ictsan

You do not need to use Xara to make accessible activities for Clicker Paint.

You can do it in Clicker paint itself, and it’s a lot quicker. Here is brief set of instructions for making this Maths worksheet;

1. Open a new template – (Landscape is probably best)
2. Select the colour of lines and draw your picture, or use the shapes tool (outlines of course)
3. Remember that the background is still transparent at this stage. You fill the background with a light colour to protect this area when the pupil finally uses it. You can use white but it might get confusing!
4. Save the image as a .png file (this is important!)
5. Create a new document – again probably landscape format
6. Go to File > Settings > Activity Details. There is a bit of a time delay here.
7. Click ‘Choose Picture’ and load your .png file
8. Click the button next to ‘On top of painting’ and press OK
9. Save this Clicker Paint Document Document.

You have an accessible activity with the background protected. It is possible to add ‘Sticky Points’ for switch users using scanning, but I have not worked out how to do that!

Give it a try. This method is much easier than using Xara, especially if you can draw well using Clicker Paint itself!

Just a reminder of the features of the clipboard in Windows. It can be used to copy and paste text or pictures within a document or between documents. This can include using text and pictures from a website in your own documents.

Here’s a useful, one page sheet of documentation that shows you how to do it.
www.educationict.org.uk/ictsan/docs/clipboard_in_windows.pdf

The Accessibilty Options in Windows are useful but are not always easy to find.

Here are some examples:

Mouse Keys to allow use of the numeric keypad as an alternative to the mouse

Keyboard – Sticky Keys: Press Shift then a letter to get a capital. It also works with Ctrl, Alt and Fn Keys.
Keyboard – Filter Keys – filter out repeated presses and reduce repeat delay and repeat rate for a user with a tremor

Mouse Keys to allow use of the numeric keypad as an alternative to the mouse
Mouse – Buttons – Change over a mouse for a left handed user
Mouse – Large Pointers and Pointer Trails for the Visually impaired
Mouse – Pointer Speed can slow down the mouse pointer for pupils with fine motor difficulties, or the user of an alternative input device.

On-screen keyboard allows the user to look at the screen all the time and avoid change of gaze from keyboard to screen. Letters are entered by clicking on the ‘keys’.

This is not the complete list.

Here is a link to a document that shows a presentation of these options on an RM CC3 network
educationict/ictsan/docs/accessibility_in_rm-explorer2.pdf

On a stand alone PC with Windows XP these items are found either in;
Settings -> Control Panel -> Accessibilty Options
or;
Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibilty

This is a method that I developed for a hemiplegic girl who is now a very fast typist. She started using it at about the age of eight. She leaves anyone in her class well behind when she types. I believe we have a duty to teach such pupils an efficient method such as this one. Picking it up by hunting and pecking, is for a one-handed user, likely to lead to the adoption of an inefficient system. I actually observed this in a girl a little older who came to our authority – about age 15, who did not have the benefit of having been taught a system.

This is not a touch typing method. Pupils will need to look at the keys.

This was devised for a young user. A numbered version would be more suitable for an older user. However, getting started young is the answer!

Left Handed Typing – Sheet 1

Left Handed Typing – Sheet 2

Left Handed Typing – Sheet 3

In a small way, I have using Clicker Paint as a means of creating accessible activities in maths that would be much harder to deliver by any other means. The intended users are touch screen users. If they touch an area not intended to be filled, then it will not be filled. Clicker paint also allows you to add “hotspots” that can be scanned by switch users.

In this example, the user has to fill in all the examples of a particular shape in the same colour. It’s the sort of activity found in all early maths schemes. I created it using Xara Xtreme – this is a vector ( line based) drawing package derived from Artworks on the Acorn computer.

Here’s how I did it;

1. Create your blank page of shapes – making sure that all shapes are transparent and lines bold. It’s probably a good idea to put two invisible points in, top left and bottom right to indicated the corners)
2. Save this file as a .png file. Make sure that the Option – transparent is ticked. Under colour depth I choose – True colour + Alpha. I do not know if this matters. I think so. Make sure you choose the largest dpi resolution and a large picture size – say 1000 pixels wide.
3. Load up Clicker paint. Open a new template – probably landscape.
4. Load this file into Clicker Paint and fill in the background a very light colour.
5. Save the file as a .png again
6. Open a new template – probably Landscape
7. Go to File > Settings > Activity Details
8. Click ‘choose picture’ then load your .png file
9. Select Assistant Layer Position – ‘On top of painting’ and then click on OK
10. Now save you activity as a Clicker paint Template

Give this a try as a method of creating accessible materials for pupils using alternatives to mouse access.
I have not tried adding scanning yet.

You do not need to use Xara. It can all be done in Clicker Paint. Create your exercise in Clicker paint and go to 5)

It’s hard to know which is the best format to prepare electronic books for the motor impaired. The CALL Centre suggests that a very useful way is to use Microsoft Reader, to allow the user to turn the on-screen pages.

The reader software is available from here; http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/default.mspx

To prepare a book, you need a utility that works in MS Word. It seems to be called “Read in Microsoft Reader”. You can download it from here; http://www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/downloads/rmr.mspx

You turn the pages by pressing Page up and page Down

Advantages seem to be;

• All the software is free
• You can easily set up a table of contents in MS Word. This converts to a TOC for the e-book.
• The software remembers where you left off reading. When you reload MS reader you are back in the same book at the same place.
• It has alot of keyboard shortcuts

Disadvantages seem to be;

• It does not seem to allow complete access to a keyboard user. A switch user could only access the page up and down features.
• It is for Windows only.
• There seems to be some doubt whether the book creation utility works in the latest version of MS Word.

The Books for All Project

Copyright is the main issue with regard to supporting text impaired youngsters.

There is no point in rehearsing the whole issue here. It is well covered by the site http://www.books4all.org.uk/
This site is maintained by the CALL Centre, Edinburgh University.

If you are producing alternative format books for any pupil you need to state the copyright position near the start of this alternative version.

Here’s what I write;

“This electronic copy of the original work has been made under the exemption in the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002.
This applies to people;
- who are visually impaired
- who are unable, through physical disability, to hold or manipulate a book
-who have a physical difficulty focusing or tracking.

Except as permitted by law, it may not be further copied, nor may it be
supplied to any other person, without permission.”

The on-screen keyboard in Clicker 4 is a very useful facility. It is particularly useful for pupils who cannot easily transfer their gaze from the screen to the keyboard. The best way to make it available in Clicker 4 is to create a new user called ‘On-Screen’ keyboard, as has been done on all SBC primary networks.
Documentation for teachers or staff working with such pupils can be found here;
www.educationict.org.uk/ictsan/docs/Clicker_4-on-screen-keyboard.pdf

Very little work seem to have been done on the speed of handwriting. A certain pupil is said to be a to be a slow writer and in need of support through ICT. What does that actually mean? What are the norms? How fast do you need to be able to write – especially in an exam?
The work published in by Ken Dutton in 1990 – Handwriting under exam conditions: Establishing a baseline - is what I use as a basis for my work with such a pupil.

I have recently found another study. This topic seems to be well covered in a newer study published by PATOSS

http://www.patoss-dyslexia.org/Handwriting_speedtest.html