alternative access – Page 2 – Jane Farrall Consulting

Literacy Lab: a great tool for quality literacy instruction

Jun 18, 20135 Comments

Please note: this resource has been discontinued. Literacy Lab is a fabulous piece of software for use as part of balanced literacy instruction from Mayer Johnson. The software is aimed at emergent readers and writers, providing a range of simple, easy to use highly motivating activities. I have been using it for a few weeks

Zybox for iOS – updated and upgraded!

Jun 8, 20131 Comment

Please note: this product has been discontinued The Zybox for iOS is a switch interface from Zygo that uses VoiceOver to control the iOS and any VoiceOver compatible apps on your iPad or iPhone. I reviewed it earlier this year and posted a blog about it on the 31st of March. However, the Zybox has

Zybox for iOS – another VoiceOver switch interface option for the iPad

Mar 31, 201312 Comments

The Zybox for iOS is a new switch interface from Zygo that uses VoiceOver to control the iOS and VoiceOver compatible apps on your iPad or iPhone. The most significant advantage of this adapter is that it is the first one I have tried that plugs directly into the port on the iPad. This will

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

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

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.

Switch Accessible Apps for iPad and iPhone Growing Apace

Aug 12, 201211 Comments

Please note: the switch accessible apps list has been discontinued This weekend, Alex Dunn and I have spent some time updating our list of switch accessible apps for iPad and iPhone. The collection of switch accessible apps for this platform is slowly growing – with 6 new switch accessible apps available since our last update