[Athen] IPads and Nooks

[Lavey,Shannon]

Hi Carol,

I have received recommendations and had good luck using the Voice of Daisy (VOD) app for iOS.  It is a full-text and full-audio DAISY player.

I have many students who use the GoodReader app to read PDFs and other text files.  This app allows students to interact with their readings by highlighting, adding text boxes, sticky notes, and drawings, which helps some students with learning disabilities learn their material.  Other students with mobility or physical impairments could benefit from using this app because they can sync-up their books and read from GoodReader on their iPad (rather than needing to carry all their books).

I hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions!

Shannon Lavey, MS, OTR

Service Coordinator, Assistive Technology Resource Center
307 Occupational Therapy Building
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO  80523
970-491-6258
shannon.lavey at colostate.edu
www.atrc.colostate.edu<http://www.atrc.colostate.edu/>





From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu> [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Shelley Haven
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:25 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] IPads and Nooks

Hi, Carol!

I'm more familiar with the iPad than with Android tablets like the Nook or the new Kindle Fire, so...

Your best bets for the iPad are probably the Learning Ally Audio app (which you mentioned) for listening to narrated audiobooks:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learning-ally-audio/id418888450?mt=8
...and the Read2Go app from Bookshare for e-text (mainly because of the tie-in to Bookshare):
http://read2go.org/
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/read2go/id425585903?mt=8
You can download e-text textbooks from Bookshare as well, including NIMAC textbooks for the K-12 set who have IEPs.

Apple's free iBooks app can use the iPad's built-in VoiceOver function:
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/vision.html
VoiceOver works with text in other apps, too, but will not read aloud books in the Kindle app, and the Kindle app does not currently have text-to-speech.  Also, VoiceOver does not visually highlight words or sentences while reading.

Check Chapters 22 and 24 in the iPad iOS5 User Guide for instructions on iBooks and VoiceOver:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/ipad_user_guide.pdf
...or Chapters 19 and 21 in the iOS 4.3 User Guide:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/ipad_2_user_guide.pdf
There's also a new "Speak Selection" feature in iOS5 which may work within other apps (see Chapter 24 in the iOS5 manual).

As for what students prefer, this varies by student and by the task.  Some prefer the human voices of DAISY audiobooks from Learning Ally for the intonation, inflection, etc.; other prefer to hear the text while seeing it visually highlighted and prefer apps like Read2Go.  Some do fine with the audio-only for novels, but prefer to both see and hear the text when reading for comprehension (e.g., a social studies book).  Therefore, I usually have to evaluate this on a student-by-student basis to equip them with the tools which are right for their needs, preferences, and tasks.

Hope this helps,
 Shelley

_____________________________
Shelley Haven  ATP, RET
Assistive Technology Consultant
www.TechPotential.net<http://www.TechPotential.net>



On Jan 13, 2012, at 1:59 PM, Carol Brown wrote:


Several LD students who have used text to speech programs in the past have recently received IPads, Nooks or Kindles.  Help!!

For the IPad, I know there are apps (GoodReader, Speakit! and LearningAlly), but what so your students prefer and why.  One student with an IPad said the books were available as e books for the Kindle from Amazon, but they aren't text book enabled (??).  Any help (experiences,  contacts, instruction sheets, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Carol Brown
Assistive Technology Specialist
Student Accessibility Services
Rm. 244, Corbett Center
MSC 4149
New Mexico State University
P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001

(575) 646-6840  Office
(575) 646-5222  Fax
(575) 646-1918  TTY

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