USING THE IPAD WITH STUDENTS WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Agenda

         Introduction of Participants What do you want to know? Small Group Device distribution Introduction to the Device and the OS Basic Operation Accessibility Features Working with iTunes Apps for Students who are B/VI Sharing/Playing

Introduction

    Introduced in April 2010 with new version out 1 year later iPad has the lion’s share of the tablet market with sales of 30 million to date iPad2 has front/back cameras, is lighter, is thinner, has a better processor and has a gyroscope (gaming enhancement) Accessibility features for b/vi built into the OS… Voiceover(screenreader), Zoom (enlargement) and gesture navigation

What’s Great About the iPad

         It’s cool!

It’s what all kids are using… it’s UDL Accessibility is built in It’s light It’s easy to use It’s easy to navigate It comes with a huge library of applications It has a decent sized screen Battery life pretty good

Positives Continued

   There are good options for internet connection… Wi-Fi and 3G Excellent book reader Speaker and microphone pretty good

What’s not so Great

       No USB port for file transfer Multitasking not as easy as a laptop High end production (Wordprocessing) not high end No Flash capabilities Glare can be a problem Have to be part of the iTunes ecosystem Onboard keyboard not great for extensive writing 

Overview of the Device

Overview Continued

The Operating System

    iOS 4.3 is the current version, with iOS 5 coming out soon Determines how the device operates, running apps, security settings etc., etc., etc.

Biggest issue is probably the proprietary nature of the system Simple and intuitive

Basic Operation

      Home button always takes you back to the home screen for app selection Flicking moves from screen to screen Tapping opens an app or selects a hyperlnk Dragging allows you to scroll vertically and horizontally Double clicking Home allows you to see recently used apps To remove an app tap and hold until it jiggles, then tap the X… can also move apps in this mode… click Home stops the jiggling

Basic Operation Continued

 Double-click the Home button, then flick the bottom of the screen from left to right. The screen orientation lock, brightness slider, and iPod controls appear.

Basic Operation Continued

  Create new screens (up to 11) by dragging a jiggling icon to the right edge and holding it there Create folders by dragging a jiggling icon over another , then name folder  Delete folder… tap to open… hold to make jiggle… drag icons out and when last is gone folder disappears

Basic Operations Continued

     Search using Spotlight… flick to the search screen… enter search parameters and it will find Contacts: First, last, and company names Mail : To, From, and Subject fields of all accounts (the text of messages isn’t searched) Calendar: Event titles, invitees, and locations iPod: Music (names of songs, artists, and albums) and the titles of podcasts and audiobooks Notes: Text of notes

System Settings

  Airplane Setting disables wireless features …Wi-Fi, BT or GPS Wi-Fi allows you to select a wireless network and will connect automatically in future   Location Services allows certain apps to determine your location (ie: Maps, Alarm) Brightness and Wallpaper allow screen brightness to be adjusted and your screen background to be adjusted

System Settings Continued

 Picture Frame settings allows the iPad to act as an electronic picture frame when it is locked

General System Settings

    Sounds shows sound levels and for which actions sounds are produced Bluetooth manages BT settings Auto Lock can set time iPad locks after inactivity Pass Code is for setting a security code to lock

Accessibility

  VoiceOver screen reader, Zoom magnification , White on Black , Large Text , Mono Audio , Speak Auto-text , Support for braille displays In Settings, Accessibility features can be turned on and off  Some accessibility features don’t work in all apps

Zoom

  Turn on in Settings Double tap with 3 fingers zooms to a specific  size Double tap with 3 fingers and slide up enlarges and slide down decreases size  Dragging with 3 fingers moves the screen

VoiceOver

     Turn on and set up in Settings Flick or slide moves from one item to another Double tap opens or activates links 2 finger flick up reads from top of page 2 finger flick down reads from current position   2 finger tap pauses reading 2 finger tap restarts the reading

PLUS MANY MORE… SEE iPAD MANUAL

Working with iTunes

  Is the conduit for purchasing apps, books, music, movies etc. and transferring content Need an account, which must include a credit card  Can purchase from your iPad directly or to your computer… then sync to iPad

Working with iTunes: Files

      Connect iPad to computer…iTunes opens Click on your device (Left side of window) Click on Apps in top menu bar Under file sharing apps click on PDF reader app (ie: Goodreader) or word pro app (ie: Pages) Drag file (PDF, Word, etc.) and drop it in the Documents pane on the right side of the window Open app and read… VoiceOver won’t work with Goodreader, but does with Pages

Working with iTunes: DAISY

   Create a folder on computer (You choose location) for files from CD/DVD… right click/new/Folder Move all files to this folder from your CD/DVD  Create a new zip folder. Same process but pick new WinZip file… name it Transfer all DAISY files from regular folder to WinZip folder  Connect iPad to computer…iTunes Opens

Working with iTunes: DAISY continued

 Click on your device (Left side of window)  Click on Apps in top menu bar  Under file sharing apps select click on DAISY reader app (ie: inDAISY)  Drag zipped file to the documents pane in the right part of the window.

 File will show up in Bookshelf of the app  Play it

Working with iTunes: Photos

      Create a folder on your computer that will contain the photos you wish to have on your iPad Connect iPad to computer…iTunes opens Click on your device (Left side of window) Click on Photos in top menu bar Browse for the name of your folder Click sync on bottom right corner

Some Apps for Students who are B/VI

  GoodReader: Allows one to read PDF and you can personalize magnification settings and contrast. You can also go into text only mode where the text auto wraps so you don’t have to navigate horizontally. Cost: $4.99 Other PDF readers are free.

Dragon Dictation: Voice recognition where you speak, see and edit your text, then share it to Notes, SMS, or email. Cost: Free

More Apps for Students who are B/VI

   Free Books: Allows download of thousands of books that no longer have copyright on. All the old classics are available.

Cost: Free Free Audiobooks: Same as above but the books are recorded. Cost: $3.99

VOD: DAISY player that will read and sync highlighted text. . Cost: $25.99 If you want to test this app get VOD Lite for free. It does everything VOD does but it only plays for 120 seconds. Cost: Free

More Apps for Students who are B/VI

  

inDAISY: DAISY player similar to VOD Cost: $19.99

Dictionary.com: App with about 2 million words Cost: Free Digit-Eyes Audio Scanner and Labeler: Helps people who are visually impaired or blind select products at stores. It utilizes the camera to scan the UPC barcodes on products. Then, the app calls the inbuilt database of over 7.5 million products and reads out the name of the product that matches the barcode. Cost $29.99

More Apps for Students who are B/VI

 SayText : App scans documents and then reads the text contained in the document to you. Simply place your device center of a document and double-tap the “Take picture” -button. Then slowly elevate the device over the document. When it detects your document, it will beep and start scanning. While the OCR is running, tap the screen to hear the progress status. When the camera is done scanning, swipe the screen to initiate a read back of the text. Cost: Free

More Apps for Students who are B/VI

  Qwicki: An online encyclopedia with over 3,000,000 topics. Works with VoiceOver AND has a built-in text-to-speech engine. Cost: Free Dropbox: Allows you to save files “in the cloud” for viewing, downloading for offline viewing, capturing and syncing photos and videos, and sharing links. Cost: Free for up to 2 GB of data

Resources

  Apps for the Blind and Visually Impaired A Community-Powered Site for Vision Impaired Users of Apple's iOS Devices    iPad Users Manuals Transform Any Text into a Spoken Track 1-2-1 iPad Project Wiki