Apple’s Accessibility Options Improve Lives

by Juli from Pad Gadget:
Apple is known for having some of the most robust and advanced accessibility options on its iDevices, allowing people with vision, motor, and hearing impairments to have full access to the iPad and the iPhone.
For example, with VoiceOver options people with vision impairments can have everything on the screen read aloud, which lets them access a range of different apps and features on iDevices.

One man, David Woodbridge, uses Apple’s accessibility options with great success. Woodbridge, who has been blind since he was a teenager, owns several different Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks. Woodbridge was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald, where he detailed his life with Apple’s products.
VoiceOver is the main feature that allows Woodbridge to use his iDevices to run a successful business and to interact with his wife and children. Here’s what Woodbridge has to say about the feature:

“With VoiceOver I can support not only myself but also my boys and my wife. I press the Home button on the iPhone three times to turn VoiceOver on or off when I need to help them. For example, if my wife gets an SMS when she is driving I can call up VoiceOver on her iPhone to read the message to her and we can reply using Siri, which is one of the great iOS developments, getting better all the time.
Or, say an app on one of the iPads is not working properly. I use VoiceOver to shut the app down from App Switcher, relaunch it and triple-click to hand the iPad back with the app running as good as new.’’

He goes on to describe how he operates his Apple TV with VoiceOver and Apple’s Remote app, and explains that one of his favorite apps is Light Detector, which tells him if all of the lights in the house are off.
There are actually hundreds of apps designed for people with disabilities in the App Store, which is yet another reason why Apple has a leg up on the competition when it comes to accessibility.
Woodbridge is certainly not alone. Just a look at a few of his favorite apps, including the aforementioned Light Detector, Fleksy, a typing assistant, and the Looktel Money Reader, used for identifying money, reveal quite a few positive reviews from other folks with visual impairments.
Even I had the chance to explore Apple’s accessibility options when I had eye surgery two months ago. I couldn’t read my phone or my iPad for several days, but both devices were able to read to me, which was a total lifesaver.
Kudos to Apple for its continued dedication to accessibility – the company rarely gets enough recognition for all that it does to help disabled users – and kudos to Woodbridge, a man who makes the most out of the technology at his fingertips.

Educational apps to help your child learn

from Special iApps:

Special iApps is a non-profit social enterprise, dedicated to helping children learn. We develop apps for the Apple® iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®. All our apps are developed in close co-operation with education professionals, parents and children, and are designed to be suitable for typically developing children and those with learning difficulties or poor fine motor control.

Modern smartphones and touchpads have the potential to transform children's education, because almost all children are attracted to them, and their interface is inherently more usable than that of a traditional desktop computer. However, apps to teach children only succeed if they are designed with an understanding of how children learn.
We recognize that many children are easily distracted, and don't have the mental agility or manual dexterity of a typical adult. We carefully trial our apps with children of varying abilities, and incorporate feedback into our design and testing process.
We work closely with other organizations that support children with disabilities, including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and hearing impairment.

Special Stories

Create your own stories with text, pictures and sound. You can read and listen to your stories, print them to any AirPrint-enabled printer, and share them with friends and family. A universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Special Stories has many uses including:

• Making photo albums about vacations, trips, and other events
• Improving reading skills
• Encouraging development of spoken language skills
• Creating talking books
• Helping with social skills
• Explaining step-by-step tasks
• Practicing foreign language skills
• Sharing information between home and school
• Sharing news with distant family and friends

Introducing the Down Syndrome Radio Podcast!

from Down Syndrome Radio's Introduction:

When my friend, Mark – fellow Down Right Awesome dad and a podcast veteran – noted the lack of regular podcasts about DS and suggested that we just do our own, I jumped at the chance….well, I was a little hesitant at first, but with a bit of arm twisting, Down Syndrome Radio was born!

We are doing the DSR podcast to share our stories about parenting children with Down syndrome – from a dad’s perspective.  We are definitely not experts, but hope that we can help other parents going through similar experiences.

At this point, we have recorded four episodes and plan to continue to try to record about once per week, shooting for about an hour per episode.  We would love to incorporate guests as we progress and the topic allows (less work for us!).  We have a pretty good grasp of the format for the show, but we will continue to experiment as we go forward.  Please, feel free to leave comments or send us email – let us know what works or doesn’t, tell us your story, ask us questions….anything!  Enjoy!

