Category Archives: disability

And the winner is …Proloquo2go

BETT, disability, New technologies, software, special needs, ,
Proloquo2go wins the award
Sal and comedian Alun Cochrane meet the winners from Proloquo2go

Rebecca Bright is a Speech and Language therapist and has been closely involved with Proloquo2go so she was delighted to learn that it had won the BETT Special Needs Award 2011. It is an app which can be used on an iPad or iPhone to give a voice to those who have a disability such as cerebral palsy or autism which prevents them getting their message across.

Proloquo2go is an affordable solution for those who need communication aids. There are many specialist augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) devices on the market but they often cost thousands of pounds and demand outstrips supply so some young people are left literally without a voice. Now, with increased funding restrictions, there are more people who need a reasonably priced aid and Proloquo2go offers access to many people who would formerly have found AAC out of reach.
Proloquo2go
AAC in your pocket

“Proloquo2go is also very socially acceptable,” said Rebecca. “It works on devices which everyone else has or wants to have so it is not seen as a specialist device for people with disabilities This has had a knock on effect. In the past some learners were unwilling to use their communication aids outside the classroom or home because it marked them out as being different but now that stigma is removed. There are over 300,000 apps on iTunes and we are finding that users are going for a mix and match approach. They might use Proloquo2go symbols for a message and then switch into YouTube to show a video and then call up photos of their family as part of a conversation. All of us at Proloquo2go, the developers AssistiveWare and those of us who work at the UK partner TherapyBox  are delighted to win the award. It is good news for us but it is also good news for those who need communication aids. It shifts the spotlight from dedicated technology to low cost, mainstream mobile technology.

Watch a video t osee how Proloquo2go changed one little boy’s life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulf11Kg8-lI

Final Leg of Special Needs Award

BETT, disability, software, special needs

The BETT Special Needs Award 2011 will be announced at the Hilton Park Lane on Wednesday 12th January. Six entries have been shortlisted and they represent the diversity of products for young people with disabilities and learning difficulties.

 Two products are aimed at literacy:  Catch Up Literacy Digital Games 3 is for struggling readers aged 8 to 14 working at NC Levels 1-3. It works on high frequency words, comprehension and recall, segmenting and blending phonemes and is available in Welsh too.  JISC’s MyStudyBar is a great money saving tool. It brings together freeware and open source software for students who have problems with planning, reading, writing, This free download has been used by learners as far afield as New Zealand and Australia and is likely to be very popular in these money straitened times.

 Pupils who need help with speech often need expensive specialist Augmentative Assistive Communication devices but now there is another solution with Proloquo2Go.  It is an app which will run on an iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It has natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols and an inbuilt vocabulary of over 7000 items. Another hi-tech solution is Nisai Virtual Academy which takes education out to pupils who cannot go to school. It offers qualifications from Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 5 and includes live lessons with teachers and other students from all over the UK.

HelpKidzLearn
free games for switch users

 Pupils with more profound disabilities will welcome TTS Sound Shuffle, a simple device that records up to four minutes of multiple messages and plays them back randomly or sequentially. It’s great for audio recordings for non- readers and ideal for adding sound or voice to wall displays. The final shortlisted entry is HelpKidzLearn, a set of free games which offer fun and purposeful activities for young switch users. Try whacking gophers down a drainpipe – great for develop anticiopation skills – and create a digital magic potion: leg of frog, eye of newt, and of course, lots of slime. Lovely!

 The final decision on the winner of the BETT Special Needs Award 2011 will be announced on Wednesday night but all these entries will certainly find new audiences in 2011.

 http://www.catchup.org.uk/

http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/mystudybar.php

http://www.nisaiva.com

http://www.proloquo2go.com/

http://www.tts-group.co.uk/

http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/

 

Prizes mean purchasers

disability, New technologies, software, special needs

It’s autumn. The nights are drawing in and the leaves are falling so this is a really good time to think about PRIZES. Every year at this time, software companies need to do an audit of their latest products and check out potential winners. If you don’t enter, no one will do it for it and there is a world of potential purchasers out there who may never know just how good your software is.

