Jane Farrall Consulting

Lots of alternatives – “pencils” for everyone

Dec 19, 201213 Comments

When I first started teaching literacy I focused on teaching reading. At the time, I was working with adults with physical disabilities and writing seemed so hard. None of my class would be able to use a pen or even a keyboard and mouse, which was all I had access to (or so I thought).

Using USB switch interfaces with switch accessible apps on your iPad

Dec 18, 201210 Comments

This is a very quick blog post to share a great resource from Bill Ziegler, Apple Distinguished Educator and Assistive Technology Consultant. Bill has created a very informative Vimeo about how to use a USB switch interface for a computer to access switch accessible apps on your iPad. This is a question I often get

Abilipad – still the Write tool for the iPad

Dec 13, 201213 Comments

It’s a time of the year when we do lots of writing – cards, thank-you letters, emails, Facebook status updates, Tweets, reports and (apparently) blog posts! Since I am spending so much time writing at the moment, I thought it was time to write about my very favourite writing app for the iPad – Abilipad.

Introduction to Guided Reading: Presentation at Ascot Vale Special School

Nov 28, 2012

Edited to add: Many of the links in this blog post are no longer current The handout can be downloaded by clicking here. Other resources I mentioned in the presentation are: Four Blocks to Literacy website Four Blocks in Special Ed Wiki Centre for Literacy and Disability Studies, University of North Carolina My Guided Reading

How do I use a Switch or Joystick with an iPad? – October 2012 update!

Oct 29, 201216 Comments

This blog post has been updated. Please see the new entry at http://www.janefarrall.com/blog/2013/09/29/how-do-i-use-a-switch-with-an-ipad-ios-7-overview/ I last blogged about overall switch access to the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch in June – and there have been quite a few changes in the meantime. So – time for an update! At this stage, there are two sorts of switch access to

Fat Cat apps – thinking beyond the box in AAC

Oct 19, 20124 Comments

Please note: the Fat Cat apps have all been discontinued I spent most of yesterday updating my AAC Apps list (edited to add: this list has been discontinued). There were a lot of changes to the list this time – over 60 app updates and 27 new apps. Three of the new apps were additions

ISTE Webinar on iOS6 Accessibility and Alternative Access to the iPad

Oct 9, 2012

Last week I was lucky enough to team up with Luis Perez and deliver a webinar for the International Society on Technology in Education (ISTE) Special Education Technology Special Interest Group (SETSIG). The ISTE SETSIG has now made the resources from this webinar available on their website. You can access the webinar recording, the PowerPoint

SimplyWorks for iPad Part 2: Joystick and Keyboard Access

Oct 4, 20125 Comments

In my previous blog post, I talked about SimplyWorks for iPad from Pretorian. In that post, I covered the switch access options available with this interface. In this post I will cover joystick and keyboard access. SimplyWorks is a range of interfaces and proprietary input devices which connect to each other wirelessly. Part of this

SimplyWorks for iPad Part 1: Switch Access

Sep 30, 201212 Comments

SimplyWorks for iPad is another iPad switch interface option from Pretorian. It offers control of music, videos, VoiceOver keyboard options for scanning, switch accessible apps, the iPad camera shutter function and iBooks. It can be paired with a SimplyWorks keyboard, SimplyWorks Joystick or SimplyWorks switch – thereby providing a range of iPad alternative control options.

Big Mouth Camp 2012

Sep 28, 20122 Comments

Big Mouth Camp 2012 is over – and I hope a fabulous time was had by all! Big Mouth Camp is a camp for students who use speech generating devices, their families and lots of other people! I started Big Mouth Camp in 2003 after the Victorian government began funding speech generating devices for school