LearnOutLoud is a website that offers an extensive and eclectic collection of well cataloged audio and video that can be convieniently browsed. You can serch the site by author, title, or category. The main site is commercial, and titles are available to purchase by download or on a variety of physical media (CD, DVD, cassette). Online streaming and podcast subscription are other options that are available from LearnOutLoud.

LearnOutLoud also provides access to a large collection of free audio and video resources, and this is not just an afterthought. As much effort appears to be invested in support of free audio and video as in the money-making side of the venture. The free titles available here go way beyond classic literature in the public domain. Again, the collection is extremely well organized and easy to search.

While LearnOutLoud is a website geared toward adult learners, children have not been left out. There is a sister site called KidsLearnOutloud. Here, you can browse resources by age level. Again there is a subsection of free resources for kids.

ReadTheWords.com is a free and extremely versatile online text-to-speech service which allows you to enter text with the keyboard, to copy and paste it, or to upload text files in a variety of formats from your computer or from other websites.

Speech is generated quickly, and you then have a choice of 15 high quality voices whose reading rate can be varied easily. You can listen online, download an mp3 file for use offline, or embed your speech file elsewhere online. It was very straightforward to embed the audio player from ReadTheWords.com on a wiki page. Unfortunately, it isn’t so straightforward on edublogs, and I haven’t been able to embed it here on my own blog.

ReadTheWords.com offers text-to-speech in French and Spanish as well as in English.

Fx Software is a website that offers free downloadable software. There are two categories–Assistive Software and Other Software. It is the Assistive Software that is of particular interest here. In this category there are 11 free downloads with the potential to make computer use and internet browsing more accessible for individuals who face special challenges.

Assistive software titles include:

• KwikLoupe — simple screen magnifier
• RapidSet — allowing you to conveniently change font and/or background colour
• Mouseketeer — mouse clicking/dragging
• Vu-Bar 4 — tool for keeping a single line of text in view
• Sonar 4 — provides a permanent ring around the mouse pointer
• Edgeless — causes mouse pointer to wrap around screen
• KeyCounter — keeps track of number of keystrokes to suggest need for rest
• mmFollow – adds cartoon character to mouse cursor
• Washer – adjusts screen for varying conditions of colour blindness
• Bigger Cursors — set of large colourful cursors
• Chunky Cursors – set of large chunky colourful cursors

Last week I wrote a post about Accessibar, which enhances the accessibility of web browsing in Firefox. Some of the tools offered here by Fx Software will also make web browsing more accessible. The programs from Fx Software, however, are designed to support all computer use, not just internet access.

I have not had a chance to download and test all of the Fx Software titles, but I’ve been favourably impressed by the ones I have downloaded. The programs download quickly because they are small. They are also easy to install. I particularly liked the potential of Vu-Bar 4 for some individuals who face reading challenges as a result of a learning disability.

Accessibar is a toolbar that can be installed as an add-on for the Firefox browser with a set of tools to make the internet more accessible for people with special needs. Accessibar is especially useful for those with low vision. As with all toolbar icons in Firefox, the toolbar shown below can include text that names the function of the icon. All of the Accessibar functions can also be activated with keyboard shortcuts that can be configured by the user.

In the words of the toolbar’s developers, here’s what the Accessibar tools will do for you.

• Web page fonts and background colors can be changed from a selecton of 70 colors on current session
• Icons with configurable shortcut keys to increase and decrease Font size.
• Line spacing can be increased or decreased to five different spacing settings incrementally.
• All images (including Flash) displayed on a web page can be selected as being hiden or shown.
• All changes made to web page display can be restored to original page settings by pressing “Restore Page“.
• Changes made to the currently displayed web page persist until “Restore Page“ is selected.
• Integrated Text To Speech reader. Reads out strings hovered over as well as focused elements.
• Reader settings can be configured allowing the selection of the voice, volume, speaking rate, pitch, and voice range.
• Toolbar functions have configurable Hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts).

I tested Accessibar’s text-to-speech function, and I found it to work reasonably well. It does an especially good job of reading links and buttons. As a sighted reader, however,I much prefer to use CLiCk,Speak for reading passages of text. I wonder if it might be the same for individuals with low vision if they are able to use Accessibar’s tools to enable them to see the web page effectively. I added the CLiCk,Speak buttons to the Accessibar toolbar. The only drawback is that there are no keyboard commands for the CLiCk,Speak buttons.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners.

