Assistive Technologies

The rapid and constant pace of change in technology is creating great opportunities for students to achieve success in the classroom, especially those with disabilities. Several decades ago, people with disabilities barely went to a regular school and found it extremely difficult to perform academic learning task. Today, with the assistance of technology, students with disabilities have the change to enjoy learning like the others. There are many software and hardware available from text to speech devices that allow students with hearing or visual disabilities to gain knowledge. For vision impaired students, the Intellitalk is a very helpful device. 

IntelliTalk is a word processor that allows students to combine graphics, text, and speech to support and enhance writing and communication skills. It is intended for beginning readers, people with visual or learning disabilities. It is also beneficial to students with Autism Spectrum Disorders as well as auditory processing and auditory memory deficits. Intellitalk is an ideal tool for creating curriculum activities.Teachers can easily modify activities for English language learners or any student struggling with reading or writing.  It includes a number of predesigned activities that allow students to hear letters, words, and sentences as they type. It also provides visual and auditory reinforcement of content within the programs.

This type of assistive technology enables students with visual impairment to participate in classroom learning like never before. Below is a video that gives a brief overview of the Intellitalk.  It demonstrates its target audience, its features, how to use it and it provides examples from the program.