FOUR BLOG POST     ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY Assistive Technology includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices and services that help maintain a person's functioning and dependence.  Individuals use these devices and services to perform tasks they might not be able to do otherwise. Assistive technology enables people to live a healthy, productive, independent, and dignified life and participate productively in social life. Wheelchairs, prostheses, hearing aids, spectacles, screen readers, pill organizers, and memory aids are all assistive technologies. Assistive Technology is essential because it can transform a person’s life from a sad situation to a better quality of life.   When people have all the technology they need to function daily, they may only need a little help or dependence from other people.   Although a person might be limited in their daily activities, they can still be able to use the assistive device they need so that they can complete things on their

These are the gadgets that I added to my blog that connects with Serving Diverse Needs with Assistive Technology. This is useful for my blog because the reader, may be able to read and understand the illustrations that support the blog/story.  Sometimes when reading things a person may not understand unless they read with pictures and illustrations showing what the subject/topic is.  Mayada TC Leonard is my name.   The link to my blog and gadgets added to the blog is located at  https://palomarlitassistivetech.blogspot.com/2023/05/serving-diverse-needs-with-assistive.html Mayada TC Leonard

  Serving Diverse Needs with Assistive Technology The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to provide special education and related services to eligible students. For some children to be eligible for services, their school performance would be identified as “adversely affected” by a disability in one of the 13 categories listed below:   1.        Specific learning disability (SLD) Dyslexia Dyscalculia Dysgraphia) 2.       Other health impairment The “other health impairment” category covers conditions that limit a child’s strength, energy, or alertness, ADHD, which impacts attention and function. 3.       Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) 4.       Emotional disturbance 5.       Speech or language impairment 6.       Visual impairment, including blindness 7.       Deafness 8.       Hearing impairment 9.       Deaf-blindness 10.   Orthopedic impairment where a child or adult lacks function or ability in the body and impairm

  By: Jessica Stephens

Mobile technology is a part of our daily lives and becoming more a part of everyday life for everyone. This means that libraries need to make sure that there are formats and solutions for patrons to engage with the library on a mobile device. This could also mean that library workers should be knowledgeable about what technology solutions are available for patrons with accessibility needs. For example, Apple iphone has several tools that can help detect details about how far away something is and can read writing, there are also zoom options to create larger text (Apple, n.d.). For those who are deaf or hard of hearing, there's the option to have flash or vibrate options to receive notifications and further there are also live caption options available (Apple, n.d.). Further, Microsoft also has similar accessibility features to help. Some features are designed to help neurodiverse individuals stay more focused and organized, some tools are there to support mental health or mobility

Google books is a program that makes millions of books available that are either full books, previews of books, rare or out of print or sometimes just not available in a library (Google, n.d). Having access to Google Books is a great benefit to any person who is looking for something and is unable to succeed in the library. It means that someone with a disability can have access to millions of books on their own computer that may use software developed to help with their particular need. For example if an individual who is hard of hearing has a screen reader app.   Google Books can help people with disabilities in many ways. Google Books provides text-to-speech functionality that can read books aloud to users who have visual impairments or other disabilities that make it difficult to read. Additionally, Google Books provides search functionality that allows users to find books on specific topics or by specific authors. This can be especially helpful for people with disabilities who ma

 Jessica Stephens I added the gadget that gives readers the top posts of the year. This way popular posts will not overshadow the blog and degrade the integrity of the authors, but will ultimately bring more traffic to the blog. Readers are drawn to what others are reading, what's popular for whatever reason. By adding this gadget, popular posts will continue to get hits, ultimately giving the entire blog more recognition and jumping in the competition that is now dominated by algorithms. 

         By: Jessica Stephens

 Click on the menu to see a great video resource describing how you can gain access to assistive technologies at your library!

Libraries and the digital divide      The digital divide is not something unfamiliar to me. I experienced the hardship of little to no access to technology growing up in a lower socioeconomic class. Looking back I can remember the feeling of almost embarrassment when my classmates would talk about a show that could only be watched on disney channel. Having an old antenna powered tv that only captured a few channels at a time I couldn’t contribute to those cable tv show conversations.      The increase in the need for technology especially through the covid pandemic created a similar hardship for some families but I believe libraries have done an amazing job at bridging that gap. According to a study by the UN’s broadband commission for sustainable development in 2019 the numbers reflected that only about 53.6% of the global population has access to the internet. Luckily, federal policies and other agencies such as libraries across the world have made it a part of their mission to close