpeech Dictate, for example.

I will never lie to you about my opinion of a product and I will never take money to change what I write (for example, I have in the past been offered several thousand dollars to put hidden advertisements here, disguised as my own opinion - I declined). I don’t want any of you to ever doubt the integrity of what’s written here - the fact that ATMac is trusted is very important to me.

If you have any questions about this, please leave me a comment or contact me privately.

- Ricky Buchanan

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This article was originally published at "ATMac Is Now An iTunes Affiliate" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

Comparing iPads, Netbooks, and Auggies for AAC Use

Ricky Buchanan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:48:01 +0000

RJ Cooper has put together two very helpful pages for people thinking about purchasing an iPad for use as an AAC device.

The first page compares an iPad with RJ Cooper’s own “Auggie” device, the second compares an iPad and a Netbook.

RJ Cooper's daughter models his iPad case with shoulder strap

I think his comparison pages are great and can certainly very helpful for people deciding what device to purchase, but I do have a few comments about the comparison tables:

Contrary to what RJ wrote, the iPad can be used with a stylus. It needs to be a stylus (such as the Pogo brand) which is designed for use with iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch type devices, but there are many of these on the market now. We have discussed stylus and mouth stick users previously on ATMac.
RJ writes that the menu button (the “Home” button on the iPad’s front) is too accessible. I agree completely, but note that this is easily remedied in many cases by adapting the case you have the iPad in, reversing the iPad in its case (so the home button is not exposed) or covering the button with a piece of plastic. I have a forthcoming video article on this topic which will display these solutions in action.
The keyboard is listed as “On-screen or keyboard dock and Apple keyboard”. The keyboard dock has a built-in Apple keyboard and is one option. An Apple bluetooth (wireless) keyboard is another option, but in fact the iPad will work fine with virtually any standard Bluetooth keyboard (one that doesn’t need a driver loaded on your computer before it works). With the Apple brand bluetooth keyboard there are a few additional functions available via the keyboard’s function keys, but other than that any brand of bluetooth keyboard is fine.
Web page capability is listed as “Standard pages only” which is quite vague. Any web page will work fine except that pages with Flash or Silverlight content won’t load the Flash/Silverlight sections. None of the web sites I regularly visit have any Flash/Silverlight content except for advertisements (and I’m happy the ads don’t load!) so I have never found this a problem, but if there are web pages that you must be able to access through the device it’s worth trying these out on an iPad when you visit your local Apple store just to make sure they’re OK.

RJ Cooper has some other pages you might find useful also:

Making Pointer Work On The iPad has a technique similar to that previously described in our article Accessing the iPad: Mouthsticks and Styluses. The theory behind the two was the same, but Paul’s implementation here was less bulky and having the foil at the end means the end of the pointer was still rounded. If you have access to conductive foam (your local electronics store can probably help), a third option was discussed on LifeKludger’s article DIY Touchscreen Stylus using Conductive foam.

RJ Sells an iPad Carry Case in black and red, it’s a sturdy leather case with a shoulder strap - perfect for AAC users. I’d love to have one of these to carry my own iPad in!

The iPad Bumper Case is perfect for attaching the iPad to mounting devices in a removable fashion, and the Bumper Case provides a little more protection to the device also.

The iPad Speaker is a small battery-powered bluetooth speaker which can easily be attached to the iPad’s back, or to a stand or the outside of a case and significantly boosts the iPad’s volume. Again, perfect for AAC users.

RJ also offers an iPad Stand perfect for positioning the iPad on a table, desk, or wheelchair tray, and an a small mounting arm available in articulating and non-articulating versions and very adaptable for use as an iPad Mount.

If you’re an iPad AAC user, or a parent/supporter/teacher of such, what accessories do you use?

– Ricky Buchanan

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This article was originally published at "Comparing iPads, Netbooks, and Auggies for AAC Use" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

ShoutOUT Speech To Text Messaging For iOS

Ricky Buchanan — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:46:09 +0000

ShoutOUT is a messaging application for text messages (SMSs), and Facebook and Twitter updates. It allows typed messages to be entered for free, messages using speech-to-text are charged for via in-app purchases beginning at 50 voice credits for US$1.99.

I couldn’t test this app because it only works for USA customers who already have a USA mobile phone number, but it seems to have some good reviews from users.

Amplify’d from shout-out.mobi

ShoutOUT allows you to send and receive messages, with full texting capabilities including:

Inbox and outbox

Discussions threaded by recipient

Status updates on Facebook and Twitter

Push notification of incoming messages

Thumbnail images for all your contacts

Shake-to-Clear

ShoutOUT is a full-featured messaging app with voice dictation. Speak your text messages or Facebook and Twitter updates and see the results in seconds—there’s no faster way to create and send messages.