About 3 years ago, my son told me I should get with the program and switch to Firefox. Since then, I’ve become a diehard fan and promoter of the browser. Because I work in the field of assistive technology, I especially appreciate the add-ons that have been written for Firefox to make the internet more accessible for people with special challenges. I’ve written here about CLiCkSpeak, FireVox, and Mouse Gestures. Today I’m highlighting a website whose sole focus is the accessiblity features of Firefox.

Access Firefox The raison d’etre for this site is clearly stated in its tagline: “Because the Internet is for everyone.” That resonates with me. The internet has created gateways to the world and facilitated connections that simply had not been available to many people with special needs before.

Access Firefox has catologued a significant list of Firefox extensions and themes that enhance Firefox accessiblity. The site offers assistance for anyone who needs to figure out how to download and install these add-ons. Access Firefox is also doing its bit to promote ongoing development of add-ons that facilitae access.

Ken Saunders, the site’s creator, is legally blind; and the majority of resources listed on Access Firefox are for individuals who are either blind or who have low vision. CLiCkSpeak, however, is an example of an add-on for sighted individuals with reading challenges. Mouse Gestures is an add-on that makes the internet accessible to individuals with physical challenges that keep them from using a typical hand-operated mouse.

The accessibility features that are being written for Firefox illustrate the power of open source software and of communities that form in response to specific needs.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff!

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

Learners of all ages and abilities need access to the internet! The number of reasons is growing exponentially as quality educational websites arrive on the scene. Here’s another incredible resource. This one is especially valuable for individuals who cannot use a mouse or keyboard.

Papunet Games is a website with an engaging set of activities designed specifically to work well for individuals who use switches to access a computer, including those who use two switches for step-scanning. The range of activities is extensive, and there are varying levels of challenge within many of the activities.

Among the numerous high quality puzzles and games on the site, what I found especially exciting was the set of “drawing activities”. These activities offer an opportunity for children who cannot hold a crayon or paint brush to paint or colour with their switches. The art work created on the computer can then be printed out, perhaps for Mom to put up on the kitchen wall.

The site is uncluttered and ad-free. It is also worth noting that the activities on Papunet are great for kids who can use a computer mouse. The site can therefore be used to facilitate inclusion.

I’ve recently discovered a couple of other sites with worthwhile online activities designed for switch-users. I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to blog specifically about them, so I’ll just include links here: HelpKidzLearn from Inclusive Technologies and CBeebies from the BBC.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff!

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

I presented an after school workshop for teachers on blogging this week, and I was challenged there by a question about the reading level of blogs and websites. That led to a quick search for an online tool to measure reading level. My search brought me to Juicy Studio, and I’ve decided to write about it here. Juicy Studio offers a convenient online tool for measuring reading level–and a great deal more!

Juicy Studio This website, which can be switched easily to a high contrast version for readers with visual challenges, offers tools for measuring several aspects of website accessibility. Free hosted services include the Readability Test, CSS Analyser, Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyser, Colour Contrast Analyser, Image Analyser, and Link Analyser. The site also offers several downloadable tools and Firefox extensions designed to facilitate and enhance website accessibility. As well, the site hosts a growing collection of articles related to web accessibility. Anyone wanting to build accessible websites, which should ideally include all site developers, needs to be aware of Juicy Studio.

I’m going to focus here briefly only on the tool for testing reading level. It couldn’t be easier to use Juicy Studio’s readability test. You simply paste in the URL and click “Calculate Readability”.

When I entered the URL for this blog, it took less than a minute to return the chart below after analysing the first page of my blog, including my 10 most recent posts. The chart was followed by a helpful explanation of the three measures at the bottom of the chart. The Gunning Fox suggests that a reader needs over 11 years of schooling to understand my blog. Flesch Reading Ease is a scale to 100, with higher scores being easier. Writers are encouraged to aim between 60 and 70. By this scale, my content is a little on the difficult side. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade measure is another rough estimate of how many years of schooling a reader should need to comprehend the material.

