Interview on No Limits 2 Learning Live

Pardon me, but its time for a little self promotion.

On Wednesday, I was interviewed by my friend Lon Thornburg
On his
No Limits 2 Learning Live
BlogCastRadio program If you enter on the link above, the webcast will stream, but there is also an option to download the program if you prefer to listen to it later.)

On this program, Lon asks me about a variety of issues from personal adjustment to blindness to what it takes for a blind student to prepare for college. I get to discuss some of the issues most important to me, most particularly planning, self advocacy, and accessible texts.

I first met Lon through a comment left here on the Access Ability blog and we’ve gotten to know each other through email correspondence since then, but this is the first time we’ve actually talked to one another. I hope its not the last! Lon is a well qualified assistive technology expert in Oregon whose passion for helping shines through in everything he does. I’m truly proud to call him my friend.

Be sure to keep up with Lon's regular writings and reflections on his
No Limits 2 Learning
Blog. He writes on a variety of assistive technology matters and ties in some of the most important and compelling aspects of working with students.

Ghotit offers free tool for students with dyslexia

Get it? Ghotit? Good!

The
Ghotit
software is a free application, which is web-based for now, and may be useful for students with dyslexia or related disabilities.

Ghotit offers unique writing and reading online services for people who suffer from dyslexia, dysgraphia or people who are not native-English speakers.

The program appears to be a souped-up spellchecker. The designers are continuing to implement advances under the hood to make the application more robust. Recent additions to the features of this browser-based application include compatibility with Apple’s Safari 3.1 browser and text-to-Speech service. (At this time, the TTS is only availble using the Internet Explorer browser.)

And,
A Ghotit plug-in version,
is coming soon which will let the tool run within the application the student is using, instead of requiring a browser window to be open as well. According to information he’s received from the developer, Lon Thornburg reports that this version will be free as well. (See Lon’s post for more information on how to obtain this future version at no cost.)

No Limits to Life blog and Assistive Technology carnival

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

I guess it can be called information overload. I get a little overwhelmed, read a good number of some good articles and posts and, with all good intentions, bookmark them to come back later and write about them. Then, sometimes, things happen in my non-blog life, distracting me and I get a little slow in getting the post written.

This time, my hesitation has led to me being trumped.

For over a week now, I’ve had Lon Thornburg’s
No Limits to Life
Blog bookmarked, planning to write a post here about this smartly written assistive technology resource.

After leaving a comment on one of Lon’s posts last week, he checked out Access Ability and has written a very complimentary post about my humble blog. Thanks, Lon. (He also sent me an equally complimentary email about Access Ability.)

Despite looking like a tit for tat exchange, I’m still going to rave about No Limits to Life, though. This is one of the most intelligent and realistic perspectives I’ve seen presented on using assistive technology. I feel this is a great sister site that anybody who reads Access Ability would find of interest. The issues and concerns shared on it are timely and of interest to those in the postsecondary disability services field, as well as anybody with an interest in disabilities and assistive technology.

As an extra topping on this sweet dessert, Lon has also begun the
Assistive Technology Carnival.
If you’re wanting to familiarize yourself with the carnival style presentation of ideas, do check out this site.

The way the carnival works is that different bloggers write posts related to the proposed theme by the deadline and the host site writes a brief piece, linking to each of them. Last month’s theme on the initial round was “How you use assistive technology.” I had just read that round of the carnival when the deadline had passed, so I missed out on that one.

This month’s theme is “My favorite post” and the only restriction is that it must be related to assistive technology. The deadline for inclusion is Friday, April 25, 2008.

Like the blog says, “Any level of user is welcome. This is not just for experts.” So, if you are so inclined, submit your favorite blog post (or link to it)by email to
lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

Alternatively, you can also submit your post directly to the blog carnival site at
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_3810.html

I’ve also added both the No Limits to Life blog and the AT Carnival blog on my blogroll for future reference.

I’ll see you at the carnival!