Sunrise School Division 2013

1. Sunrise School Division 2013

2. Assistive Technology Supports can help: • Student independence • Foster specific skill development • Access to curricular content • Increase motivation • Provide alternative ways to express knowledge Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

3. Assistive Technology process: • Student skills • Environment • Tasks • Tools This requires: • Access to tool • Time to learn tool • Be taught how to use tool Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

4. Purpose: why use RWG? • Reading Supports • Study Supports • Research Supports • Writing Supports Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

5. When the Purpose is Reading: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practice, development, and refinement. In addition, reading requires creativity and critical analysis. Consumers of literature make ventures with each piece, innately deviating from literal words to create images that make sense to them in the unfamiliar places the texts describe. Because reading is such a complex process, it cannot be controlled or restricted to one or two interpretations. There are no concrete laws in reading, but rather allows readers an escape to produce their own products introspectively. This promotes deep exploration of texts during interpretation.[1] Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use morpheme, semantics, syntax and context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata theory). Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

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7. Purpose of Reading: a little simpler • to learn new information aka derive meaning • for pleasure • to review known information Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

8. Skills for Reading: • to be able to read to learn new information, readers need: ability to decode the sounds vocabulary knowledge sentence structure comprehension ability to relate to previous knowledge Check out the tools in the Reading toolbar: Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

9. Difficulty decoding symbols? Try: • Text to speech aka Speech Feedback • Read by word, sentence or paragraph • Adjust the pace, pitch, volume • Highlighting to improve word recognition • Screen masking if difficulty is visually based Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

10. Difficulty with vocabulary? Try: • Dictionary • Picture Dictionary • Sounds like Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

11. Know, Know, Know your format! • Microsoft Office • Word - the tools just work, yeah! • PowerPoint – use ‘Open In Text Reader’ • Email – depends • Outlook – should just work; Webmail - open in text reader • Html aka web pages • PDF – oh those darn pdf’s Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

12. Remember - Know your format! • Open a Word document – try out some tools, try customizing (page 8 of handout) • Open a Webpage – now how? • Look on page 13 of handout for instructions • Inaccessible Flash? Oh no….use the Screenshot Reader tool. Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

13. Reading a pdf #1 Point to Note: The document has to be accessible When a document is scanned from the photocopier, it is a pdf file but it is not accessible,there are a few ways to ‘make it so’ Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

14. Options for reading a pdf 1. Make the pdf accessible from Adobe Acrobat Pro or 2. Use the Scan tool in RWG or 3. Use the Screenshot Reader tool in RWG Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

15. Options for reading a pdf:#1 Make the pdf accessible from Adobe Acrobat Pro Open pdf file in Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Reader) Select File ->Action Wizard ->Create Accessible pdfs Follow the steps just selecting ok and next Save now accessible document (honestly sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t and we haven’t figured out why) Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

16. Options for reading a pdf:#2 Use the Scan tool in RWG The best way is to scan from file.  1. Go to your Scandrop down in RWG, choose your output (Word, PDF or HTML). 2. Go down the list a bit more and choose your source (from file). 3. Click your Scanbutton and navigate to the file on your system.Choose the pages and voila it should appear in the format you indicated for output in step #1. 4. Use the PDF Aloud plug in to read if you chose pdf as the output format. Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

17. Options for reading a pdf:#2 Use the Scan tool in RWG Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

18. Options for reading a pdf#3Use the Screenshot Reader tool in RWG If you can’t scan it then the printing is likely locked in the original document.  See if you can get the print unlocked on the document properties.  If not then you’ll need to use Screenshot Reader on each page. Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

19. Look for help: • http://blog.texthelp.com/2013/08/making-inaccessible-pdfs-accessible/ • http://www.texthelp.com/north-america/our-products/readwrite/educator-resources/presentations-and-webinars Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

20. When the purpose is Writing: • Need help with spelling? • try Spell Check, Word Prediction, Speak as I type • Need help with vocabulary? • Try Dictionary, Picture Dictionary • Hey you can customize those dictionaries! (pg 9) • And there’s many more….pg 17 of handout Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

21. Check out more Writing tools • Online fact mapping • Word wizard • Sounds like • Verb checker • Vocabulary list • Verb checker Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

22. Study Tools • Highlighters with a purpose • Collect highlights • Vocabulary • Cool! Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

23. Study Toolsexample of a Vocabulary List generated by RWG Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

24. Study and/or Writing Tool Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

25. Research tools: • Fact Folder • Fact Finder Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold

26. Recap - Assistive Technology Supports can help: • Student independence • Foster specific skill development • Access to curricular content • Increase motivation • Provide a way to express knowledge For more information: http://www.sunrisesd.ca/school/studentsupport/Programs/AssistiveTechnology%20Supports/Pages/default.aspx Sunrise Student Support Services Assistive Technology Supports Read & Write Gold