AbilityNet News

SEN London 2009 – 16 & 17 October

Kareem Diana and Jo will be on stand ICT 34 at the TES SEN Exhibition at the design Centre Islington

http://www.teachingexhibitions.co.uk/Exhibitions/TES+Special+Needs+Exhibition/London/2009/

Visit us on the stand to be entered into a free daily draw for a dual pack of our AccessAT and AccessFun pendrives. As the man said “Too good to be true”

BT Community Connections

If you are a community or charitable organisation that is looking to extend your work through use of the internet and ICT but don’t have the means, apply for an award today!

Find out more about BT Community Connections

Free AT and AAC Assessments

30 free AT and AAC Assessments for children as part of the Innovative Projects grant from Becta we will be delivering 30 free AT and AAC (Assistive and Augmentative Communication) assessments for children. We will aim to work with local Speech and Language therapists, teachers, parents and Occupational Therapists where appropriate to provide the assessment. Please circulate this information to the Speech and Language teams, special schools and other relevant people within the LEA. Each request will be evaluated to ascertain that we can meet the needs of the child. To request an assessment jo.greenwell@abilitynet.org.uk

Interview with our very own Robin Christopherson

Lynda Elliott, a Usability Professional, interviews our own Robin Christopherson, head of Accessibility Services at AbilityNet

Access News

iCanSee: Magnifying application for the iPhone

Use your iPhone to magnify text up to 4 times with this app

EU Considering Europe wide accessibility law

Out-law finds out more about this proposed legislation

HTML 5 pocket book

Useful one page reference to HTML5: structure and elements, from Jeremy Keith

Bruce Lawson @ FOWA on HTML5

Bruce spoke at last weeks Future of Web Apps event about HTML5, focusing more on the application development aspect of HTML5 than the markup

Article on accessible gaming\games

Accessibility doesn’t mean just access to information or services, but leisure pursuits like gaming as well. This article discusses accessible gaming and some of the issues that exist

Alistapart: Usability Testing Demystified

Accessibility and Usability go hand in hand, and frequently overlap, but many people are still unsure what usability testing entails

Best of YouTube

Many Methods, One Goal: Communication – AAC Awareness 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCfC4ew8i08

In support of ISAAC’s (International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication) 2009 AAC Awareness month (see www.aacawareness.org), Sam tells a story entitled, "Taffy the Dog Goes on a…

Tutorial – Starting TapToTalk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTs7FomNQbI

This video describes how to use your TapToTalk Starter Kit Game Cartridge with your Nintendo DS Lite or DSi. It shows you how to insert the cartridge properly and how to turn on the Nintendo.

Microsoft Surface Churchend Primary School in the UK

http://www.youtube.com/user/gordondjrimmer#p/a/u/1/FOMwzu-y7Gs

A great video showing how both Students and Teachers can engage and use Surface with Education. Without prompting they talk about the interface, collaboration and interactions and what it means to them. Are we really tricking them into learning!

All of these and many more can be found on the AbilityNet YouTube channel www.youtube.com/abilitynet.

What’s Hot on Twitter @AbilityNet #Accessibility

Eye Controlled Typing technology (from Palestine) to help people with physical disabilities use computers http://ow.ly/tGj4

New videos from Trace Research Center, with one on Web Application Accessibility: http://www.doit.wisc.edu/ac…

International Kindle ships October 19 to over 100 countries for $279, ‘US’ edition falls to $259 #pc – http://bit.ly/lMaRS

Special Offers

E-learning

1 year access to AbilityNet elearning – only £35 per user + VAT

Go to www.abilitynettraining.org for details

Stimulate your Team with ICT Innovation Days

Get your team to look ahead and think about how access technology is going to change during the next 5 years – how will access be happening and what will be the impact. These interactive and hands on days are extremely popular in helping with planning and diversity. Contact David Banes at david.banes@abilitynet.org.uk for further details

Request a free HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff™ accessibility scan

HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff™ is an enterprise accessibility validation solution that scans your Web site for over 172 separate issues and delivers the results in a powerful online report.

Request your free HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff™ accessibility check today.

Need an accessibility speaker for event or workshop ?

Let us know if you would like us to try to speak at your events – we can deliver onsite or remotely across video conferencing email david.banes@abilitynet.org.uk for further details

Courses

The Autumn Course programme is released

Accessibility in Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007

Investigating accessibility within the Operating system and Office Applications

More information and booking for Accessibility in Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 course

Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations

Helping those involved in workstation assessments respond effectively

More information and booking for Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations course

Mobile Access Solutions

Exploring the key issues in selecting portable technology

More information and booking for Mobile Access Solutions course

Using ICT to Support People with Dyslexia

Use technology to help those who have reading and writing difficulties

More information and booking for Using ICT to Support People with Dyslexia course

Web 2.0

Demonstrating how to make the most of web 2.0 technologies

More information and booking for Web 2.0 course

Windows 7

Looking at the new accessibility features available in Windows 7

More information and booking for Windows 7 course

And there’s MORE

Stay in Touch with AbilityNet

Come find us at a number of events in the next few weeks…

Telecentres Europe Summit – Istanbul

14/15 October

David Banes will be presenting on accessibility and resources for telecentres at the summit meeting in Istanbul

SEN London

16/17 October

http://www.teachingexhibitions.co.uk/Exhibitions/TES+Special+Needs+Exhibition/London/2009/

Access IT 2009

Technology World 09

23rd and 24th Nov, 2009

Venue: Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK

AbilityNet will be on stand 56 come and find us

Across the Web

Join our daily Twitter channel @abilitynet

Join our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/abilitynet

Read our regular Blog www.abilitynet.org.uk/blog

Join GATE The Global Assistive Technology Encyclopedia

Podcast No 8 Released

Our latest podcast is now available  – contents include

• AbilityNet’s recent Accessibility2.0 ‘A Million Flowers Bloom’ conference
• Review of www.bubbl.us free mind-mapping tool and the capture screen facility in Windows
• Item on the recent Access–IT Awards event
• Web accessibility news roundup
• An introductory item to Twitter
• Events for your diary

It’s available for free from www.abilitynet.org.uk/podcast or via iTunes