Because of the large amount of available free assistive technology for communication and augmentative communications devices, we have created a separate page on these technologies.

SENSwitcher is a suite of programs designed to help teach early ICT skills to people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, those who need to develop skills with assistive input devices and very young children new to computers.

The Head-Tracking Pointer provides an inexpensive and easily-used mouse replacement for those unable to use traditional pointing devices. Using only software and any Web-cam, this application allows users to point and click with character-level accuracy by simply aiming their face. Unlike other head-tracking solutions, the Head-Tracking Pointer does not require special-purpose hardware, head gear, or tracking aids, such as retro-reflective dots.

A BIG thank you for contributions to these assistive technology resources from my friend Bob in Winsted.

Calculators

Calculator Home Page for Windows high functioning calculator. Free download. Calculators - A Wide assortment of all types of calculators

Sensorysoftware
A large calculator for Windows. You can either on the buttons with the mouse or use the numeric keypad to perform calculations. The size of the calculator buttons is determined by the WIDTH of the calculator window.

calculator
This is a set of easy to read calculators that help develop math and science skills. It can be used with windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and PDA with Windowsce.

Collaboration

atutor
ACollab is a fully accessible, open source, multi-group, Web-based collaborative work environment. ACollab is available as a work groups addon for ATutor 1.4+ , and as a standalone collaborative work environment that will run on its own. ACollab is ideal for groups working at a distance developing documentation, collaborating on research, or writing joint papers, and ideal for online educators who wish to add group learning activities to their ATutor courses.

compendiuminstitute
Compendium provides a methodological framework, plus an evolving suite of tools, for collective sense-making and group memory. Validated in both small and large scale business projects, it is the result of over a decade's research and development at the intersection of collaborative modeling, organizational memory, computer-supported argumentation and meeting

atutor.ca
ACOMM is an accessible Java-based Instant Messaging and Whiteboard tool. It has been designed to allow assistive technology users to participate in synchronous Internet-based communication activities that have traditionally been inaccessible to them.

Coloring and drawing

TuxPaint newbreedsoftware
An easy to use paint program. It has auditory feedback. Uses both the keyboard and the mouse.

Cursors

Cursors may need to be enlarged or animated for better visibility. There are several sites on the Internet, here are a few:

Windows

Macintosh
tucows CursorAnimator lets you substitute five system cursors (arrow, watch, text, cross-hair and plus) with a static or animated cursor of your choice. If your Macintosh supports color, you can even get color cursors.

big-cursors
This software allows you to enlarge your cursor. Each of the enlarged cursors are the maximum of 32 by 32 pixels. It is windows based software.

joescursors
Collection of large and brightly animated cursors. This software is intended for non-profit use only. It is windows based software.

anicursor
There are many cursors types available at this site. Some of the cursors are freeware and some are shareware. Also there are instructions on how to create your own cursors. this is windows based software.

onlineconferencingsystems
Over 80 additional pointers and cursors for those with visual or perceptual difficulties. Icon styles include animated, colored, large, I-beams and circles.

Cursar control

alphaworks
The Head-Tracking Pointer provides an inexpensive and easily-used mouse replacement for those unable to use traditional pointing devices. Using only software and any Web-cam, this application allows users to point and click with character-level accuracy by simply aiming their face. Unlike other head-tracking solutions, the Head-Tracking Pointer does not require special-purpose hardware, head gear, or tracking aids, such as retro-reflective dots. Users train the system by tipping their head left and right. Custom-tracking algorithms provide reliable operation in a wide range of environmental conditions. Head motion is translated into pointer motion by custom filters that provide both high speed for long movements and high accuracy for fine control, without switching modes. All clicking variations are supported, including right clicking, double clicking, and click-and-drag.

Display

magnifiers
Intended to ease reading on a computer monitor by displaying text in large fonts in foreground an background colors of the user's choosing. Works with Microsoft's Text-to-Speech, reads web pages from the Internet and let you browse text-only.

E-Text / e-Books

(Electronic Text) free books and text online - Electronic text provides access to digital materials for students with learning, sensory and physical disabilities. The Internet provides many sites for gathering e-text. Here are some links to explore e-text further:
bartleby
childrenstory.com/tales/index.html
accessiblebookcollection

Google has a book search in their search engine now. Go to Google and then go to "More". Type in what you are looking for and voila! You just might find it.

sourceforge
AMIS is a software program that you can use to read DAISY books. AMIS is a multilingual player for reading books complying with DAISY standards. AMIS is free of charge, open source DAISY book playback software.

magickeys Illustrated and animated children's storybooks.

bookshare
A collection of digital books designed for use by people with disabilities. Many books can be downloaded for free and used with Kurzweil.

