The Family Center on Technology and Disability

Welcome to the FCTD resource review database. Hundreds of assistive and instructional technology resources have been identified, reviewed, and annotated for your reference. Direct links to each resource have been provided in most cases. You can target your search by entering a key word or phrase in the search box on the right side of the page, or you can scan through the resources below. The filters beneath the search box allow you to further customize your research by topic, disability, and material type. We are constantly adding new resources to our database, so we hope you’ll return regularly. If you have suggestions for additional resources, please contact us at fctd@aed.org.

Abledbody.com

Abledbody.com offers news and information focused on assistive technologies and advocacy for people with disabilities. Edited by Susan Robitaille, an advocate and journalist, the site includes disability-related news (politics, business, culture, etc.) and pinpoints information and resources that encompass Ablebody's platform to help people with disabilities "become more abled in the workplace and lifespace." Abledbody.com also includes guest columns by disability advocates, AT technology news, a blog, and newsletters.

Published: 2010 by Susan Robitaille , Reviewed: 4 days ago

The FunTheory

This Web site is reviewed as a starting point for discussion about Activities of Daily Living and social skills. It was developed with the idea that you get people to do unpleasant things by making them fun. Several clips from YouTube are embedded, making it possible to see how Volkswagen designed simple devices that made it more interesting for people to use recycling bins for glass, to use a stairway ...

Published: 2010 by Volkswagen , Reviewed: March 04, 2010

The Connected Classroom

The Connected Classroom is a blog devoted to education technology and policy, professional development, and the resources and support teachers need when using technology in the classroom. Written by a teacher, the blog includes videos, conference notes, and education technology resources.

Published: 2010 by K Hokanson , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

Considerations for People with Disabilities and Their Families

The American Health Lawyers Association booklet "Considerations for People with Disabilities and Their Families" offers readers information on a variety of important topics for people with disabilities. The booklet provides the expected overview of IDEA and includes sections on both Part B (School Aged Children Ages 3-21) and Part C (Newborn to 3 Years), plus information on housing, testing, and employment topics such as ADA, the Uniformed Service Employment and ...

Published: 2009 by American Health Lawyers Association , Reviewed: March 04, 2010

AAC Low-Tech Toolkit (2009)

This is a collection of presentations on AAC low-tech/no-tech options from the SET-BC Learning Centre. The presentations and related information are meant to help teachers and speech-language pathologists design AAC systems for students. The toolkit includes guidelines, discussions about the essentials of symbol assessment and information on PECS, Partner Assisted Scanning and PODD, as well as examples of Boardmaker activities, and help with theme boards, using communication flip books, adapted ...

Published: 2009 by SET-BC , Reviewed: March 05, 2010

Look2Learn

Look2Learn is augmentative communication software that works through the iPhone or iPod Touch. The software uses photographs to express wants and needs. 80 preloaded photographs in 6 different categories are available or the consumer can use personal photos. There are many options to customize for different age or cognitive levels, including the ability to hide some photos to reduce choices, to rename photos with a term that the consumer would ...

Published: 2009 by MDR, Inc. , Reviewed: January 19, 2010

Step Stones

AdastraSoft Step Stones is a natural voice-enabled augmentative tool for those who need a picture schedule for daily activities. They can be used on an iPhone or iPod. The site is preloaded with 14 activities or one can create their own. The product is a scrollable thumbnail view of an activity with an unlimited number of steps. Unique to this product is progress tracking which moves from left to right ...

Published: 2009 by AdastraSoft , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

MyTalkTools.com

MyTalkTools.com is a website resource for the AAC iPhone/iPod application MyTalk. The MyTalk application helps people with expressive language difficulties to communicate using their iPhone or iPod loaded with their personalized audio and visual language set. MyTalkTools.com provides MyTalk subscribers with private online storage and authoring for their personalized library and the elements essential to their language set. A public images library and a best practices forum are also available. ...

Published: 2009 by MyTalkTools.com , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

AdaptedLearning.com

From DynaVox, AdaptedLearning.com offers popular PCS/Boardmaker AAC resources. Free registration offers users access to user tips, strategies, and examples of PCS in classroom and community environments. Additional forums, groups, and tools are also available.

