Students using "talking machines" win writing contest

There are many who believe that those individuals cannot speak the conventional way are so disabled they cannot effectively participate in "regular" society. However, there are two Canadian brothers who have so effectively challenged that stereotype that they have both won prestigious writing awards. In an article found in the Abbortsford Mission times, there was an article about these brothers and the technology that assists them in sharing their voices.

Abbotsford has two young, talented writers in its midst, but unlike many wordsmiths who can bounce ideas off others, Lyndon and Tyrone Brown depend entirely on their own creativity.

The two boys have severe dyspraxia, which prevents them from being able to talk.

To combat their frustrations and express their thoughts, the Browns have taken to writing.

Last week, they both found out they had won the prestigious 2009 Commonwealth Essay Competition, which allows youths from Commonwealth nations around the world to show their writing talents.

"It's the one time they are focused," said Melody of the boys' dedication to writing.

She added, it was difficult for Tyrone, 14, and Lyndon, 12, to believe they had won a prize (100 pounds of sterling, which is around $200).

"They just couldn't believe it ... they are used to being written off," she said.

More http://www2.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/news/story.html?id=37772c00-6b76-44c0-be09-81f3e2cbb8f6

These students use Lightwriters, a tool which speaks the words that these brothers type. There are many other technology tools to assist individuals of all ages and abilities to become active participants in their communities.

GhostReader text to speech for Mac

For those who need the computer to read aloud to them, there has been the assumption that a PC, rather than Mac, was required. Here's a press release from AssistiveWare regarding GhostReader, which reads text and PDFs aloud on the Mac platform.

GhostReader 1.6 delivers new voices and Safari 4 compatibility

Amsterdam - 16 April 2009 - ConvenienceWare™ / AssistiveWare^® today announced the release of GhostReader™ 1.6, which delivers new voices for Arabic, Greek, Russian, Italian, Turkish, British English, and Norwegian. It also provides Safari 4 compatibility and adds new large educational discounts. GhostReader is a powerful, yet easy to use multilingual text-to-speech solution for Mac OS X that reads aloud PDF, Word and other documents as well as selected text in any application. It can also convert any text to audio files, MP3s, or bookmarkable audiobooks for playback on iPhone and iPod. Sit back and relax while GhostReader reads for you!

GhostReader 1.6 includes the following enhances:

• New voice languages: Arabic, Greek, Russian.
• New high quality voices for existing languages: Italian male voice, Turkish female voice, British female voice, Norwegian male voice.
• Compatibility with Safari 4.
• New localization: Italian (provided by our partner Active Software).

GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then [sic] read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.

For more information, please go to http://www.assistiveware.com/pr.php#PR160409

Being able to learn by reading, regardless of whether by traditional books and eyes, by listening, or by other means, is a right to which everyone is entitled.

Is discouragement inherited?

The other day, I heard a father of a college freshman with significant learning disabilities speak about how his son needed to "try harder," "get more organized," "pay attention," "buckle down," and perhaps be allowed to fail. He also said that maybe University X is not the right school for his son. The implication is that this student is not trying hard enough, is perhaps partying too hard, and just being a typical adolescent who is abusing his new-found freedoms. Is there truth to what he says?

Whenever I hear these kinds of comments about students with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders, I try to see whether these comments would fit if a different disability were substituted. So...if you had a student who was blind, would you say he or she needed to "try harder" to read regular text in books? If you had a student in a wheelchair, would you say he or she needed to "try harder" to go up a flight of stairs? No, you wouldn't. You would provide appropriate accommodations, such as Braille texts or an elevator to get to another floor. So why is it so different for those with learning disabilities? And why would a father be parroting the very phrases that the child was subjected to in grade school and high school?

The answer to the first question, I have come to believe, is three-fold. First, it is difficult to "see" a learning disability or attention deficit disorder because it is internal, it is due to the manner in which the different parts of the brain communicate. It is obvious if a person is blind that he or she cannot use traditional text, yet there have been those who have discriminated against those with vision impairments. There have also been cases where those in wheelchairs have been forced to literally drag themselves up stairs in order to reach a government court or other public place. Secondly, there is variability in performance among those with learning disabilities, even within an individual. This variability can depend on the specific demands of the particular task, the competing demands on the person at the time, fatigue, and other factors. Thirdly, while most public officials and school administrators have learned that it is not politically correct to demean those who are blind or have other visible disabilities, it still seems that there are many who believe it is acceptable to demean those with learning and attention disabilities. We know from research that overt, or even subtle biases about an individual or group of students will diminish their performance to match those low expectations.

