The document discusses how the iPad and mobile technology can serve as assistive technologies to help learners with disabilities. It provides examples of built-in features like VoiceOver, Zoom, and text-to-speech that make the iPad accessible for people with visual or hearing impairments. The document also discusses third-party apps that can further support learners with disabilities by transcribing speech, identifying colors, and providing other helpful functions. Overall, the iPad and its features allow for independent, engaging learning by students with special needs.

1. By Sie Gilbert

2. Mobile Learning Week
UNESCO’s flagship ICT in education event will run
from 23-27 February at UNESCO headquarters in
Paris.

3. The Right to Education
Ensuring the right to education is at the very
heart of UNESCO’s mission, which is also
affirmed and recognized by its Member
States. Such education must also be a
quality education. Thus, UNESCO emphasizes
not merely the right to education, but also
particularly the right to quality education
for all.

4. Every five seconds one person in the world goes blind.
One child goes blind every minute.
Over 5% of the world’s population-360 million people-have
disabling hearing loss.
Current production of hearing aids meets than 10% of
global need.
KEY FACTS

5. Education
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/11/21/Blind-children.jpg
Approximately 90% of visually impaired children in low-
income countries are deprived of an education.

6. Technology
Technology has opened many educational
doors to students, particularly to students
with disabilities.

7. Technology -- an Equalizer
Technology can be a great equalizer for
individuals with disabilities that might
prevent full participation in school, work,
and the community.

8. Assistive Technology
Assistive Technology (AT): is anything that
can be used to increase, maintain, or
improve the function of individuals with
disabilities.

9. The iPad as Assistive Technology
iPads are being used by people with visual and
hearing impairments as a tool for accessing e-mail,
internet, word processing, social networking, and
other “personal digital assistant” activities.

10. Benefits
• Engages students in active learning
• Promotes self esteem
• Improves quality of life
• Increases productivity
• Increases independence
• Enhances performance

11. A wide range of features
The iPad comes with assistive features that
allow people with disabilities to experience
the fun and function of technology.

12. VoiceOver
VoiceOver is a revolutionary screen reader
that lets users who are blind or have low
vision know what’s happening on their
device. And helps them control it.

13. VoiceOver
For the blind or the student with low
vision, you can use VoiceOver, an advanced
screen reader.

14. VoiceOver Braille keyboard
VoiceOver features a virtual control called the rotor.
Turning the rotor — by rotating two fingers on the
screen as if you were turning an actual dial

15. Braille Screen Input

16. Braille Displays
iPads are fully compatible with many refreshable
braille displays

17. VoiceOver
Draw letters instead of typing
With VoiceOver, you can draw letters on the
screen and have them translated to text in
Mail, Notes, and other applications.

18. VoiceOver and Keyboard
With VoiceOver, you can switch keyboards
on the screen and have the keys translated
to text in Mail, Notes, and other applications.

19. Maps
In Maps, VoiceOver will tell you the direction you are traveling as
well as your current location and nearby landmarks.
You can use VoiceOver to explore a region, browse points of interest,
follow roads, zoom in or out, select a pin, or get information about a
location.

20. iBooks

21. Speak Screen
If a student has a hard time reading the
text on their device they can use Speak
Screen to read their email, iMessages,
web pages, and books to them.

22. Speak Selection
If a student has a hard time reading the text
on their device they can use Speak Selection
to read their email, iMessages, web pages,
and books to them.

23. The real problem of blindness is not the loss
of eyesight. The real problem is the
misunderstanding and lack of information that
exists. If a blind person has proper training
and opportunity, blindness can be reduced to
a physical nuisance.

24. Zoom
Zoom is a built-in magnifier that works
wherever you are on your device, from Mail
and Safari to the Home and Lock screens.
And it works with all apps from the App
Store.

25. Siri
Siri, Apple’s intelligent assistant,
helps you do the things you do
every day.

26. Dictation
Dictation lets you talk where you would type. Tap the
microphone button on the keyboard, say what you want
to write, and your device converts your words (and
numbers and characters) into text. So it’s easy to type
an email, note, or URL — without typing at all.