Ergonomics

Ergonomic office furniture and computer accessories since 1993 - ergostoreonline/

Gaming

arcess
These simple switch games are easy to play and are designed to be widely accessible for players who have Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Injury, Head Injury or other physical disabilities. They can be played as single switch games, speech recognition games, expanded keyboard games (Intellikeys, Unicorn Keyboard, Concept Keyboard, Mini Keyboards), assistive technology researchers and vendors

AFB
CCT Solitaire is a fully-accessible traditional solitaire game. Keyboard commands perform all functions. Sound effects are included. Crazy Darts is an online, audio-based game allows you to throw a dart at a moving target. When the game starts, sound come of either the right or left speaker and moves to the opposite speaker. When you believe the sound is directly in front of you, you press the spacebar to throw the dart.

danzgames
In this game, you choose how many sounds you would like to be a part of a pattern that you will remember. Then, you listen to a single sound, and try to remember it. If you're successful, a new sound is added and you must remember both sounds. This continues, and continues, until you cannot remember anymore and make a mistake.

danzgames
Maze Craze is a nice piece of freeware that enthusiasts of maze and puzzle games will enjoy. The game currently comes with eleven mazes for you to try to escape. Once you're finished with those, you can use the included, accessible, maze editor to create your own fully-featured mazes. Your mazes can include walls, doors, keys, and up to a 100x100 grid.

igda-gasig
Games play an important part in our culture and help add to our quality of life. The Game Accessibility SIG was formed to help the game community strive towards creating mainstream games that are universally accessible to all, regardless of disability. Through our work we hope to help bridge the knowledge gap about how to increase the accessibility of mainstream games that exists between disability groups and game developers and publishers.

UA-Chess is a fully-functional chess game, developed by the Centre for Universal Access of ICS-FORTH. UA-Chess can be played through a standard Web browser. Its distinctive characteristic is that it is designed to be Universally Accessible, i.e., it can be concurrently played by people with different abilities and preferences, including people with disabilities (e.g., low-vision, blind and hand-motor impaired).

adagame The ADA Game simulates how advocacy can promote positive changes in communities. Join in the discussions and work together to improve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in your community of choice in the areas of: Program Access, Public Accommodations, Transportation, Employment, and Communication.

yourchildlearns
Create your own model farm with silo, barn and chicken coop. Kids will choose crops and animals and what to grow to feed themselves and their animals. Kids set up their own streets, decide where to put different buildings, parks and shopping districts.

Graphics

freeology

kaptech
Picture Slide Show lets you continuously displays all the pictures in a folder.

gliffy Allows you to use diagramming in your web browser without downloading additional software. You can create many types ofdiagrams such as Flowcharts, wireframes, Floor plans, Network thagrams, UML diagrams, or any other simple drawing or diagram.

eduplace provides PDF files ofmany graphic organizers. With the hit ofa button they are available in Spanish also!

Alternative to Inspiration that is totally free. Doesn't have some ofthe supportive options that Inspiration has such as text to speech and wonderful graphics but the CmapTools program empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticize knowledge models represented as concept maps.

inspiration has full-feature demos oftheir graphic organizer programs.

Joystick

tucows.com/preview/292788
Turns a joystick into a mouse. It works on Windows 98/NT/2K/ME/XP.

Keyboarding

DanceMat typing tutor

inference
Kavlon 10-key keyboarding wordlist database is a utility to re-map a small set of keys to a larger set of keys and to use that mapping to allowing fast entry of words. Click-N-Type is an on-screen virtual keyboard designed for anyone with a disability that prevents him or her from typing on a physical computer keyboard. As long as the person can control a mouse, trackball or other pointing device, he or she can send keystrokes to virtually any Windows application or DOS application that can run within a window. Click-N-Type is a 32-bit application that requires Windows 95 or later. Freeware lakefolks

KeyStrokes assistiveware for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X is a filly- functional advanced virtual on-screen keyboard that allows you to type with a mouse, trackball, head pointer or other mouse emulator to type characters into any standard Macintosh application. Demo version available.

autohotkey
AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows. With it, you can: Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey. Expand abbreviations as you type them.