ShoutOUT allows you to send and receive text messages at a cost far lower than the standard rates charged by mobile operators. For outbound messages, keyboard entered messages are free and unlimited, and you pay only pennies per message for voice-generated texts. All inbound messages are free and unlimited.

Read more at shout-out.mobi

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/8pgq

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This article was originally published at "ShoutOUT Speech To Text Messaging For iOS" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

ReadHear DAISY Talking Book Player

Ricky Buchanan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:52:07 +0000

This DAISY player includes text highlighting, not currently available in the free Olearia player and also reads more formats than Olearia can.

The new features come at a steep price though: ReadHear Mac does have a 30 day trial version available, but at US$119 the cost may be more than most users are willing (or able) to pay.

Amplify’d from www.gh-accessibility.com

ReadHear™ Mac

ReadHear™ Mac is the first ever fully-featured Digital Talking Book player for the Mac! The great accessibility features available in the gh PLAYER™ are no longer limited to the PC. ReadHear Mac provides excellent benefits to those who enjoy and appreciate learning and listening to all types of books, articles, and documents.

Support for MathML, NIMAS 1.1., & DAISY/
NISO 2005. ReadHear Mac is the first DAISY DTB
player that supports all updated specifications on
the Macintosh.

Bookshare, RFB&D AudioPlus, Educational
Publishers, e-Pub, & DRM Supported soon!

Keyboard shortcuts can be used for
quicker access to menu items and
functions. Text highlighting is also
used to help the reader follow along
as the book is being read. The Library
feature organizes and stores all of your
books for future use and will even find
books that are already on your Mac.

Use the Sidebar to quickly jump to
parts of a book by selecting Headings,
Pages, Bookmarks, and Search.
Additional audio navigation methods
include: heading, page, sentence,
and word mode. Add a bookmark
whenever you like in the book and
include your own additional notes.
Features of ReadHear™ Mac
ReadHear Mac automatically checks
for updates to ensure you always have
the most up-to-date version. Once a
book is opened, playback automatically
starts. You can then choose to pause,
go forward, go backwards, or repeat
content. ReadHear Mac uses the
voices that come standard with
your Macintosh. Built-in spelling
and dictionary features augment
your reading and comprehension
experience.Additionally, ReadHear
Mac has been well-tested for use with
VoiceOver.

Read more at www.gh-accessibility.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cPvTkY

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This article was originally published at "ReadHear DAISY Talking Book Player" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

Make Appliances and Controls Accessible with Digit-Eyes

Guest Post — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:07:40 +0000

Guest post by Nancy Miracle

Digit-Eyes is an application that runs on the iPhone and which uses inexpensive off-the-shelf address labels and a standard inkjet or laser printer to enable iPhone users to make labels that are read aloud by their phone. It can also be used to read manufacturer’s UPC barcodes.

As the CTO for Digit-Eyes, I often get asked “so what is Digit-Eyes good for other than labelling food and files?”
There are many things that are labeled for sighted people and where having labels that can easily be found and read by those who are not sighted is useful.

Using the Digit-Eyes website, you can make two types of labels:

Audio labels: great when you are labelling an item where the description might change (for instance, making notes to yourself), where there is a lot of content (such as when the pharmacist tells you what a prescription is for and you want to record what she says) or where you want the content to be private. The latter is because the audio label content is recorded on your phone and only you can access it.
Text labels: handy when you are labelling something that won’t change or where you want other people to be able to read the labels.

We’ve heard from quite a number of people who’ve used text labels to make appliances accessible. Good labelling of appliance controls adds a margin of safety and convenience to ordinary household tasks. Because the address labels used by Digit-Eyes are thin and flat (unlike conventional Braille labels), they can be used to over-label those increasingly-common flat switches that are easy to clean - but which are completely impossible to understand by touch. The photo below shows how:

Using an iPhone to read Digit-Eyes labels on an oven

First, the customer went to the Digit-Eyes website, selected the type of labels she had and typed descriptions of the buttons on her oven.

She got a PDF file of the codes, put a sheet of labels in her printer and printed the codes on the labels. She peeled the labels off and affixed them to the oven controls. The labels are above the buttons for the convenience of sighted members of the household, but they can actually put directly over most types of buttons with no ill-effects.

The job was completed by putting a layer of clear shelf paper over the labels to keep them clean.

Reading Oven Labels
When the customer wants to use her oven, she simply locates the label by touch, scans it with the Digit-Eyes app on her iPhone and listens to the description of the control.

In addition to adding a measure of kitchen safety, this little project is a great way to try out making and reading labels for the iPhone.

