Articles

Acquiring vocabulary is an essential part of every person’s early academic life. Remembering and using words in context is basic to use language to communicate and many students with language and/or learning disabilities find it especially difficult.

Teaching to these students has to be supported with assistive technologies that, fortunately, are available today in many forms and ways.

Teachers that work in inclusive classroom settings will benefit greatly from their use.

Some people with cerebral palsy have speech problems. They are not able to speak due to muscle spasms in the throat, mouth and tongue.

For them, there are in the market a number of solutions in the form of communication devices that can help them communicate. Or improve their communication skills. These devices allow the users to communicate in different ways, specialized to their needs.

In this article we make a summary of the main types of communication devices for cerebral palsy patients that can be found and used today.

What is the best smartphone for a person with disabilities? There is no definite answer to this question and probably there is a different one for every single person. There are many aspects that might influence the decision.

In this article, we will focus on these three:

• Type of disability
• Previous experience
• Budget

People who suffer from quadriplegia face a number of difficulties in their day-to-day activities that, without help, make their lives a continuous struggle to get done even the simplest of things.

Nevertheless, in our days we can find a vast array of assistive devices that can ease these difficulties. In this article we aim to list some examples.

Disabled people are sometimes unable to use their own voice to communicate effectively through words and sentences as most people. One solution for many of them is to resort to some kind of speaking machines that supplement or replace their speech.

There are many options of speaking machines for disabled people right now on the market, with different ways of access, input, display, speech generation and types of device.

In this article we try to categorize them and give an overview of what is possible right now for different needs of people with different disabilities.

Tablets and smartphones have gradually displaced desktop computers in our daily tasks. They are powerful processors that accompany us wherever we go, and we can give them countless uses at any time. Now we are able to communicate, learn, work, play… anywhere; we carry a digital revolution in our pocket.

As with everybody else, tablets play a prominent role in the lives of disabled adults and children with different types of impairments: physical, cognitive, hearing, speaking and visual.

The history of personal computers is inevitably linked to input devices. At the beginning, in the seventies, there was the electronic keyboard, but soon many other ways to enter data in the computer followed. It was the eclosion of a myriad of input peripherals, gadgets specifically designed to aid the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

But, what about disabled computer users? Are these input devices suitable for them? As we will see, many of these devices have been designed with universal accessibility criteria in mind. Also, there exist many adapted devices specifically designed for persons with disabilities.

Mobile technology has changed our life in the last 10 years. Two thirds of the world population own a mobile phone and according to GSMA, there are now almost 9 billion mobile connections worldwide.

Tablets and smartphones have become a key element in our daily life. They have changed the way in which we communicate with friends and family and the way in which we perceive the world: messaging apps, social networks, online TV or GPS navigation are just a few examples of services that we cannot live without. Being connected anywhere anytime is part of our culture.

But the question remains: is this technology accessible to everyone?

Communication is something that most of us take for granted and language is the most important tool for communication and social exchange with other people. People with impaired language development can suffer severe consequences like isolation and reduced quality of life.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices (AAC devices) help to initiate communication, solidify it or lead it to alternative ways. These tools give speech or a means to communicate to people with disabilities. For them, Augmentative Alternative Communication makes a huge difference.

In this article we explore what AAC devices are, who can benefit from them, existing types and comprehensive lists of AAC devices, both dedicated and non-dedicated.