lakefolks
Click-N-Type is an on-screen virtual keyboard designed for anyone who needs help using a physical keyboard with special consideration for the severely handicapped. Full featured virtual keyboard, Word prediction and completion, Fully configurable including macros, AutoClick and Scanning Modes.

polital
CNTDesigner is a keyboard layout designer designed to work in conjunction with Click-N-Type V3+ by Lake Software. The combination of CNTDesigner and Click-N-Type will give the user complete freedom to design their own keyboards, controlling size and placement of all keys as well as the overall size of the keyboard. If none of the standard keyboards provided by Click-N-Type suit your fancy, and the Custom Alphabet just doesn't have enough flexibility to meet your creative needs, then the keyboard designer CNTDesigner is the add-on you use to design your own keyboard layout.

eventcorder
Eventcorder records and plays back Windows events. With Eventcorder, a sequence of keystrokes and mouse-clicks can be implemented at the touch of a single button.

sourceforge
KMagnifier (or kmag, its unix name) is a small utility for Linux to magnify a part of the screen. It was initially written for KDE 1, before becoming dormant. The development was then picked up by me and KMagnifier got its new life. It is currently being maintained/developed actively. KMagnifier is very useful for people with visual disabilities and for those working in the fields of image analysis, web development etc.

shortkeys
Shortkeys Lite allows you to set up replacement text or paragraphs for any given number of user defined keystrokes. If you type a few characters, ShortKeys Lite will replace them with up to 3000 characters. If you find typing difficult then Shortkeys will make it more automatic.

Gok project aims to enable users to control their computer without having to rely on a standard keyboard or mouse. Many individuals must control the computer using alternative input methods. Using innovative dynamic keyboard strategies, and leveraging gnome 2's built-in accessibility framework, the gok will make control more efficient and enable use of the gnome 2 desktop. With the right hardware support and the gok individuals will have full access to applications that support the AT SPI, and therefore, full access to the functionality these applications provide.

GTKeyboard is an application written in C with the aid of the Gimp Toolkit. It is intended to help users with physical disabilities to enter text into a simple editor, as well as to help them use other X11 applications that require keyboard input. GTKeyboard allows the user to press keys on an onscreen keyboard that will either be entered into a simple text editor that GTKeyboard provides, or into the application of choice that the user specifies by clicking on the window. It has also been used by people who have strange keyboard layouts, and by people who for one reason or another cannot use a keyboard with the machine in question.

camiweb
ZenKEY is comprised of a series of menus, each containing items which perform "actions". You can "fire" these actions by clicking on the item, or pressing any key-combination you choose.

Magnification

Magnification for the computer, including freeware/shareware and reviews of commercial products. magnifiers

ancientsoft
EzMagnifier is a small utility to magnify a portion of the screen where you can choose the zooming factor and you can resize the magnified portion itself to suite your needs. You can capture the image of the magnified area and the program saves it in the same folder of the program and you can save multiple captures as the program save them sequentially.

Another Lens displays a magnified view of the area of the mouse cursor. Quite handy, for example, for drawing software. The window contents can be locked, and saved to a file or copied to the clipboard for taking screenshots. Several additional options, like crosshairs, resizing the window and hiding the caption bar and/or main menu. Stays on top of other windows optionally.

magnifier
Virtual Magnifying Glass is an easy-to-use screen magnification tool for Windows.

theabsolute
This software allows you to magnify portions of your computer screen up to fifteen times the normal magnification. The program includes a special interpolation routine to maintain details when magnifying, as well as the ability to magnify the mouse cursor.

digitalmantra
Fatbits magnifies an area of the screen and paints the giant pixels into a new window, which may be useful if you have a visual impairment. To make the screen even more accessible, you can modify the colours it displays.

softlookup
Super Magnify allows you to magnify portions of your screen up to 15 times. The program includes a special interpolation routine to maintain details when magnifying, as well as the ability to magnify the mouse cursor. In addition, Super Magnify displays your (x, y) pixel coordinates on the screen, and the RGB values corresponding to the cursor's position.

magnifiers
Intended to ease reading on a computer monitor by displaying text in large fonts in foreground an background colors of the user's choosing. Works with Microsoft's Text-to-Speech, reads web pages from the Internet and let you browse text-only.