The full version of Digit-Eyes costs US$29.99 from the iTunes app store. Digit-Eyes Lite, a version that only reads text labels, is free. 

Have you tried Digit-Eyes? Share your stories and tips in the comments.

- Nancy Miracle

Do you know somebody else who would find this interesting or useful? Please forward it to them.

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This article was originally published at "Make Appliances and Controls Accessible with Digit-Eyes" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

Introduction To Keyboard Maestro

Ricky Buchanan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:55:38 +0000

AccessTech News provides a step-by-step tutorial to introduce you to the wonders of Keyboard Maestro - a program that lets you automate things you often on the computer.

Amplify’d from accesstechnews.wordpress.com

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier. So how is it we sometimes have to go through the same routine time after time: click this, open that, copy the other? If you find yourself doing mindless, repetitive tasks your computer should be doing, then you probably need Keyboard Maestro. It’s one of my most valued applications.

Keyboard Maestro lets you set up sequences of actions, or macros, and then does them for you. Watch your computer do the work, instead of the other way round. Let me show you how it works.

This first tip introduces Keyboard Maestro and shows one single way to expand some text. The program has infinitely more power than that though, so watch for future Tips too.

Use the coupon MacTips for a 20% discount on Keyboard Maestro. This offer expires at the end of August 2010. It’s free to test the software.

See more at accesstechnews.wordpress.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/dDjMnj

- Ricky Buchanan

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This article was originally published at "Introduction To Keyboard Maestro" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

OneThingToday: Focus On What’s Important

Ricky Buchanan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:07:23 +0000

OneThingToday looks like a great task manager to help you focus on what’s important today. Once you’ve used the calendar view to input your tasks, switch to the “Today” view to get a single box (optionally transparent) which floats on top of your workspace, constantly reminding you of what you’re working on.

In many ways, this is a more organised version of using stickies to help you focus, letting you plan ahead.

Amplify’d from www.linethirteen.com

OneThingToday is designed to make managing your tasks as simple as possible, without micromanaging your time.

OneThingToday is designed for people who have multiple simultaneous projects, and can enhance their productivity by focusing on one project each day.

OneThingToday is also designed for people who only have time to tackle one task each day, and who find themselves overwhelmed by all their pending tasks in their limited time.

See more at www.linethirteen.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ddzUL3

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This article was originally published at "OneThingToday: Focus On What’s Important" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

Free PDF To Word Converter For OS X

Ricky Buchanan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:16:00 +0000

A PDF to Word converter will only work on text-based PDFs, not image-based ones, but it’s very useful if there is a PDF that you need to convert back to a document format so you can edit it.

You can identify if a PDF is image-based or text-based by opening it in preview and seeing if you can select some text with the mouse. If you can select text the same way you would on a web page or in a word processor, it’s a text-based PDF and the converter should work fine.

Incidentally, using the PDF to Word converter is not a bad way to check a PDF for accessibility - it reads through the PDF using similar techniques to accessibility software, so if your PDF is not accessible then converter won’t work.

Amplify’d from www.anypdftools.com

How to Get AnyBizSoft PDF to Word for Mac for Free
The giveaway is exclusive for AnyBizSoft’s fans on Facebook page, so anyone who wants to grab a license for free is recommended to visit AnyBizSoft’s Facebook page and click Like button to become a fan, then fill in your name and email address to get a license for free. Please note that the free license is only for personal usages.
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/AnyBizSoft?v=app_6009294086
Product Page: http://www.anypdftools.com/pdf-to-word-for-mac.html

Key Features of AnyBizSoft PDF to Word for Mac
1. Support conversion of restrictions encrypted PDF files directly, and password protected ones by entering password
2. 2 Conversion Modes: Batch (up to 50 files at once), Partial (by selecting individual pages) and Right-click conversion modes
3. Preserves text, tables, images and hyperlinks individually in generated Word files as original layouts

Read more at www.anypdftools.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cTtrRd

If you get this software, let me know how it works for you - I have picked up my copy but haven’t really used it much yet.

– Ricky Buchanan

Do you know somebody else who would find this interesting or useful? Please forward it to them.

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This article was originally published at "Free PDF To Word Converter For OS X" and is copyright (C) Ricky Buchanan 2010. Please do not republish without permission.

ATMac

Round-Up: iPad User Stories

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Apple announcements For September 1, 2010

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ATMac Is Now An iTunes Affiliate

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Comparing iPads, Netbooks, and Auggies for AAC Use

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ShoutOUT Speech To Text Messaging For iOS

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ReadHear DAISY Talking Book Player

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Make Appliances and Controls Accessible with Digit-Eyes

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Introduction To Keyboard Maestro

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OneThingToday: Focus On What’s Important

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Free PDF To Word Converter For OS X

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