Category Archives: Field Trips

SCULPT for Accessibility

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SCULPT process thanks to Digital Worcester – Download the PDF infographic

Helen Wilson has very kindly shared her link to SCULPT for Accessibility. Usually we receive strategies that relate to student’s work, but in this case, this is a set of resources that aim “to build awareness for the six basics to remember when creating accessible documents aimed at the wider workforce in a local authority or teachers creating learning resources.”

It seemed at this time whilst everything was going online due to COVID-19 this was the moment to headline the need to make sure all our work is based on the principles of accessibility, usability and inclusion. JISC has provided a new set of guidelines relating to public service body regulations and providing online learning materials. Abilitynet are also offering useful links with more advice for those in Further and Higher Education

Visolve for checking colours and

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Visolve showing colours of a logoThe Visolve webpage or download allows you to check to see if colours are sufficiently distinguishable from each other.  This can help those with  colour vision deficiency or colour blindness.  You can upload an image and it will provide you with the original view and other selected options such as Red-Green transform, Blue-Yellow transform, Saturation increase, Red, Yellow, Green or Blue filter and with added hatching.

Visolve is also available as an app for iPhones or on Windows and Mac.desktop computers.

This strategy is linked to Alexander studying for a distance learning MBA

Free Apps to assist with colour deficiency issues in a pharmacy lab, with graphs and dissection

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Here are some useful, free applications I came across for a needs assessment I have just completed.

colour blind assistantColorblind Assistant –  PC – Hover mouse over pixel in any running application – Excel/Powerpoint/PDF/Word etc, and the program displays the colours name.

“Colorblind Assistant is free software that instantly picks the color from the mouse pointer, providing you with a written name of the color, as well as other useful data such as RGB values and bar graphs, brightness and saturation.” It is available as an Android app on Google Play.

color ID appColor ID Free – iPhone and Android – Point phone or tablet device at any object and software displays name of currently viewed colour.

“Color Identifier uses the camera on your iPhone or iPod touch to speak the names of colors in real-time. It’s an Augmented Reality app for discovering the names of the colors around you!”

My student was a Pharmacology student who was having difficulty with graphs, lab equipment, dissection. Tested the phone app with various items I had around, and it was very good. As it is on a portable device, it is ideal for lab/field work.

 

Tim Symons | Training Co-ordinator/Needs Assessor/AT Trainer | Access SUMMIT

overTHERE iPhone app for locating places in your locality.

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screengrab of overthere appThe free overTHERE iPhone app has been called a ‘game changer’ by Stuart Ball as it allows places to be located via their signs by holding the phone in a horizontal manner.  You can then simply turn around on the spot and listen as businesses/shops are brought to your attention.  It also tells you how far away they are from where you are standing. According to the app developer it is an “accessibility app that helps blind individuals explore and interact with the surrounding environment by using virtual audible signs.”

 

“When the phone is held vertically you can use the screen or VoiceOver to review the list of signs around you. By selecting a sign from the list you can access details about a location such as its address, phone number, or web site.”

The app grew out of Smith-Kettlewell’s Virtual Talking Signs Project.

Stuart Ball is an Assessor at the Cardiff Metropolitan University and we really love getting news about strategies that really work.  Thank you so much

Braci PRO provides visual and vibrating alerts for sounds in the environment

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This is an app that works on the iPhone or Android and could be a life saver or just a better reminder than the alarms you set up.  If you have a hearing impairment or need an alert this app will turn your smart phone into a device that provides visual signals, vibration and/or flashing light when well known sounds are heard via the microphone or an alarm, door bell or other sounds around the house and local surroundings.  It can help when on field trips or in a lab / lecture theatre etc when the fire alarm goes off.

According to Braci Smartear it is a ‘sound recognition platform’ with a “Wide range of detectable sounds – The application can pick up and notify you to many different types of sounds which revolve around your safety, security and comfort. These sounds can be found as:
a- Pre-installed within the application (Smoke alarms, and Carbon monoxide alarms)
b- Customizable to your specific sounds ( Doorbells, alarms, intercoms, and much more)
c- Compatible alert products such as Bellman and Geemarc products.”

A YouTube video about how to use Braci Pro

This comes thanks to David Banes

Free Microsoft Office Lens speeds productivity

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phone Office lens

Taking an photo of the screen

Office lens is a free app available on an iPhone, Android and Window smartphone  that links to One Drive accounts and allows you to take photographs and put them straight into Microsoft Office applications. The really good thing about Office Lens is that when I take a picture of a presentation or whiteboard I can make sure it is exactly the right shape and is straight not set at an angle using the outline on the screen by selecting the document or whiteboard menu item.

image alignment for OCR

Making sure the image is straight for OCR

That is really important if you are taking photos of text that you want to have read aloud later.  If they appear out of focus or at an odd angle you will not be able to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR), to have the image converted to text so you can use a text to speech or screen reader application later on.  Once you have taken your photo you choose which application you want to send it to and if this is Microsoft Word it will extract the text.  The other options are your photos on the phone, OneNote, OneDrive, PowerPoint and Outlook or your phone mail if you want to send it as an email attachment.  The app will also save it as a PDF.

ready for export

Ready for exporting

The best thing I like about Office Lens is how it is linked to OneNote because I can collect all the images, notes and presentations, even photos of handwritten notes straight into my Notes folder and then I can search for them at any time,  as  I really have trouble remembering what I have heard in lectures etc and this process acts as a back up .

Getting started with Microsoft Office Lens from cnet

Abi James – Researcher University of Southampton.