27. Invert Colors and Grayscale
If a higher contrast or a
lack of color helps you
better see what’s on your
display, The iPad lets you
invert the colors or
enable grayscale
onscreen.

28. Hearing
You can create personalized vibration patterns
for incoming messages and FaceTime calls. Under
any name in your contacts, just tap Edit and then
tap Vibration.

29. Hearing
Having a sign language conversation is easy using a
FaceTime video call. To start a FaceTime call, tap the
FaceTime button under a name in your contacts or on
the screen during a regular call.

30. Font Adjustments
When you activate Larger Dynamic Type, the text inside a range of
apps including Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, Music, Notes and
Settings, and even some third party apps, is converted to a larger,
easier-to-read size.

31. Dictionary
Say you’re reading an article on astronomy and
are stuck on some terminology. Just look it up —
dictionary definitions are integrated into the iPad

32. Safari Reader
For some students, navigating the web
can be a sensory overload. Safari
Reader reduces the visual clutter on a
web page by removing distractions

33. Closed Captions
Watch movies, TV shows, and podcasts with closed captions.
Just look for the CC icon to buy or rent captioned movies
from the iTunes Store or find captioned podcasts in iTunes U.

34. Mono Audio
When you’re using headphones, you may miss some
audio if you’re deaf or hard of hearing in one ear.
That’s because stereo recordings usually have
distinct left- and right-channel audio tracks. The
iPad can help by playing both audio channels in
both ears, and letting you adjust the balance for
greater volume in either ear, so you won’t miss a
single note of a concert or word of an audiobook.

35. AssistiveTouch
AssistiveTouch lets you adapt the Multi-
Touch screen of your iOS device to your
unique physical needs.

36. Apps for the Deaf and Hearing
Impaired
As a person is speaking, Dragon will
transcribe the words for the person
who is hard of hearing to read.

37. Apps for the Deaf and Hearing
Impaired
Stack is an input method that provides a
handwriting alternative to to a keyboard.
Handwritten input is instantly recognized and
converted to digital text.

38. Apps for the visually impaired
Color Identifier
Hear the colors of everything around you with Color
Identifier. Just point the camera of your iPhone,
iPad, or iPod touch, and the app will speak the
name of the color it sees, from sky blue to natural
gray.

39. Apps for the visually impaired
Light Detector
Let sound help you see the light. By pointing your device’s
camera, you can check whether lights are on, whether
shades are drawn, or how dark it is outside.

40. “We can no longer
teach today's students
with yesterday's tools
and expect them to
succeed.”

41. References
Assistive Technology for Young Children in Special Education: It Makes a Difference,
Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-young-children-special-
education
Apple Computer: Accessibility Tips and Tricks.
http://www.apple.com/ios/accessibility-tips/
Robert Miller – Oklahoma School for the Blind 1 MAR 2013 iPad Accessibility.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/
http://www.vision2020.org/main.cfm
http://www.dit.ie/mozambique-eyecare/developmentandeyecare/
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/11/21/Blind-
children.jpg
National Federation of the Blind. (2007) “NFB Homepage” on URL http://www.nfb.
org/nfb/Default.asp [12 Dec. 2008].

42. Thank You

43. The iPad as an Assistive
Technology
Both the iPad and iPod are extremely useful
tools in the classroom. With its multitude
of applications (apps), the iPad is not only
beneficial for typically functioning students
in the classroom, but it can be an invaluable
learning tool for students with special
needs.

44. What is Mobile Learning
• mobile learning involves the use of
mobile technology, either alone or in
combination with other information and
communication technology (ICT), to
enable learning anytime and anywhere

45. Assist learners with disabilities
Thanks to the integration of text-
enlargement, voice-transcription, location-
aware and text-to-speech technologies,
mobile devices can dramatically improve the
learning of students with physical disabilities