Thoughts on Assistive Technology

http://www.nvda-project.org/ As far as the computer screen readers go, the JAWS from Freedom Scientific has become something of an absolute standard. Last time I checked, a copy of JAWS standard version costs $895 - in case the irony escapes anyone, that is approximately the amount of a supplemental Security Income Check for the month. - I wonder when they are going to make the next shark movie. So, when two blind computer programmers did not want to pay that kind of money for computers to talk, and reasoned, rightly, that others probably don't want to pay that kind of money to make the computer talk either, they wrote their own screen reader and very generously made it an open source. In case readers don't know what an open source is, it's something I'd hate if I work for Microsoft, but I don't, so I absolutely adore open source software. Anyone can download, modify, use, copy, pass along, so long as nobody makes any money on it. So IVONA just downloaded the ...

Lately, oh, and by the by, I am back to my favourite field of Assistive Technology after about eight months of doing Special Education Advocacy, and my conclusion? Computers are way more compliant than school districts in the Inland Empire. Anyway, the latest and hottest news for Autistic treatments seemed to be something called Integrated Listening System, from a strictly technical standpoint, the whole thing appears to be a glorified MP3 player. But some school districts seem to swear by it, and if it is good enough for the Californian school districts, it may be good enough for me. Convincing our executive director to spend $1750. 00 of AB 204 money on an mp3 player will be no small feat, and I don't think if "it's good enough for the school districts, it's good enough for me" argument is going to fly anywhere, so it's time to do some digging. What's surprising about the system has been that other than the officially sanctioned testimonies and resea...