Two More Apps to Enhance Access for Individuals with Hearing and Vision Impairments

By: Chelsea Emery, EC-SEAT Scholar

Children with hearing and vision impairments have many barriers in the classroom and accessing learning materials that other students may use. Barriers to access could be children left out of activities because of their disability, misunderstanding, not learning specific content because it was inaccessible to them. But now with the iPad we have apps that better accommodate children’s needs in and out of the classroom despite their disabilities. Many apps support exceptionalities that enhance children's learning and provide:

• Access to academic information for individuals with hearing impairments by adjusting the sound levels and using embedded utilities such as VoiceOver. 

• Written directions and picture visuals to support understanding of academic information. 

Two apps to consider:

Photo Translator: This first app is for vision impairment. It allows individuals to identify specific objects. This app overcomes the barrier of not being sure what an object is. For example if it is a can of food an individual who is unable to see what kind of food it is could use Photo Translator to take a photo of the object and hear its name read out loud to them. This is especially useful for people who are visually impaired and may be alone or not with someone else to support them with their vision in every moment of everyday life.

Signed Stories is an app for individuals with hearing impairments. The books shared through the app are read aloud and signed. This app is appropriate for children with hearing impairments because they can read the story, watch the signs of the story, or listen to the story with the headphones specifically adjusted to their ears. The stories shared on the app are appropriate for elementary aged children. The app's settings page allows you to enhance the font, color, size, and type of sign language. There are multiple books you can order which vary in level and introduce new vocabulary, longer words and varied sentence structure. The book they give you for free is Billy’s Goat Gruff.