• iTunes Listing: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/downrightawesome-down-syndrome/id535852575

Podcast Episodes:

• DSR Episode #1: Getting the News

• DSR Episode #2: Telling Family and Friends / Common Medical Conditions

• DSR Episode #3: Essential DS Resources

• DSR Episode #4: Special Needs Advocacy

Apple Puts Spotlight On Disability Offerings In App Store

By Shaun Heasley from Disabiltiy Scoop:

Apple is highlighting a growing number of apps catering to individuals with special needs with a featured special education section in its App Store.

The section titled “Special Education” launched in 2010 and includes many applications for the iPhone and iPad in 10 categories ranging from communication to emotional development and life skills, according to Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman.

The special education category is currently showcased as one of four editorial features n the App Store.

Apps, which can be used on Apple’s iPhone, iPad or iPod devices, have become increasingly popular in the special needs community in recent years, serving as everything from assistive technology devices to organizational tools and teaching aids.

Free iTunes Apps from Kindergarten.com

from Freebies4Mom.com:

In honor of Autism Awareness Month during April, you can get 15 free Apps from Kindergarten.com on sale for $0.00 for a limited time on iTunes (normally all 15 apps would cost over $20).

Sight Words
Flash Cards – Food
Flash Cards – Famous Places
Flash Cards – Earth Science
Flash Cards – Emotions
Flash Cards – Alphabet
Flash Cards – Vehicles
Flash Cards – Sports
Flash Cards – Actions
Flash Cards – Animals
Problem Solving – Which Go Together?
Problem Solving – What Does Not Belong?
Problem Solving – What Rhymes?
Receptive Identification
Receptive Identification – By Class

These are highly-rated apps that are used by educators and speech therapists. I love the real photos they use and the ability to change the settings to customize the app for your child. These apps are compatible with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad with iOS 4.0 or later. This post contains affiliate links, please visit my Disclosure Policy. (image credit: iTunes)

Super Why reading and Umizoomi math learning apps

from PBS Kids:

Based on the popular preschool focused PBS show, Super Why! is a learning app that will teach your child to read without them realizing they’re learning. They'll be having too much fun.
— SheKnows.com

Help your child achieve the Power to Read with this collection of four SUPER WHY interactive literacy games. Your child can play along with each of the four main characters from the TV series: Alpha Pig, Princess Presto, Wonder Red, and, of course, Super Why, while practicing the alphabet, rhyming, spelling, writing and reading. Super Duper!

• Alpha Pig’S Lickety Letter Hunt - Help Alpha Pig find his way home by identifying the letters he needs to follow the alphabet path. That’s Alphabet Power!
• Princess Presto’s Wands-Up Writing - Help Princess Presto make objects appear by identifying letter sounds, tracing letters on the touch screen, and writing words. Spectacular Spelling!
• Wonder Red’s Rhyming Time - It’s time to rhyme! Help Wonder Red find the rhyming words missing from her Wonder Words Basket.
• Super Why’s Story Saver - Super Why...to the rescue! Help Super Why save the day by selecting words to complete sentences that fit the story.
• Learning Rewards - Collect virtual stickers along the way and decorate a “sticker book” with over 50 items.

from iTunes:

Team Umizoomi Math: Zoom into Numbers

Team Umizoomi, ready for action! Your child will use mighty math powers to explore Umi City, uncover hidden surprises, and play five Umirrific math games:

•Toy Store – A counting game
•Number Bubbles – A number identification game
•Race Around Umi City - A number comparison game
•Up! Up! And balloons! – An addition/subtraction game
•Rolling Toy Parade – A number line game

Each game teaches fundamental math concepts critical for preschoolers: identifying numbers; one-to-one number correspondence; rote counting; reading number symbols; associating symbols with quantity; and basic addition and subtraction. Games are leveled, and designed to increase in difficulty. Appropriate hints are provided to support your child as they practice and build their math skills.

Children will also earn badges and trophies through out the game. These badges and trophies are tracked in Team Umizoomi’s Headquarters and earning enough badges and trophies will grant kids a special key to Umi City!

With Milli, Geo, Bot, and your child’s mighty math powers, they can do anything! Welcome to the team, UmiFriend! Team Umizoomi: Zoom into Numbers includes:
•5 leveled games focused on fundamental preschool math skills
•Curriculum developed and reviewed by preschool education expert
•A rich, exploratory environment filled with surprises and added layers of math discovery
•Game instructions delivered by the voices of Milli, Geo, and Bot
•Player profiles that allow more than one child to play and save their progress
•Kid-tested appropriate games

iPad, iPod, iPhone apps for children with Down syndrome

from Touch Autism:

Touch Autism began to build mobile device applications (iPod, iPad, iPhone, and others) for children with autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, intellectual disabilities and other special needs after discovering how incredibly useful this type of technology can be.

