AT for Reading Webinar

Experiencing the assistive technology for reading webinar is a great source for students with reading disabilities. The webinar was presented by Shonda Golden, whom gave many great source, software and ideas to help students with learning challenges. As a teacher, I am faced each day with students who have reading challenges, even if they have not been diagnosed with a disability. She discussed many important ideas such as text reader and screen reader software. Text reader allows the students to have any of the text from the internet or stories read to them. This is a great tool for students with learning disabilities to help them understand the text they are looking at on the web. This tool is for students who have a reading disability, but do not have visual impairments. The second type of software she discussed was screen reader. This tool is used for students who have visual impairments. This tool reads all of the items on the screen out loud, such as menu bars, buttons and dialogue boxes. They provide access to navigation and written text that cannot be seen on the screen.

One source that is a great tool to use in the classroom that she mentions is called Bookshare. This software can read files directly without conversation process. There is also options for the text to change to be easier to read. There is an option where you can convert the files to MP3s and listen to them on your own personal device. All the books on Bookshare are free, which is not always the case for other sites. This is a great source for students with reading disabilities or visual impairments, because the test is read aloud to them. I will be able to use Bookshare to help assist students in my classroom.


Source: Webinar:
http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki/images/6/6d/CREATE_webinar_-_AT_for_Reading_Feb_21_2013.pdf


Bookshare:https://www.bookshare.org/