Juicy Studio explains the algorithm for each of the scales in considerable more detail than I did above. It strikes me that it would be difficult to come up with anything more accurate. It is helpful that the test uses three separate scales and that it breaks down the data so clearly.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

A big highlight of Closing the Gap for me was the opportunity to attend a presentation by David Davis, of the Florida Instructional Technology Training Resource Unit. David is actually the person who got me started on my quest for free resources. My colleague Jane Rondow, with whom I presented at Closing the Gap, brought me one of David’s CD’s from a conference she attended three years ago. I was inspired by what I found on the CD, and I’ve never looked back. It was great to meet David, and I told him he was one of my heroes. Today, I’m highlighting a resource that David used in his presentation, a versatile little utility with many applications. This is the first of numerous treasures from David’s presentation and from the latest version of his CD that I intend to share here.

Dragnifier illustrates the truth that even though wonderful new technology is arriving on the scene on a daily basis, some gems that have been around for a while continue to hold their value. Ed Halley, Dragnifier’s developer, describes it as a “quick dragging magnifier” for anything that’s on your computer screen. That sums it up nicely. A single click on its icon in the system tray brings Dragnifier to life, and another click puts it back to sleep. Alternatively, you can easily program a keyboard shortcut.

Dragnifier offers 3 magnification settings–2x, 4x or 8x. For the shape of your magnifier, you get 6 options–hand loupe, small rectangular lens, medium rectangular lens, large rectangular lens, round lens, or “handy reader”. These are illustrated below at 2x magnification.

At his presentation, David used Dragnifier to magnify his projected screen so that participants in the back of the room could read what was on his computer screen. There are occasions when any of us can make use of a handy screen magnifier like this , especially those of us who are over 45. Whether we’re working with finicky graphics or trying to read fine print on the screen, Dragnifier can help.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

VoiceThread has been my favourite digital story-telling application since it first appeared earlier this year. That’s mainly because it’s so easy to either speak or write about images, and then share it all. This not only makes VoiceThread versatile, it also makes it accessible to individuals who face challenges with writing. The potential uses of VoiceThread by learners and teachers are unlimited.

Now they’ve made VoiceThread even better! This week, the VoiceThread team has introduced a “Pro” version that they are making available to K-12 educators free of charge. (While a powerful free version will continue to be available, at less than $2.50/month the Pro features are a bargain for anyone who is not an educator!)

I haven’t yet had a chance to try them all out, but here are just some of the new Pro features:

• the animated “Doodler” offers the ability to draw on an image while commenting;
• multiple identities for one registered user–excellent for classes or groups of students;
• expanded media uploading options–jpg, gif, bmp, png, ppt, pps, pdf, doc, xls, also directly from Flickr or Facebook;
• comment moderation;
• easier sharing and embedding options;
• enhanced ability to enlarge and project VoiceThreads on a large screen.

You need to go to VoiceThread and see for yourself, but I’ve embedded a couple of threads below that I think illustrate at least a little of VoiceThread’s potential–one done by a grade 5 class and the other from grade 1.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

Today I’m featuring a remarkable resource that has been made available to the world by a school in Courtenay, British Columbia. This online library is a tribute to the vision, talent and effort of Stewart Savard, the school’s librarian. It so happens that Courtenay is where I live, and it’s an honour to know Stew, and to get to work with him on occasion.

Courtenay Middle School Library (online resource) The growing collection of digital resources housed on this Vancouver Island middle school’s website is truly remarkable. In addition to some resources that you can download, there’s an extensive and well organized catalogue of links to some of the very best online resources available anywhere.

There is much of value here to middle school learners and their teachers everywhere. By virtue of the multiple ways that users can access material on the site, and because of way the library identifies the reading level of the material, the library is built firmly on UDL principles. (UDL= Universal Design for Learning)

Downhill skiing has provided the model for rating the degree of reading challenge for each catelogued item, as illustrated below:

Material is organized by unit under main subject headings and sub-headings. For example, under Social Studies, there are four main sub-headings: History; Current Events; Geography; Research Topics. Under History, you then find the following units: Ancient China; Ancient Egypt; Ancient Greece; Early Humans; Indian Empires; Mesopotamia; Middle Ages; Mongol Empire; Renaissance; Roman Empire. For each of these units, resources are organized under a helpful Table of Contents.

There’s a terrific Free Audio Book collection, with links to audio files of recorded human readers. There’s also a collection of novels available for “Assisted Reading“. The latter includes text files that can be downloaded for use with e-text reading software, as well as some KESI files that open in Kurzweil 3000. KESI files are available to download for some of the material catalogued under other subject headings as well.

There is much more at Courtenay Middle School’s online library, but no description I offer would do it justice. It needs to be explored and used to be fully appreciated.