Category Archives: Visual Stress

Siri for Calendar and Time Management.

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siri screengrab

Siri asked to check appointments on 22nd September

Siri is brilliant for calendar management and time/task management, but underused, you can verbally manage your calendar/ tasks which, I personally find reduces the burden on my working memory and is more intuitive .  The speed of which I can set myself a reminder by taking the phone out of my pocket rather than searching for a pen and paper which I inevitably end up losing anyway is astounding!  I really like iOS accessibility. I definitely find low maintenance strategies with gainful upsides work well.

Useful wikihow page on how to turn on Siri

John Hodgson
Study Needs Assessor

TextHelp Read & Write Gold with Screenshot Reader grabbing references

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TextHelp Read and Write Gold

I have been using TextHelp Read and Write Gold with Screenshot Reader for many years and today it was brilliant as I needed to grab some references from a PowerPoint presentation that was online.  The references were inaccessible and I really did not want to copy them all out!  I highlighted the area around the references, grabbed the content and the Text Reader window appeared.  I selected the text that had virtually kept its correct layout – Copy all and paste (Ctrl+A  and Ctrl+ V) they were added to the blog I was writing and I was able to acknowledge the original authors of the presentation and have an accessible version of their references!  See the result on our Arabic Symbol Dictionary blog!

I should add this can be achieved with any screen grab and text conversion program and programs such as ClaroRead

E.A. – Researcher – University of Southampton.

Using Wikipedia with the OpenDyslexic font option

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OpenDyslexic font

I found the option to change the fonts on Wikipedia to the OpenDyslexic font that can help with readability.  You will find there is a cog wheel by the Language menu in Wikipedia and this is where you can choose to change the look of the fonts.

The letters are more defined at the base which means they can not be easily switched to represent another letter or cause a confusion between letters as can occur with some types of dyslexia.

Computer Science Student  – University of Southampton.

Babelbar for reading aloud and changing the look of Facebook, Twitter and Google docs

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“Babelbar works with Facebook, Twitter and Google docs.  It is useful if you do not have your own text to speech program.”

babelbar

 

google docs

Babelbar is an extension or add-on for internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari and appears over the web page.  You need to highlight the text first then it will speak.  It can change the colour background, font size and translate text.

 

 

 

Attendee at Accessing the Higher Ground Conference

AudioNote for iPad & iPhone

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AudioNote screen grabsAudioNote is a fantastic note taking app. The official description from the app store tells you how you can synchronise notes and audio with each key point being linked to the moment when the lecturer talks about that subject.  Because it works on a tablet or phone there is no need to wait for the laptop to boot up.

Bookmarks can be created throughout the audio recording to highlight important points for easy referencing.  It allows you to take pictures and insert them into your notes and AudioNotes can be exported to Evernote, saved and organised there. A yellow background can be used instead of white for those with visual stress/sensitivity. It costs £2.99 and is available from the iTunes store.

This YouTube video is a good introduction to AudioNote

This comes with thanks to the Disability Advisory Service at Imperial College

Using CalenGoo for sending reminders via text and email

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I have an Orange / T-mobile account on my iPhone and with CalenGoo syncing with my Google calendar I can set up SMS reminders as well as email or pop up ones.  The app costs £4.99 but allows for so many more options compared to the built in calendar on the iPhone including the chance to sync with multiple calendars. This means calendars can be set up for special projects.  Colour coding and large fonts with zoom make it a calendar that is easy to read even on a small screen. Lots of online support is provided by the developers

CalenGoo is also available for Android phones and costs £4.63

YouTube Video showing the app on an Android.