Some of the many advantages of these apps are that they suit visual learners, they allow for non-verbal and non-written responding, they provide immediate and consistent feedback, and are very motivating, because they are just so much fun!

Touch Autism is a two person team dedicated to making the best technological apps for autism, Down syndrome and other special needs that we can! The Touch Autism Team is comprised of Jenny Winningham, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Tomas Krones a Software Engineer. The two of us continuously work toward creating technologies that can help people with autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities live independent and productive lives.

1. Staying Safe and Safer Strangers- A Stranger Danger Social Story for Autism, Down Syndrome & Other Special Need - This app is made up of two community safety social stories. One story focuses on safer strangers and buildings, and the other focuses on what to do if you are lost. 
2. Calm Counter - Social Story and Anger Management Tool for Autism, Down Syndrome and Special Needs - The app opens up to a "I need a break screen" that vocalizes "I need a break" when it is tapped. The screen then transitions to a red screen with an angry face and the number ten. With each tap the screen transitions to a calmer face and color. In this way, the app prompts the user to count backwards from ten followed by a deep breath. The app also includes a simple social story with line drawings about anger. The social story talks about feeling angry and things you can do, like counting to ten, breathing deeply and taking a break, to calm yourself down. The settings screen allows you to choose from male, female or no vocals for counting back from ten and for reading the social story out loud.
3. Touch Trainer - Autism & Special Education - The Turn Taker uses visual and/or audio cues to facilitate turn taking and/or sharing in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome or other special need. This app has also been used successfully with young children, children diagnosed with ADHD, and with any child that finds it difficult to share! 
4. Divorce Social Story - A Social Story for Children about Divorce – Autism, Down Syndrome and Special Needs - This app is a simple and short social story about diveroce and what it means for a  child. The app uses simple language and graphics to explain that divorce means parents living in separate houses, and that it's ok. 
5. Turn Taker - Sharing Tool and Social Story for Autism, Down Syndrome and Special Needs - The Turn Taker uses visual and/or audio cues to facilitate turn taking and/or sharing in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, Down syndrome or other special need. This app has also been used successfully with young children, children diagnosed with ADHD, and with any child that finds it difficult to share!
6. Preference & Reinforcer Assessment - Autism & Special Education - his Preference (Reinforcer) Assessment app was designed by a BCBA (board certified behavior analyst) to make running a preference (reinforcer) assessment amazingly easy to do, so that anyone can effectively and scientifically determine their child’s or client’s preferences. Reinforcement (Preference) Assessments are an incredibly important procedure in any behavior change program. They are not conducted nearly as often as they should be because they can be difficult to run, or because many parents, caregivers or practitioners have not been sufficiently trained to run them. This app includes such features as descriptions of all of the types of preference assessments, a timer to determine the end of a trial, and specific instructions and visuals to help you set up and run the assessment. Once the assessment is finished the app will automatically calculate the percentage of times each item was selected in which it was available, and will present this info in an easy to read bar graph. The data and graph from each client will be saved on the app, so that the user can easily review results from past assessments.
7. My Day With WH Words - A Social Story and Speech Tool for Autism, Down Syndrome and Other Special Needs - This app includes a social story about talking about one's day, and a simple visual support for "WH" questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How). The story focuses on why it's important to tell people about your day, and what each different WH questions mean.
8. Potty Training Social Story - Autism, Down Syndrome & Special Needs - This is an interactive story about potty training that is customizable for boys or girls. The app also includes and extensive FAQ page that lists answers written by a board certified behavior analyst to common potty training questions.
9. Knock Knock Numbers - Autism & Special Education - Knock Knock Numbers was designed by a BCBA as a fun way to teach kids how to tell knock knock jokes, while working on number recognition. The app teaches 20 different jokes and each one prompts the user to identify a number between one and ten.
10. Conversation Social Stories and Simple PECS Communication Tool - Autism, Down Syndrome & Special Needs - This app is made up of four social stories about different conversational skills and simple communication tools to go with them. The stories focus on greetings, asking someone to play, what to talk about in a conversation and tips for great conversations. 
11. Autism Apps - Autism Apps is simply a comprehensive list of apps that are being used with and by people diagnosed with autism, Down syndrome and other special needs. It also includes links to any available information that can be found for each app. The Apps are also separated into over 30 categories, and the descriptions are all searchable, so any type of app is easy to find and download.
12. Touch Tutorial - Elderly, Autism & Special Education - Touch Tutorial was designed by a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) to teach users with little to no experience with new technology how to use touchscreens. Touchscreens, like those found on ipads, iphones, ipod touches or other devices, are being used more and more frequently in every day society. This application uses easy to understand language and icons to teach foundational skills and then builds on these skills so that the user learns many of the common gestures necessary to operate a touchscreen device. Also see Touch Tutorial Lite - Autism, Special Education & Elderly 

