Assistive Technology to Support Writing

By Amber Smith

What is Writing?

HANDWRITING - Holding a pen and moving your hand from left to right, leaving marks on paper.

But there’s more!

Major Elements of Writing

Task Environment – problem/assignment

Writer’s Long Term Memory – stored knowledge of topic, audience, and writing plans

Writing Process Itself – Planning (stages of writing), Translating, and Reviewing

Writing Problems that Students with Disabilities Face

Planning – they don’t know how

Spelling – problems spelling words, identifying errors

Transcription processes – Spelling and Handwriting

Lack knowledge about what makes good writing and specific writing strategies

Specific Struggles

Students who are deaf and communicate mostly using Sign Language – Low literacy levels because English is a Second language for them.

Students with Physical Disabilities (CP, MD, etc.) – forming letters correctly and quickly and word alignment on paper.

Some Students with Autism, Down Syndrome or visual-motor LDs - dysgraphia due to poor fine motor coordination.

Specific Struggles...cont’dNote-Taking – Complicated for many students with LDs.

Skills needed:

Read and Write at the same time

Organize ideas that are presented

Distinguish what is important from what is not

Do everything above at the same time

Low-Tech Tools for Handwriting Difficulties

Pencil Grip

Slanted desk/table top

Anchor paper on a clipboard

Paper with raised or bold lines – helps students with LD and/or visual impairments

Rubber stamps – Math, Writing, Pictures, Names etc.

Pre-Writing Tools

Graphic Organizers & Concept Maps – paper and computer software – i.e. Inspiration & Mindview 3

Templates

Drafting Tools

Word Processing Applications – MS Word, Google Docs

Benefits:

Legibility of Text

Publish in different formats

Easy to change/revise

Supporting applications for Spelling, grammar, concept mapping

Changes without Rewriting Allow For…

No stress about Spelling during Composition

Less stress about organization / sequencing

More emphasis on content

Word Prediction Applications

These programs make an educated guess about what word the writer wants to type and gives a list of choices.

Co:Writer by Don Johnston

WordQ by goQ Software

WriteOnline by Crick Software (web-based, talking)

Google Scribe by Google

Speech Recognition

Speaker says the word into a microphone and the software recognizes words and writes them on the screen.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking by Nuance

SpeakQ by goQ Software

MacSpeech Dictate by Nuance

Reviewing

Text-to-Speech applications – Write:OutLoud

Helps students with poor reading skills

Text is read aloud by “chunks”

Speed & Voice can be adjusted

Text being read can be highlighted

Editing

Spell-Checks – Standard vs. Phonetic dictionaries

Talking Spell-Checks

Thesauruses

Grammar Checkers

Sharing/Publishing

Newsletters

Story-writing programs – graphics, video, sound with text

PowerPoint Presentations

provides engaging environment for pre-writing (organization)

provides an alternative to writing a paper but still is able to show knowledge.

Sharing/Publishing …cont.

Internet

Discussion boards

Blogs – “Web Log” or Journal – w/ student comments

Kidblog

Wikis- Students can add and edit info on the site

Note-Taking Mid-High Level Tech

Portable Note-takers – Neo (2), CalcuScribe

Smartpen – Pulse Pen and Echo Pen by LiveScribe

Braille Note Takers – Braille Lite M40 and BrailleNote by Human Ware

Capturing Devices – Mimio, SmartBoard, and Promethean ActivBoard

CART $$$– Communicative Access Realtime Translation for Deaf/Hard of Hearing students – word by word translation

C-Print $ - produces paraphrased records of class lectures.

Assistive Tech Plus…

“Assistive technology will succeed in helping students improve their writing skills only if it is paired with good teaching strategies.” (Dell, 2012, p49).

Training needed in:

The Writing Process – www.readwritethink.org

Specific Tech tools

How to use these tech tools to enhance the writing process