Serendipity, get your OATS

Every once in awhile, I run across something that makes me smack my forehead and say, “Why didn’t I know about this before?!” Today was one of those days. I was cruising through the Net, looking for tools to include in my Technology for Learning class, when the skies opened, the sun shone, and a voice from my computer said, “Open Source Assistive Technology Software. OATS. Find it and you will be satisfied.”

Ok, that’s not quite the way it happened. Here’s how it really went down.

Reading through Ron Graham’s Access Ability blog (using my new friend, Google Reader), I learned about Ohio State’s initiative to put free assistive technology in their students’ hands. A Very Cool Project, I might add, and yes, I wish I’d thought of it first. Several of the open source apps they included looked like they had potential for my class, so I went cruising through the list.

Aha! Hidden away in their list was a program called T-Bar. The description was intriguing, so I went Googling for it and ended up at OATS. (T-Bar is no more, looks like, but the same developer did have one called Vu-Bar that performs what I was looking for. Dyslexics, check it out!) Oh my… an entire site of open source AT apps. That means FREE, for those who aren’t familiar with the concept of open source.

I should just go home now. I think I’ve earned my paycheck today - all by reading blogs and following the serendipity trail. Woohoo!

Insomnia has its benefits - Google Reader & LifeHacker

For some reason, the hours between 3 and 5:30 seem to be a difficult time for me to actually stay asleep. But that’s good news, blog readers, because last night I had a wonderful time prancing around the ‘Net and found great blog fodder!

Some of you may have already found Google Reader, another of the ever-growing number of free applications provided by the advertising geniuses at Google. Google Reader is an RSS feed, which brings updates from websites directly to your desktop (or browser, as in this case). Think of it a bit like a running stock ticker for news, exciting blog entries, or anything else on which you want to keep up to date. Ho-hum, not really blog-worthy news, right?

Well, think again. Google has just announced that its Reader feed is accessible to screen readers! This is news, because most dynamic (constantly updating) content on the web is not screen-reader friendly. Granted, there are limitations… it’s currently only accessible to Firevox, the self-voicing extension for Firefox, and Firefox 3, which is still in beta. However, this is a step in the right direction, making dynamic content usable to people with print disabilities.

The other place I spent a lot of time last night (or morning?) was on LifeHacker. Ok, any site that easily steals an hour from you without you knowing it doesn’t really qualify as saving you time… but in my defense, I was catching up on stuff posted there that had long passed me by! While LifeHacker isn’t really assistive technology per se, I did find a large number of items that would be of especial interest to those with learning disabilities or ADD. Particularly interesting were the items in the “Mind Hacks” category… all kinds of ways you can train your brain to work more efficiently.