More apps for children with special needs

Continuing our focus on apps for kids with special needs:

• a4cwsn - a4cwsn is committed to helping the families and carers of children with special needs and the wider community of educators and therapists who support them, by producing videos that demonstrate how products designed to educate children and build their life skills really work from a user perspective. Our aim is that these videos, along with relevant information and advice from an independent source you can trust, provides valuable insight into whether a product is suitable for its intended purpose or not, enabling sensible buying decisions to be made.

• SNApps4kids - SNApps4Kids is a volunteer community of parents, therapists, doctors, and teachers who share information on how we are using the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices with children who have special needs.  We have found these mobile devices to provide accessibility for children who may have been previously disengaged from the world because of challenging language, motor, or other developmental delays.

• Special Needs Apps - There are several apps available geared toward people with special needs/ communication issues, as well as those geared towards babies/toddlers/prek that work well for kids with special needs. 

• 10 Websites to Find Special Needs Apps for the iPad & iPhone

iPad, iPod, and iPhone apps to help early development

from Down Syndrome Education International:

Down Syndrome Education International is working with developers to create new learning opportunities for children with Down syndrome using portable devices including iPads and iPods. Recently released apps support language, memory and number skills development.

Computerised educational activities have the potential to offer significant benefits for young people with Down syndrome, with an emphasis on the visual presentation of information and opportunities to encourage lots of practice. DSE is working with partners in the UK, Europe and the US to create apps that target the developmental needs and learning styles of young people with Down syndrome. Some of the first of these apps are now available.

Special Words from Special iApps

Special Words teaches children to recognise written words, using pictures and sounds, on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The app has 3 games with increasing difficulty, Match Pictures, Match Words and Match Both.

Special Words comes with the vocabulary and pictures from the early steps of DSE’s See and Learn Language and Reading program, comprising of 96 written words children use in their early vocabulary.

It includes matching pictures, written and spoken words, in 8 languages: American and British English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Italian and Swedish. Users can easily replace the words and re-record the audio in any other language their child uses. Users can add more words, pictures and sounds for family members, friends, and familiar objects, to increase their child’s interest, and further develop their vocabulary.

Special Words was developed by Special iApps, a social enterprise founded by parents of a child with Down syndrome who have many years of experience in both education and software. Special iApps is donating a proportion of the global sales of Special Words to Down Syndrome Education International.

• Special Words on the App Store (US edition)
• Special Words on the App Store (UK edition)

 

Memory Fun and Counting Fun from Felix Education Apps

Memory Fun is a memory game where the user has to remember the position of picture cards in order to recall the location of two matching cards. Starting with just four cards to choose from, up to 18 cards can be displayed with a vocabulary of over 100 words.

Counting Fun is a simple counting game designed to encourage practising counting from 1 to 10. Sound effects and animation engage the child’s attention while they tap each item displayed on the screen to hear and see each digit.

Felix Education Apps is a family run business based in Oslo, Norway, designing educational apps. Felix Education Apps is donating a proportion of the global sales of their apps to Down Syndrome Education International.

• Memory Fun on the App Store (US Edition)
• Counting Fun on the App Store (US Edition)

200 iPad, iPhone, and iPod Apps for Special Ed

Learning via iPad, iPhone, and iPod is gaining popularity among parents and children. It is not only effective but a relatively less expensive way to promote learning in hours and locations where your child learns best. A popular app in our home is Monkey Preschool Lunchbox, and we highly recommend it. Another popular app is Little Speller.

Click here for a resource of 200 apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod to help you find the perfect apps for your child from community.babycenter.com. 

Apps for kids with special needs

There are some amazing apps out there for iPad, iPhone, and iPod to help our kids learn and possibly improve quality of life.  The following links are attached to give some suggestions on where to find some apps to test out.

• Best iPad apps for kids
• iPad apps for kids with special needs
• Apps for SPED
• Apps for childern with special needs
• iPhone and iPod touch apps for special education
• Proloquo2Go

Lastly, see the Down Syndrome Daily Apps Page!