So, why would a father make pejorative comments about his son? And, can discouragement be "inherited?" I have come to believe that the reason you hear these kinds of put-downs coming out of the mouths of parents one would expect to be defending and advocating for the child is that many of these parents have similar disabilities themselves, and have incorporated these biases into their own self-concepts after years of being put-down by others for their own weaknesses.

So how can we facilitate a change to this system where students with disabilities not only face undue barriers to full access to an inclusive education, but also face continual verbal put-downs for failing to perform to their potential because they did not have appropriate accommodations? How can we facilitate a fundamental shift back to a time where families and communities were the center of learning, producing hard-working, community-minded citizens, employers and employees? How does science and technology fit into this picture and when is the old-fashioned "human touch" the only appropriate method?

Come back for part two of "is discouragement inherited?"

Walk on

One of my fellow techies shared this video with me about DJ Gregory, a young man with cerebral palsy who set a goal of walking every hole of a full year of the PGA tour. His ability to persevere and achieve his goal despite his limitations should help us all to keep focused on where we want to go. He also has a blog of his year:http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/01/31/dj.blog/index.html

Enjoy this ESPN video:

Pay your Technology Forward

Nancy, who is a blogger at ifreecycle.blogspot.com, made a New Year’s resolution to give away something every day via Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) in Wilmette, Illinois. One of the items she posted was an Ipaq, and I took it, hoping that I could refit it to serve someone with disabilities. I posted a request for ideas on a technology listserv, and here are the responses I received:

Shelley Lacey-Castelot (http://www.writeandread.com/). said: You can install Gus AAC software on them, depending upon the version of the OS. For reluctant readers, you can put digital books with TTS on it---or just digital books with dictionary support (digital). Dragon NaturallySpeaking has an applet type program so that you can dictate into the IPAQ and upload the dictation for transcription. For kids with organizational difficulties, using Outlook with reminders of assignments and meetings works well. Hook up a wireless keyboard and it can be useful for notes on the go in the Pocket Word. The digital book reader that installs the easiest is Mobipocket; and you can download a dictionary that allows you to click on the word to get the definition.


Sharon E. said: you could use it as a scheduler. Does it have alarms? Also can it house dictionary stuff

Magi S. said: There are great possibilities for AT (in my mind) for PDAs and Smart Phones. You can get word prediction programs for all of the operating systems (Windows Mobile/PocketPC) and Palm. The iPaq had a decent speaker system, and could play mp3s, so you could use it for audio books. I believe that mine also recorded audio, and I know that my original Palm, and my new Palm Centro does that as well (the T|X I had did not without a special attachment). I love the calendar feature, and both models will sync to Outlook. We were trying to figure out how to sync to Google calendar, but I don't think we ever truly solved that. And Mobipocket is free... You could download podcasts too. There are foreign language dictionaries available that speak that might be useful. The iPaq probably has bluetooth, and the bluetooth keyboards are small enough to carry. I believe there is at least one add-on AAC program (Gus?), and I know that the ChatPCs were based on iPaqs.
There are more & more book download sites. My top three are: Mobipocket itself, BooksOnBoard (they sell audio books as well), and Fictionwise. Fictionwise has "frequent member programs" that give you a discount off the price of the book in the form of a gift certificate to use later. I get lots of free books that way! :)
I've used PocketWord as well, and the older version was really pretty good. Oh, and the color-coding feature in Outlook will transfer to the calendar. I really think that is one of the features I have used most often: I know at a glance that I have something to do, and what its for... And it places the box toward the top of the date for a morning appointment, and the bottom for an evening.

My plan is to get this iPaq ready for an individual who cannot afford regular technology, perhaps for someone who needs a speech device (AAC). Do you have technology you can pay forward? Two weeks ago, someone from Freecycle shared a scanner with me. I will be finding it a home also...

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