Published: 2009 by DynaVox , Reviewed: 1 day ago

AT Tipscast: The Blog

This blog is a collection of webcasts with additional resources and tips to help AT professionals and educators collaborate and develop effective strategies when using AT with students.

Published: 2009 by Christopher Bugaj , Reviewed: March 04, 2010

FSCast Episode 30, May 2009

This Freedom Scientific webcast discusses Twitter in conjunction with JAWS and PACMate Omni. The discussion features several application developers, including Dennis Lembree, the creator of Accessible Twitter (previously reviewed on the FCTD website) and Jamal Mazuri, the author of McTwit, as well as interviews with three Twitter users, and several notes about additional applications to expand Twitter functions and foster additional accessibility.

Published: 2009 by Freedom Scientific , Reviewed: 1 day ago

Speak It

Speak It is a text to speech application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can save favorite phrases to their custom soundboard, pause/resume speech playback, connect the phone to external speaker systems for announcements and use Speak It for phone calls. Speak It users can also copy and paste text into the Speak It screen and the application will read emails, PDFs, documents, webpages, and other text sources.

Published: 2009 by FutureApps, Inc. , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

Professor Garfield Reading Ring

The Professor Garfield Reading Ring is a free online game that encourages reading comprehension using Garfield comic strip characters. The game asks players to put comic strip panels in the correct order, then answer three questions about the comic strip (questions do not always relate to the current panels in the strip). When a player wins a round they can print out a championship buckle.

Published: 2009 by professorgarfield.org , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

Zapdramatic

Zapdramatic produces interactive moral and lifeskill story-based interactive games. The intended audience is teens through adult, and is presented visually with all conversation open captioned. Visitors to the modules take on a role in the story and determine the direction the story takes, sometimes with disastrous results that could occur in real life. This is an outstanding site for teens to work through consequences for actions with the themes of ...

Published: 2009 by Michael Gibson , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

Special Ed Justice

Jennifer Laviano writes a monthly newsletter on her blog site. Users can subscribe to the newsletter or go online to read her blogs. She writes about a variety of legal issues related to people with disabilities, especially children and adolescents. Topics have included legal aspects of IEP delivery, Assistive Technology, and Special Education law. There is a list of all categories included, plus links to related topics and a Twitter ...

Published: 2009 by Jennifer Laviano, Attorney at Law , Reviewed: February 24, 2010

LD Live

Melinda Pongrey is a special education professional who writes a weekly blog and hosts a live online chat on topics related to learning disabilities. On the website, users can subscribe to the live chats, download the podcasts, respond to the blogs, and look for information through a long list of links related to learning disabilities, autism, physical impairments, children’s literature, advocacy, and assistive technology. There is a calendar with a ...

Published: 2009 by Melinda Pongrey , Reviewed: January 19, 2010

Accessible Educational Technology

This blog provides strategies to support students with technology. There is a lot of great stuff on this blog and viewers can spend lots of time reviewing useful links. A recent post was about the issue of social networking and how it can be used effectively as an educational and communication tool. All the posts and links are equally interesting, sending the viewer to thoughtful content and new resources.

Published: 2009 by AccessText Network , Reviewed: 1 day ago

Tutpup

Visitors to this Web site can play a variety of educational games. Individuals can sign up, or a teacher can sign up a class and allow students access to games that are chosen for particular skill development. Once signed on, users can play against other online players or against the computer. Players can see how their scores compare to others. This could be very motivating for some students.

Published: 2009 by Mind Candy , Reviewed: March 04, 2010

The Problem Site

This site began as a collection of math games to help K-12 students in the state of Maine to improve their math skills. It has evolved over the years to include educational games including math, puzzles, logic games, reference sources and much more. The site is free and can be acessed from any computer or network. It would be an ideal site for teachers to access from classroom computers, or ...

Published: 2009 by Douglas Twitchell , Reviewed: March 04, 2010

Learning with Computers

This blog is a community effort by the Learning with Computers Yahoo! Group and focuses on ways to develop English and communication through the use of mainstream computer-based tools. Many of the activities and suggestions listed are so simple and so motivating that viewers will be inspired to use them almost immediately. For example, children may be motivated to produce clear speech if they narrate videos using VoiceThread, or teachers ...

Published: 2009 by Maria Claudia Bellusci , Reviewed: March 04, 2010