ATMac

Doing math can be a big problem for students who can’t write or work with rulers and protractors and compasses. It’s hard to type math problems in a regular word processor, and it’s impossible to work out “protractor and ruler” type problems. Here are some programs which can help students do this type of maths on a computer

Trying to learn to use a new program and memorise many commands at the same time as you are learning the art of dictation is always going to be difficult. Happily, there is one thing which you can do that will greatly increase the chances that you will learn to use MacSpeech Dictate usefully.

The Firefox web browser offers an interesting alternative to Safari, but at the moment it’s not compatible with Apple’s accessibility API. VoiceOver users can’t use it, programs like the Dictionary and the services menu programs don’t work within it, and third party enhancements like Quicksilver can’t access it. Aaron Leventhal from the accessibility team at Mozilla explains some of the reasons the incompatibility hasn’t been fixed yet, and may take a long time to be fixed at all.

Power’s what assistive technology gives us, really. The power to communicate, to read, to type, to plan, to play, to control things. The power to achieve things that we couldn’t otherwise achieve. Here are some ideas for gifts to empower assistive technology users.