New Education Features in iOS 9.3 Open Many New Doors

Have you seen the new iOS 9.3 features for education?  You can read about them here on the Apple Education Preview site. I had been hearing rumors of this and Apple has been publicly sharing about some of these great features, but they’re finally here. These are some of the key new features of the 9.3 update: Shared iPad for students “Students can log in to any iPad in any classroom and make it their own.”  This is terrific …

The SETT Framework

At the Universal Design Lab, we absolutely love the work of Dr. Joy Zabala. Specifically, we have been working very hard using her Student, Environment, Tasks, and Tools (SETT) Framework.

Working with Graduate Students

It is terrific working with graduate students. Currently, we are working with a really excellent group focused on a diverse set of projects including AAC intervention, Functional Communication Training, Universal Design for Learning, emotion regulation, and simulation experiences in education. It is quite rewarding to see them working so hard and we are all learning so much. A few weeks ago, I met with a really smart designer who shared with me about how he …

AAC Bootcamp

Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at the AAC Bootcamp, put on by Central Oregon Disability Support Network and Adler’s Voice through a generous grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust and the Collins Foundation. During this four hour presentation, I get the privilege of being the first speaker in this two day sequence. Some of the other speakers include Lauren Enders, Claire Powell, Bethany Stanley, Robin Shobe, and Lucas Steuber. If you’d like to attend, I believe …

UEB PREP Framework and Logo

One of the exciting interdisciplinary projects we are working on at the Universal Design Lab is UEB PREP. This five year federally funded project is focused on helping people learn Unified English Braille (UEB). We are so enthusiastic about this project. In 2016, the braille code has been updated to the Unified English Braille code, and an estimated 286,000 working-age braille users, and the thousands of professionals who provide service and training to people who …

Model, Encourage, Respond (MODELER), built on the shoulders of giants

About ten years ago or so, I had a conversation with Patty Cassidy and Dale Gardner-Fox, instructors in my Master’s degree in Assistive Technology at Simmmons College in Boston, where they shared that they were giving a presentation with Nancy Hogan about aided language stimulation. If I remember it correctly, they were really quite enthused about the practices they were teaching about and were talking with participants after asking if they were familiar with the …