Ideas for using the software

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Others ideas

Ideas for using the Sense Factory software

Name of the contributor: Chris Fox
ICT Project Officer, Sense West
Email Chris Fox

At the Sense UK Online Centre in Birmingham we have been using the above software to provide a basic cause and effect programme with sound and pictures.

The deafblind person touches a touchscreen monitor and a picture and a sound appears. This helps to motivate the deafblind person to touch the monitor, especially, if the deafblind person has not used a computer before.

We have a number of deafblind people who use Sense Factory in order to access movie files of cars and truck racing. We have used it with one individual who is crazy about planes and have downloaded some video of aircraft flying at an aerobatics event.

Other ideas for the software are to enable deafblind people to understand the process of going to places that they have not been before or do not like such as (doctors) or (dentist), ouch.

We would use the software to make a video or photographic sequence designed to take them from when they first wake up in the morning to whatever or whoever they had planned to see that day. Thus, we can reinforce the notion of the "trip" to the dentist etc., as a normal part of their lives.

We can also use Sense Factory to improve the deafblind person's understanding of "how to" tie a shoe lace or open a can of baked beans in easy to see steps. It is this sort of breakdown of tasks that is very important to teach the deafblind person to become independent.

Ideas for using the EdWord software

Name of the contributor: Chris Fox
ICT Project Officer
Email Chris Fox

We have used this software with people with just a visual impairment and have had good feedback from those who have used it.

The main thing to remember about EdWord is that it is a very simple wordprocessor which is often all that anyone needs, especially if they have only recently lost their sight or are new to computing. This software is therefore useful to help the person gain confidence. The speech, colour and font changes are all useful and provide the basics for wordprocessing.

Ideas for using the EdWord software

Name of the contributor: Carl Mitchell
Deafblind Advocate
Email Carl Mitchell

I set up Edword on an old laptop for a deafblind man to use it as a communicator.

Edword was the only package he was going to use on the laptop, so I wanted to get it to autoload EdWord and have an easy shutdown.

I used www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml to load an application on startup.

So this loaded to the login screen on EdWord.

EdWord could do with an autologin option. Also to be able to move the users up and down in the list.

I also changed the desktop on the laptop so it was white on black. Edword couldn't cope with this because it is not possible to change the menu font colours on Edword. Resulting in black text on a black background - not very useful!

I used the program www.hotkeymaster.com to make a hotkey to autologgoff and shutdown the computer with the press of the escape key.

These programs worked well, making the laptop much more accessible.

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