Looking for Apps for College Students with Disabilities?

Do you work with students transitioning to high school or post secondary education?

Here are a few helpful lists of recommended apps that can support students with a disability that are transitioning to high school or college for you to check out:

University of New Hampshire’s Disability Services: http://unh.edu/disabilityservices/ipod-ipad-and-android-apps-college-students
inov8 Educational Consulting Services: http://www.inov8-ed.com/2011/07/theres-a-special-app-for-that-part-9-apps-for-college-university-students-with-learning-disabilities/

Here are some additional apps I would suggest for both high school and post secondary students with disabilities:

Dropbox app – free app for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android providing Cloud storage space for documents, text, images, videos, audio (MP3 and other formats). This free services allows a method of transferring and storing documents and media for printing or easy transferring or sharing between devices or computers. Dropbox app allows you to create folders for organization by subject, by apps that synchronize to the service or for sharing documents and media with others. Many apps provide methods of of transferring directly to Dropbox for ease of use.

PaperPort Notes App – Free for iPad only. Nuance’s notebook app that provides Dragon Dictation along with note taking tools. Highlighting, importing PDF’s, drawing/writing, recording audio notes in a notebook environment allows many possibilities for students.

Merriam Webster Dictionary app – Free for iPad and iPhone/iPod, this dictionary provides voice search for a dictionary word.with Wi-Fi connectivity. Also available for Android.

Read2Go – (19.99) iPhone/iPod and iPad app from Bookshare’s providing text to speech abilities for individuals using Bookshare’s accessible instructional books and textbooks.

Prizmo App – (9.99) for iPhone/iPod, iPad – This scanning app has improved significantly since first developed with great added features that makes it a great choice for individuals with print disability. Prizmo provides choice of the type of text you will be scanning (business card, text, bill, whiteboard or importing an existing document). Once the image has been gathered additional tools such as cropping the image, changing perspective, rotating images are provided. After cropping the image and OCR process performed editing the text is possible. The final product can then be read aloud, sent, copied, translated, sent to Dropbox, Evernote or iCloud. As always, scanned text is dependent on the quality of the original text, size, lighting and camera quality. Prizmo has continually improved and I have heard low vision users prefer this app over ZoomReader app.

VoCal App – Free lite/5.99 for full version. App for iPhone/iPod, iPad that allows creating calendar and voice reminders from recorded memos. Provides ability to select reminder for scheduled time, 5 or 10 minutes or hours before. The VoCal XL version integrates with iPhone/iPad calendar and Notification and Badges on your iDevice. Easy method of creating reminders for events and schedules.

Of course there are many more but the above links and the added apps listed provide a good start for apps that can support secondary and post secondary students!

Add them to your OT iTool Kit or your students iDevice tools!

Carol

About Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

OTR/L with more than 35 years experience in pediatrics, school based therapy and adult rehabilitation. Masters of Science in Adaptive Education/Assistive Technology with 20 years experience in AT in education of elementary, middle school, secondary, post secondary students and work environments for adult clients. A RESNA Assistive Technology Practitioner with ACVREP CATIS credentials, AOTA Specialty Certification in Low Vision, USC Davis Executive Certificate in Home Modifications, servicing adults and students with disabilities in employment, education, and home environments. A 2020 graduate of the University of Alabama Birmingham Low Vision Certification Program.

View all posts by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS →

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

This entry was posted in App Reviews, Apps for Special Needs, High School, Post secondary, Special Needs and tagged App Review, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Learning Disability, occupational therapy, special needs students. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Looking for Apps for College Students with Disabilities?

bill speed says:

November 28, 2012 at 12:32 am

aloha carol,
my high school pre-engineering student teams have two student clients, that after some communication with client and ‘skills trainer’. that would benefit from a tablets operational style, portability and potential for applications beneficial to handicapped.

i would appreciate it if i could have my students contact you directly, regarding a decision to obtain tablets and relevant apps,

all the best,
bill speed, teacher
waipahu high
academy of engineering

- Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, AdEd, OTR/L, ATP says:
  
  November 28, 2012 at 10:26 pm
  
  Mr. Speed,
  I would be happy to try to address any questions your students might have with hopes I can be of help. There are so many options out there pending the field the students are in that it can be difficult with curriculum specific apps! I can be reached at otswithapps@gmail.com if interested. I am honored that you visited the blog!
  
  Carol
  OT’s with Apps