Dive Into iPads for Assistive Technology

Editor's Notes

• #9: Person – We need to look at the individual to know who the person is and background informationEnvironment – In what context are they going to need to accomplish their goals? Weneed to be aware of their environment that they would be working in or needing assistance.Tasks – What is the task or goal that they need to accomplish?One of the most important pieces to the puzzle, yet one we often lose sight of when we are working with people. Tools – What technology would help them overcome any barriers they may be having? Finding the best tool is the most difficult. At the core of any assistive technology accommodation we are trying to match the individual to the technology. We need to start with the person and their needs – then move to the technology tools. Often, people want to start with the technology and make it fit the person. This “round peg in a square hole” approach will not work and will lead to more technology abandonment.
• #16: To put the iPad to sleep, press the Sleep/Wake button. When you sleep the iPad, nothing happens if you touch the screen, but music continues playing and you can use the volume buttons.
• #18: This switch can either mute notifications and sound effects, OR to lock the iPad orientation.Lock the screen in portrait or landscape orientation: Choose General > Use the Side Switch..., then tap Lock Rotation.Mute notifications and other sound effects: Choose General > Use the Side Switch..., then tap Mute
• #20: This switch can either mute notifications and sound effects, OR to lock the iPad orientation.Lock the screen in portrait or landscape orientation: Choose General > Use the Side Switch..., then tap Lock Rotation.Mute notifications and other sound effects: Choose General > Use the Side Switch..., then tap Mute
• #21: Press the Home Button once to wake the iPad when asleep, or to go to the first Page of app icons if awake. Press it again to move to the Search Page.Press the Home Button twice to bring up the Multitasking status bar. Swipe to the right to see a list of recently open apps, or to the left to see the media/screen orientation bar.
• #24: Folders let you organize icons on the Home screen. You can put up to 20 icons in a folder.Rearrange folders by dragging them on the Home screen or by moving them to a new Home screen or to the Dock.To create a folder: touch and hold an icon until the Home screen icons begin to jiggle, then drag one icon onto another icon.The iPad creates a new folder that includes the two icons, and shows the folder’s name. You can tap the name field to enter a different name.
• #25: Folders let you organize icons on the Home screen. You can put up to 20 icons in a folder.Rearrange folders by dragging them on the Home screen or by moving them to a new Home screen or to the Dock.To create a folder: touch and hold an icon until the Home screen icons begin to jiggle, then drag one icon onto another icon.The iPad creates a new folder that includes the two icons, and shows the folder’s name. You can tap the name field to enter a different name.
• #43: Universal access features make iPad easy to use for people who have a vision impairment, are deaf or hard of hearing, or have a physical or learning disability. The accessibility features on iPad include: Support for playback of closed-captioned contentVoiceOver screen readerZoom magnificationWhite on Black Large TextMono Audio Speak Auto-text Support for braille displaysZoom, White on Black, and Mono Audio work with all apps. Large Text works with Mail and Notes. VoiceOver works with the built-in iPad apps, and with some third-party apps you can download from the App Store. Closed-captioning works with videos and podcasts that support it.
• #44: VoiceOver describes aloud what appears onscreen, so that you can use iPad without seeing it.VoiceOver tells you about each element on the screen as you select it. When you select an element, a black rectangle encloses it (for the benefit of those who can see the screen) and VoiceOver speaks the name or describes the item. The enclosing rectangle is referred to as the VoiceOver cursor.Touch the screen or drag your fingers to hear different items on the screen. To interact with items on the screen, such as buttons and links, use VoiceOver gestures. When you select text, VoiceOver reads the text. If you turn on Speak Hints, VoiceOver may tell you the name of the item. When you select a control (such as a button or switch), VoiceOver provides instructions for you— for example, “double-tap to open.”When you go to a new screen, VoiceOver plays a sound and automatically selects and speaks the first element of the screen (typically, the item in the upper-left corner). VoiceOver also lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked.
• #48: You can choose what kind of feedback you get when you type. You can set VoiceOver to speak characters, words, both, or nothing. If you choose to hear both characters and words, VoiceOver speaks each character as you type it, then speaks the whole word when you enter a space or punctuation.Choose typing feedback: In Settings, choose General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Typing Feedback. You can choose Characters, Words, Characters and Words, or Nothing for software keyboards and for Apple Wireless Keyboards.To use phonetics - In Settings, choose General > Accessibility > VoiceOver, then tap the Use Phonetics switch to turn it on.Use this feature when you type or read character-by-character, to help make clear which characters were spoken. When Use Phonetics is turned on, Voiceover first speaks the character, then speaks a word beginning with the character. For example, if you type the character “f,” VoiceOver speaks “f,” and then a moment later, “foxtrot.”To use pitch change - In Settings, choose General > Accessibility > VoiceOver, then tap the Use Pitch Change switch to turn it on.VoiceOver uses a higher pitch when entering a letter, and a lower pitch when deleting a letter. VoiceOver also uses a higher pitch when speaking the first item of a group (such as a list or table) and a lower pitch when speaking the last item of a group.
• #57: The onscreen keyboard appears automatically anytime you need to type. Use the keyboard to enter text, such as contact information, email, and web addresses. The keyboard corrects misspellings, predicts what you’re typing, and learns as you use it.1. When typing a line of text, tap the space bar on the keyboard twice and it will automatically insert a dot (full stop) followed by a space. The next letter that you type will be written in uppercase without you having to press the Shift key.2. To type special characters with accent marks (like the letter à or è), simply tap and hold the corresponding alphabet key and a sub-menu will pop-up. Slide your finger to the relevant accent mark then release.3. To insert the degree symbol in your text switch to the numeric keyboard and hold the ‘0’ key and then slide your finger to select from the sub-menu.4. The numeric keyboard shows the dollar ($) symbol by default.  If you need to type the Pound or the Euro currency symbol, just hold the $ key and you’ll see a list of alternative symbols in the submenu.5. When you are typing a website URL in the address bar of the Safari browser, there’s a “. com” key in the keyboard that you can tap to quickly complete the web address. Tap and hold will give you an option to choose other URLs, .edu, .org and .net.6. When typing an email address in the To: or CC /BCC field of the Mail program, tap and hold the dot (.) key and you’ll get a list of domain shortcuts in a sub-menu to auto-complete the email address.7. If you need to type, “wasn’t”, just forget the apostrophe and type “wasnt” – the keyboard will automatically insert the apostrophe at the appropriate place.8. To Enable Caps Lock , go to  Settings –> General –> Keyboard  –> Enable Caps lock.  Next time you type- double-tap the shift key to turn it into a Caps lock key. They will stay blue until you press one of them again.9. To simplify and limit your keystrokes when you need to jump between text and numbers on the keyboard, just press the .”?123” key, slide the finger to reach the “@” or ‘”3” key etc. and then lift the finger up to release the key. The keyboard will automatically return to text.
• #63: Tap the address field (in the title bar) to bring up the onscreen keyboard, type the web address, then tap Go. If the address field isn’t visible, tap the status bar at the top of the screen to quickly scroll up to the address field.As you type, web addresses that start with those letters appear. These are bookmarked pages or recent pages you’ve opened. Tap an address to go to that page. Keep typing if you want to enter a web address that’s not in the list.
• #66: If you would like to view the destination web address of the link before you tap it, just touch and hold the link, and a menu appears that displays the address at the top.