Maps

yourchildlearns
Helps students learn about the United States and World geography. Following is a list of the interactive maps that teach about continents, countries, states, capitals, boarders, physical features and cultural movements.

yourchildlearns
Walk an individual through the continents. It prints U.S. and World maps from a single page to eight pages (nearly seven feet across).

Math

Calculator Home Page for Windows high functioning calculator. Free download. calculator/
Wide assortment of all types of calculators

vincentwortham has flash card programs for drill and practice.

Graph Paper- never buy it again! There are many sites that offer free graph paper or programs to develop your own. Great to use with students who straggle lining up their problems at printfreegraphpaper/

incompetech/ Offers on-line graph and grid paper in PDF format. There are various links from this site to support your graphing needs.

dessci
MathPlayer converts mathematical expressions embedded in web pages into speech. Text-to-speech generators (which are useful if you want to use the computer but cannot read) may not always recognise mathematical expressions, but MathPlayer will speak them in a meaningful way.

The Edmark House Series is a comprehensive solution for engaging Early Learners and Special Needs students. It supports all students with expanded accessibility options. hmhinnovation

sensorysoftware
A large calculator for Windows. You can either on the buttons with the mouse or use the numeric keypad to perform calculations. The size of the calculator buttons is determined by the WIDTH of the calculator window.

calculator
This is a set of easy to read calculators that help develop math and science skills. It can be used with windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and PDA with Windowsce.

MDE SDK is a reusable software library that generates text, sound and visual representations of graphs found in both math and science applications. Visually-impaired computer users access these alternative text and sound descriptions through the use of a screen reader and standard computer speakers.

Mouse

intelore provides a game that is available to download.

shambles has various links for providing skills in using a mouse. Also links for specifically designed for left handers!

polital
Point-N-Click is a FREE stand-alone on-screen virtual mouse designed for anyone with a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to click a physical computer mouse. As long as they can move a mouse, trackball or other pointing device, they can send mouse clicks to virtually any Windows application or DOS application that can run within a window and even many that are full screen. This software is a virtual mouse. It has right click, left click, double left click, click and drag, scroll, double right click, alt key, shift key, ctrl key and scroll key. It is a very good virtual mouse.

Click-Catch available options:
You may choose which butt to simulate between left/right/middle mouse buttons. You can also set single or double click.

sensorysoftware
Dwelling is resting the mouse over one area of the screen for a specified time. The dwell click software allows you to perform left-click, right-click and double clicks, and even drag things around the screen. This is ideal for those who can operate the mouse pointer, but not the buttons. For example, users of a head mouse such as the Smart NAV can use this software to control mouse operated Windows programs.

morseall
Morseall allows people with limited mobility to use a computer. Morseall allows you to control your Linux computer by tapping morse code on the mouse buttons. The left button is for dots. Hold it longer for dashes. The right button is for dashes. It is faster than holding down the Left. The middle button is for "finishing " and repeating characters. If you can control one, two, or three switches, you can use morseall at at your own pace. Morseall can use your existing accessibility switches! Ask a rehabilitation professional to solder a jack onto a " sacrificial" three-button mouse. It should be easy to hook up your current switch set for long-term morse-code computer use.

alphaworks
Mouse Smoothing Software is assistive software for people with hand tremor. It is intended primarily for individuals with Essential (non-specific) Hand Tremor who have difficulty using a computer mouse. Significant improvement has been found for people who can basically control their hand, apart from a moderate degree of tremor.

Music

inclusive
A free, switch accessible CD player. Features: two different graphic styles, one or two switch access, mouse and keyboard access, automatically remembers settings, suitable for controlling from an IntelliKeys or Concept Keyboard

fullmeasure
A very simple switch controlled CD player

News

webbie
Accessible RSS News Feeds is widely used by the weblog community to share the latest entries’ headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files.

Operating System

eklhad
This software makes Linux accessible to the blind user.

PC Utilities

Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

fullmeasure
A very simple switch controlled CD player

Podcatcher

webbie
Accessible Podcatcher is a simple way for blind and screen reader users to use podcasts. Podcasting is a way to distribute audio files on the web. Accessible Podcatcher lets you access these podcasts. You can save them to disk, have your MP3 player transfer them for portable listening, and export and import lists of podcasts to send to other people.

