ATMac

Users with cognitive impairments not covered by other categories. This include specific learning disabilities, dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, attention deficit disorder, non verbal learning disability, memory and concentration problems, and others.

OneThingToday looks like a great task manager to help you focus on what’s important today. Once you’ve used the calendar view to input your tasks, switch to the “Today” view to get a single box (optionally transparent) which floats on top of your workspace, constantly reminding you of what you’re working on.

Amongst updates to the iMac series of computers, Apple yesterday announced an external bluetooth trackpad. This works exactly like the MacBook’s built-in multi-touch trackpad but has a working area of approximately 4.3 by 4.3 inches (11cm by 11cm). A full set of gestures, including the VoiceOver “trackpad as screen” gesture control are available.

Jane Farrall has constructed a great table listing all the important features about all the known assistive/adaptive communication (AAC) applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. She’s actively updating the table in response to feedback, this is a great resource for those looking for information about AAC out there.

Web designer Jamie Knight explains how he uses his iPhone and MacBook to help manage the difficulties that his autism causes. He talks about communication, organisation, and managing problem areas in his life.

PinPoint 3 is a program which puts a great animated or static graphic around your mouse pointer when you want it, so you can always locate the cursor. Great for people whose eyesight isn’t the best, or who have large or multiple screens.

There have been a lot of articles on a lot of websites about accessibility and disability and assistive technology as they relate to the iPad since the specifications were first released. Now that people obtain the iPads to use themselves, the pace of articles is still increasing.

Have you ever wished that you could have one copy of Safari for Facebook, and a different copy for your “serious” work? With Fluid, you can! Fluid is a nifty utility which lets you create site-specific web browsers (SSBs). These are web browsers which only work on one (or a few) specific websites. If you click on a link for any other website, it will open in your regular browser.

Ventrilo is a free speech-based chat server that you can set up on your home network so that people can communicate using speech between different computers in the same house. It doesn’t access the internet to work, so even if your net connection is broken Ventrilo will still work.

Firefox generally doesn’t let you use a lot of OS X’s accessibility features, including the services menu and some of OS X’s regular keyboard shortcuts. Setting your Mac up to speak highlighted text when you press a key also doesn’t work in Firefox. The Firefox extension SpeakingFox fills this gap with some nifty context menu options to fill this gap.

How would you organise an iPod so an child with autism could listen to his favourite music during car journeys but not accidentally press the buttons and turn off the music? I thought of a couple of methods, and would love to hear about others you’ve come up with yourself!