Assistive Technology

Note: this post originally appeared last year and with back-to-school season in full swing these apps and tools can still provide a huge benefits for dyslexic students. Some updates have been made. With the school year fast approaching (or already in full swing) here are my favorite apps and products for accessibility. Hopefully these apps and products will help make the school year successful for those needing assistive technology to support their reading and writing. This list is geared toward students with dyslexia but many of the apps and products can also benefit other students. To learn more about any of these products or apps click on the accompanying link. Kurzweil 3000 Kurzweil 3000  is a versatile reading and writing program for  Mac  and PC. With Kurzweil students can read scanned and digital documents with high quality  text-to-speech  and synchronized highlighting. This gives students with reading difficulty the ability to listen to text and improve comprehension. Kurzweil

Imagine how difficult it would be to navigate a bustling airport terminal as a person with a visual impairment. Navigating security, finding baggage check, and finding the correct gate all while trying to make a last minute flight is daunting for even the most seasoned travelers. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will soon implement a system to help guide blind and visually impaired travelers from curb to gate. Starting with Terminal 2 this fall, the airport will install some 500 iBeacons for a trial. Current solutions such as GPS do not work well indoors because they are unable to provide precise location information, but beacons allow more precise locationa. When a user with the indoor navigation app walks by a beacon it communicates with the user's smartphone and transmits the location. With the location information sent from the beacon, the app can then guide users to restrooms, restaurants, boarding gates, baggage claims, and even charging stations. Initially the app

Popular video rental service Redbox agreed in a settlement to make 4,000 of their 35,900 kiosks located in California accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. The service, which is commonly found in supermarkets and other public areas, is inaccessible to blind or visually impaired users. As part of the agreement, Redbox agreed to add headphone jacks, text-to-speech output, and tactile keyboards to kiosks. The roll-out of accessible video rental boxes will be gradual and is planed to take longer than two years. In the interim, Redbox has also agreed to provide phone support to help blind customers navigate the rental process. It is not clear if Redbox plans to add more DVDs with audio descriptions to benefit its new larger customer base of visually impaired users, but such a plan would seem to make sense. The settlement deal will inevitably increase Redbox's potential customer base by providing access to more people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the settlement s