Some of you will have entered for BETT awards (http://tinyurl.com/http-bettapp-com)

The closing date is 4th October so get your skates on if you haven’t applied yet.

But for those of you in the world of special needs, the nasen awards might be even more relevant. These awards have been going for 18 years and are described as, “amongst the most prestigious in the UK, representing a recognised hallmark of inclusivity and excellence for educational suppliers, authors and publishers.”

This year nasen has announced a new category : ICT Resource to Support Teaching and Learning. This is to celebrate the power of technology as a tool for communication and they are looking for the most innovative and targeted ICT SEN resources which represent value for money. Entries must have been published between 1st May 2009 and 31st December 2010

Have a look at
http://www.nasen.org.uk/uploads/publications/144.pdf for the full list of criteria and details of how to enter.

The closing date is 31st December and the winners will be announced at nasen Live 2011 at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton on Tuesday 24th May 2011.

Kill or cure: budget hits disabled people

disability, Politics

As I write, we are just finishing Learning Disability Week, an annual event organised by Mencap to headline the needs of the 1.5 million people in the UK who have learning disabilities.

Now it’s not been a good week for people with disabilities. We have heard that front line services are to be protected in schools but many worry that teachers will be safe at the expense of care assistants and learning support workers. In addition, there are to be stringent new rules for claiming disabilities benefits to help “reduce dependency and promote work” and many current claimants are set to lose out under the new regime.

Obviously this move will help the blind to see and make those with mental health problems pull themselves together. Who knows? Perhaps it will turn the average wheelchair user into Andy out of Little Britain who leaps out of his chair to score a goal for England in the latest Nationwide campaign. That’s the attitude – now get a job! Osborne’s argument is that 2.9 million people are now eligible for the Disabled Living Allowance which is three times as many people as when it was introduced eighteen years ago. Of course, a lot of the increase is due to the improved healthcare – more children survive premature birth and neo-natal complications and people generally live longer but become increasingly infirm. People may be expected to work until their late 60s but every day in the UK 100 people start to lose their sight (source: RNIB ).

Short of killing people off, the numbers of people claiming disability benefits are likely to rise. Mencap are targeting the NHS in their latest campaign. Let’s hope this government is aware of the consequences of better healthcare.

Disabled people on the move!

disability, special needs, youth and community

A free exhibition called Transport for Disabled People is running at the Coventry Transport Museum until 4th July 2010.  It is a chance to see how people with physical disabilities have managed to get out and about since early Victorian times. It features early examples such as the old ‘Blood Wagon,’ a sort of long pram, and the Wicker Bathchair. 

An early invalid carriage

Then there is modern transport such as a converted Mini Traveller, with specially lowered chassis, complete with a minibar, tailgate and furry dice. Many of the exhibits have come from families or the Science Museum in London and they provide a fascinating insight into mobility.

I particularly liked the collection of invalid carriages – low cost, low maintenance, three wheelers which were supplied by the NHS in the 60s to people with physical disabilities. My aunt Edith was issued with a blue invalid carriage.  She had very restricted movement down her right side and could not walk far after having polio as a child. She also lived in a rural area near St Helens. It was very lightweight: when she got stuck in the snow, a neighbour went out to rescue her and his burly son picked it up and carried it home! Although it was not a very robust vehicle, it gave Edith the independence to go out to work and the chance to enjoy a social life, visiting friends in evening.A green invalid carriage

One of the most striking exhibits at  the Transport Museum is Hardley ‘A’ Davidson, a fun machine which belongs to William Craner, a young man with cerebral palsy who volunteers at the museum. His dad built it to make life easier and more fun for William when he goes on holiday or for day trips.  The museum is launching a competition for schools called ‘Wheels for William’. The ides is to design a new wheelchair which will suit him and reflect some of his personality and interests. William is passionate about cars, goes to college and likes boating on the canal. The exhibition is open until May 20th and the winning entries will be on display until the end of the exhibition closes in July.

Coventry Transport Museum Hales Street Coventry CV1 1JD

www.transport-museum.com 02476 234270