Seeing Ear digital library now open to all print disabled people!
Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 20th January, 2011
The Seeing Ear library is a free online library with about 2,300 books in digital format. Until recently only visually impaired or physically disabled people, or staff working them, could join, but Seeing Ear has a new CLA licence which means that it can now be used by any person with a prin...
Protect and carry your iPad
Posted by 14 on the 11th January, 2011
Everyone loves the iPad but three of the (several, actually) things that make it less than ideal as a portable communication aid are lack of a carry handle and the fact that little fingers cannot resist self-distraction by constantly pressing the Home button. Also lack of volume, for loud and no...
Report on 2010 digital papers
Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 7th January, 2011
A report on the use of digital papers in 2010 is now available for download. The report contains a lot of interesting (well, to me, anyway) statistics and feedback from staff who used the papers last year. In 2010, 101 centres made 2000 requests for digital papers on behalf of 675 candidates...
Ultra mini Windows PCs can be used as communication aids
Posted by 14 on the 15th December, 2010
Portability is generally a key requirement of a voice output communication aid. A few dedicated communication aids come in 'handheld' size, and there continues to be much interest in iPods and iPads (cheapness is another attractive feature!) But amazingly, nowadays, you can buy a fully featured W...
Including All Children in the Royal Mail Scottish Children\'s Book Awards
Posted by Robert Stewart on the 29th November, 2010
The 2010 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books is an innovative nationwide reading project in which children and young people from every corner of Scotland read and vote for their favourite Scottish children's books of the year. Last year: Over 31,000 children were involved and a...
Manfred the Baddie rides again!
Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 22nd November, 2010
During November 2010, all Primary 1 children in Scotland will receive a free copy of Manfred the Baddie from the Scottish Book Trust. Manfred won the 0-7 age category of the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books last year, and over 11,000 children voted in this age group. The books will ...
Accessible copies of 2010 Royal Mail Award Shortlist
Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 18th November, 2010
We are pleased to say that we will soon be able to provide accessible digital copies of the nine books shortlisted for the 2010 Royal Mail Book Awards. The books have been produced in cooperation with the publishers and The Scottish Book Trust. Last year over 31,000 children were involved in the a...
2010 SQA Digital Question papers now available
Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 8th November, 2010
SQA have made all the 2010 adapted digital papers available on the SQA web site. There are over 400 papers covering a wide range of subjects. These past papers are ideal for revision and practice, for pupils who are going to be sitting prelims with digital papers, or are intending to 'go digital'...
WordTalk for Windows 7 (32-bit) now available
Posted by Robert Stewart on the 2nd November, 2010
A new version of WordTalk is now available for Windows 7 (32-bit). Unfortunately the Windows 7 (64-bit) version is not yet ready. WordTalk is a free text-to-speech plugin developed for use with Microsoft Word. It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it as i...
Is sushi on the menu?
Posted by 14 on the 29th October, 2010
Kids with physical disabilities often need to use 'scanning' (and switching) to access their communication and/or writing programs. Scanning is a widely misunderstood word. A good definition was coined by David Colven and Simon Judge in 'Switch Access to Technology'. They say: "I...
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