Assistive software tools for secondary-level students with literacy difficulties.

Study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of four assistive technology (AT) tools on literacy: (1) speech synthesis, (2) spellchecker, (3) homophone tool, and (4) dictionary. All four of these programs are featured in TextHelp’s Read&Write Gold software package. A total of 93 secondary-level students with reading disabilities participated in the study. The participants completed a number of computer-based literacy tests after being assigned to a Read&Write group or a control group that utilized Microsoft Word. The results indicated that improvements in the following areas for the Read&Write group: (1) reading comprehension, (2) homophone error detection, (3) spelling error detection, and (4) word meanings. The Microsoft Word group also improved in the areas of word meanings and error detection, though performed worse on homophone error detection. The authors contend that these results indicate that speech synthesis, spell checkers, homophone tools, and dictionary programs have a positive effect on literacy among students with reading disabilities. This study was conducted by researchers at the Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland.

Proofreading Using an Assistive Software Homophone Tool Compensatory and Remedial Effects on the Literacy Skills of Students With Reading Difficulties

The present study investigated the effects of using an assistive software homophone tool on the assisted proofreading performance and unassisted basic skills of secondary-level students with reading difficulties. Students aged 13 to 15 years proofread passages for homophonic errors under three conditions: with the homophone tool, with homophones highlighted only, or with no help. The group using the homophone tool significantly outperformed the other two groups on assisted proofreading and outperformed the others on unassisted spelling, although not significantly. Remedial (unassisted) improvements in automaticity of word recognition, homophone proofreading, and basic reading were found over all groups. Results elucidate the differential contributions of each function of the homophone tool and suggest that with the proper training, assistive software can help not only students with diagnosed disabilities but also those with generally weak reading skills.

Towards a Mobile Assistive Technology for Monitoring and Assessing Cognitive Fatigue in Individuals with Acquired Brain Injury

Those living with an acquired brain injury often have issues with fatigue due to factors resulting from the injury. Cognitive impairments such as lack of memory, concentration and planning have a great impact on an individual’s ability to carry out general everyday tasks, which subsequently has the effect of inducing cognitive fatigue. Moreover, there is difficulty in assessing cognitive fatigue, as there are no real biological markers that can be measured. Rather, it is a very subjective effect that can only be diagnosed by the individual. Consequently, the traditional way of assessing cognitive fatigue is to use a self-assessment questionnaire that is able to determine contributing factors. State of the art methods to evaluate cognitive! fa tigue employ cognitive tests in order to analyse performance on predefined tasks. However, one primary issue with such tests is that they are typically carried out in a clinical environment, therefore do not have the ability to be utilized in situ within everyday life. This paper presents a smartphone application for the evaluation of fatigue, which can be used daily to track cognitive performance in order to assess the influence of fatigue.

A Novel Multimodal Interface for Improving Visually Impaired People's Web Accessibility

This paper introduces a novel interface designed to help blind and visually impaired people to explore and navigate on the Web. In contrast to traditionally used assistive tools, such as screen readers and magnifiers, the new interface employs a combination of both audio and haptic features to provide spatial and navigational information to users. The haptic features are presented via a low-cost force feedback mouse allowing blind people to interact with the Web, in a similar fashion to their sighted counterparts. The audio provides navigational and textual information through the use of non-speech sounds and synthesised speech. Interacting with the multimodal interface offers a novel experience to target users, especially to those with total blindness. A series of experiments have been conducted to ascertain the usability of the interface and compare its performance to that of a traditional screen reader. Results have shown the advantages that the new multimodal interface offers blind and visually impaired people. This includes the enhanced perception of the spatial layout of Web pages, and navigation towards elements on a page. Certain issues regarding the design of the haptic and audio features raised in the evaluation are discussed and presented in terms of recommendations for future work.