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Assistive Technology for K-12 Classrooms

Created for Teacher Candidates in the Faculty of Education B.Ed. program.

iPad Accessibility Features

Range of features: described at the Apple website.

Vision: To support people who are blind or have low vision.

  • VoiceOver, an advanced screen reader.
  • Siri and Dictation help you type, launch apps, and read your calendar.
  • Speak Selection can read your email, iMessages, web pages, and books to you. Highlight text in any application, tap Speak, and Speak Selection reads the selected text aloud. You can adjust the voice’s dialect and speaking rate, and have words highlighted as they’re being read.
  • Zoom is a built-in magnifier.  A  double-tap with three fingers instantly zooms in 200 percent, and you can adjust the magnification between 100 and 500 percent.

Hearing: To support people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

  • FaceTime video calling and unlimited texting. And assistive technologies such as closed captions and mono audio help you enjoy your content.
  • Look for the CC icon to watch movies, TV shows, and podcasts with closed captions.
  • iMessage lets you start up a conversation without needing to say or hear a word.
  • Select Mono Audio to play both audio channels in both ears.
  • Use visible and vibrating alerts delivers for incoming phone and FaceTime calls.

Physical and motor skills:

  • Voice Dictation (convert speech to text) (Dragon Dictatation, requires WiFi access)
  • Siri: Give voice commands to your iPad (requires iPad 3 or later)
  • Record audio and take time-stamped notes (e.g., AudioNote)

Learning Strategies:  

  • Mind Mapping and Whiteboard (Popplet Lite, Whiteboard HD for iPad, iThoughtsHD,
    MindMeister, MindNode iPad)
  • Stickies and Notes (abcNotes, Stickies, aNote or aNote Lite)
  • Read text outloud and/or make audio file from text (e.g., Speak It!)
  • Thesaurus (Freesaurus)
  • Dictionary (Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Literacy:

  • Reading books (audio or text) (e.g., iBooks, Stanza, Kindle, Kobo, Audible)