Blog

Teach reading, use alternative formats, or do both?

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 26th January, 2010

The Books for All programme is about learning resources in accessible, alternative formats for people who cannot access standard printed books. Sometimes this is due to, for example, severe dyslexia, visual impairment, blindness or physical impairment. In these case it is self-evident that the r...

SQA 2009 Adapted Digital past papers are now available

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 22nd January, 2010

SQA have put up the 2009 adapted digital past papers on their web site for anyone to download. They cover all levels from Intermediate through to Advance Higher with a wide range of different subjects. This means you can now download papers from 2007, 2008 and 2009 for revision and practice. In r...

Technology Discovery Day: 13th March 2010

Posted by Robert Stewart on the 21st January, 2010

For People Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication Time: Saturday 13th March 2010, 11am - 4pm Location: CALL Scotland, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh Webpage: Technology Discovery Day It's FREE and refreshments will be provided. Drop in, or stay all day! The day is run by expert staff from...

Free Books for All CPD!

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 20th January, 2010

Another opportunity to learn how to make Books for All! Learning & Teaching Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government, would like to invite you to send a representative from your local authority to attend Books for All CPD event at Stirling Management Centre. This free CPD is a fo...

New ABBYY FineReader 10

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 18th January, 2010

A new version of FineReader has just been released and the basic OCR accuracy seems to be much better than the previous version 9 (which was actually much worse than version 8 - we carried on using 8 because 9 was so bad). Here's a screenshot of a PDF image that was recognised using FineReader 9:...

iphone / ipod touch apps for communication, education and access

Posted by Allan Wilson on the 18th January, 2010

Were you lucky enough to get an iPhone or an iPod Touch for Christmas? Perhaps your school was able to scrape together funds to buy one? In addition to all the music and videos that you can download from iTunes, you'll find a bewildering array of apps that you can use, covering everything from tun...

Half-price eBooks from WH Smith

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 13th January, 2010

WH Smith are selling eBooks half price until 15 January. There are over 100,000 available and so you can get your hands on say the Twilight series for £4 each (no thanks), Rebus novels by Ian Rankin (that's more like it) as well as books by the likes of Barack Obama or Jeremy Clarkson. ...

I am so proud of these AAC users

Posted by 14 on the 22nd December, 2009

WOW - I have received two emails this week that make me feel a bit old but massively proud! Both were from young women in their early twenties who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) - at opposite ends of Scotland - that I have known since they were very young. I've kn...

Lochaber High School Audio Revision Project

Posted by Paul Nisbet on the 22nd December, 2009

The Audio Revision Project at Lochaber High School is a really good example of how learning resources can be provided in alternative formats. The project is a collaboration between Dyslexia Lochaber, who raised the funding and organised some volunteer narrators, and Lochaber High School. Revision...

Spoken Ink short audio stories