AT Reading Webinar

Previously in my blogs I have discussed learning disabilities.  I recently watched a webinar from Georgia's Assistive Technology Act Program on AT for Reading, which I found to be interesting.  To view the webinar go to http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki/index.php?title=Webinar_Archives and click on DOC, PDF or AUDIO version of "CREATE: AT support for reading".  The following will discuss what I learned from the webinar.

I found the view of different Speech-to-Text software to be very informative.  The author, Shonda Golden, breaks down, analyzes and develops based on software features: Choice of High Quality Voice, Modify text interface, ability to control reading rate, built-in dictionary, ability to scaffold reading, can red files directly from bookshare.org, OCR documents, consistent format for internet reading, convert to MP3 and language translator.  This chart will be very handy as I consider Speech-to-Text software for students.

Also, the webinar reviews BookShare.org.  This program is a great tool for students with print disabilities.  The website works within copyright laws to create digital copies of books for individuals with disabilities (learning, visual and physical disabilities).  Members can download books have the text read a loud and/or displayed on computer.  The program can also read Braille and accessible on Braille devices.  To learn more about BookShare click here.

References:
http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki/index.php?title=Webinar_Archives