Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Assistive Technology


Microsoft Ease of Acces Center has several tools that would be able to benefit those with visual, hearing or physical ailments. Also, it could benefit those with learning disabilities such as ADD.


The first tool that I explored was setting up the high contraster. This particular application makes it possible to change the screen colors so they contrast eachother and therefore making it easier to focus on the text. This could be beneficial to students that have trouble keeping focus, as well as students that have poor vision. In the screenshot, you can clearly see the color differences on the screen and how the bright colors would enhance the reading process.

The next tool I looked into was the narration tool, this could benefit a number of different people. This application reads the text on the screen for the person trying to understand it. In particular, this could be benefical to students with poor vision. Also, it could aid in multi-tasking, because people can listen to information while simultaneously doing another activity.