Category: Accessibility

Augsburg College Recommends: Free and Low-Cost Assistive Technology

The Center for Learning and Accessible Student Services (CLASS)) at Augsburg College (MN) has a wonderful resource at their website. Featuring free or low-cost assistive technology tools,  CLASS staff provide information about apps and programs that are either free or that cost less than $25.00  The apps are organized by the following categories:

CLASS staff are committed to staying up to date on the latest information about the apps and strive to addthe latest and greatest apps as soon as they come out. CLASS has also made available a downloadable copy of the listings with live links of the entire list of Free and Low Cost Assistive Technology for Everyone,  at this  link: Free and Low Cost Assistive Technology for Everyone

CLASS also  offers a nice over view of what Assistive Technology is and isn’t at  Assistive Technology: What Is It?

DO-IT Video Resources

The  DO-IT  Center has a collection of  short, well done videos which cover a wide variety of topics of relevance to students, employers, parents, librarians, IT and DSS staff. The videos focus more on the experience of having a disability  than on the law.

The DO-IT video library may be found here. DO-IT Video Library.

Videos play in  the DO-IT  custom accessible media player with audio description and transcripts provided. Videos can be downloaded, viewed on the DO-IT  YouTube channel, or ordered on DVD. The Search Video Library feature enables users to search the full text of all videos and begin playing videos at specific start times from the search results.

 

Located at the University of Washington, Seattle, the DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center is dedicated to empowering people with disabilities through technology and education. It promotes awareness and accessibility—in both the classroom and the workplace—to maximize the potential of individuals with disabilities and make our communities more vibrant, diverse, and inclusive.

MotionSavvy’s UNI Tablet: A Break Through in Sign Language Communication

Brian Meersma over at the Assistive Technology blog reviews some pretty cool stuff.  A recent review profiled the UNI Tablet by MotionSavvy.  This tablet is a break-through in sign-language communication. The tablet will  allow deaf and hearing impaired users to communicate with other people that do not know sign language without an interpreter or slow hand written messages.

The tablet will be released in early 2015.  As with any first generation product, there are limitations and the UNI tablet will sell for  more than $500.00.  That said,  this is an exciting development  and I anticipate that over time, the price will drop and UNI will have additional features and improvements added. If that happens, I can see the UNI being purchased and used by college and university Disability Services offices to enable communication with D/HOH students (although I wouldn’t think of using the UNI as a long-term replacement for an interpreter).

The full post can be read at: MotionSavvy’s UNI Tablet: A Break Through in Sign Language Communication