Radio

webbie
The BBC allows people to listen to vast quantities of their radio output up to a week after it is first broadcast on one of their dozens of radio stations. This service, called Listen Again, relies on a web browser interface that might be difficult for some users, especially people with screen readers. Accessible BBC Listen Again allows you to access the BBC's Listen Again content through a truly accessible interface designed to work with any screen reader. Select programmes and stations with the cursor keys and listen to them at your leisure. You get easy and simple access to hours of programming, including the ever-popular "The Archers " and "In Touch". The new version lets you access all of the Listen Again content among many other improvements (thanks to everyone for their suggestions!) It does still require that you have already installed something that can play Real Audio, which is the format the BBC uses for their radio on the Internet.

Switch

sensorysoftware
To ensure that your switches can be used with all applications we supply our switch software. The software is available for both USB and serial switches.

northerngrid
"SENSwitcher is a suite of programs designed to help teach early ICT skills to people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, those who need to develop skills with assistive input devices and very young children new to computers. It is, we believe the first time anyone anywhere has developed an online switch enabled application which targets ICT skills from purely experiential through cause and effect, switch building, timed activation, targeting and row scanning."

inclusive
A free, switch accessible CD player. Features: two different graphic styles, one or two switch access, mouse and keyboard access, automatically remembers settings, suitable for controlling from an IntelliKeys or Concept Keyboard

aacinstitute
Single Switch Performance Test (SSPT) measures how fast a person can activate or release a single switch or activate it multiple times. SSPT monitors the mouse buttons. SSPT reports can be helpful in choosing the most effective switch, identifying the best position, and monitoring the training process. (A switch adapter or modified mouse is needed to connect a switch to the PC. Instructions for modifying a mouse are available as well. AAC Institute also sells a modified mouse.)

inclusiveserialdriver
A stand-alone serial switch driver for Windows, programmed to send the standard key of Space and Return. For single or two switch access. Option to send a continuous stream of keypresses or a single keypress. Send a selection of other commonly used keypresses such as function keys and number keys.

Symbols

symbolworld has many on-line stories, some recipes, poetry, news stories, etc. written and supported with picture icons.

deafblindonline
An accessory for making symbol sets for use in EdWord and EdWeb. It will instantly convert a file full of images into the correct format to be used in EdWord and EdWeb.

symbolnet
Building a Symbol and ConceptCoding Editor for CMS, based on CCF(ConceptCodingFramework). Also building tools for ConceptCoding administration (perhaps in another project).

Teaching

Everyday Skills
oatsoft
Switch-activated software that supports teachers in teaching the young people who are deafblind in learning everyday skills.

yourchildlearns
This software teaches children to know and make the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

createdbyteachers
addcentre is specific to ADFID and ADD

northerngrid
"SENSwitcher is a suite of programs designed to help teach early ICT skills to people with profound and multiple learning difficulties, those who need to develop skills with assistive input devices and very young children new to computers. It is, we believe the first time anyone anywhere has developed an online switch enabled application which targets ICT skills from purely experiential through cause and effect, switch building, timed activation, targeting and row scanning."

Time management

With Google Calendar, you can see your friends’ and family's schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that you find online. Go to Google google and then to more and to Calendar.

Vision - artificial

The vOICe Learning Edition - Synthetic vision software for Microsoft Windows is "an experimental system for auditory image representations, intended to provide synthetic vision to the totally blind." - artificialvision

vOICe Learning Edition translates arbitrary video images from a regular PC camera into sounds. This means that you can see with your ears, whenever you want to. Now step beyond your computer screen and screen reader and try this camera-based "scene reader". With a notebook PC you can even go mobile. How well you can learn to see with your ears is something that only you can find out, but now you can indeed find out and learn through this Learning Edition software, for free! It is hoped that seeing with sound will not only find many practical uses, but that extensive usage may also lead to visual experiences that truly have the distinctive subjective "feel" of vision.

Web accessibility

aprompt.ca
Web authors can use A-Prompt to make their Web pages accessible to people with disabilities. The A-Prompt software tool examines Web pages for barriers to accessibility, performs automatic repairs when possible, and assists the author in manual repairs when necessary. These enhanced Web pages are available to a larger Internet audience.

webformator
Works with Internet Explorer and provides an accessible text-only re-presentation of a web page for a user's screen reader.

alphaworks
Web Adaptation Technology makes the Web easier to navigate and read for seniors, people with disabilities, and special-education students. This is accomplished by making transformations and adaptations, according to personal preferences, during Web browsing. Specifically, Web Adaptation Technology assists users by enabling them to magnify the contents on a Web page and adjust font, image, and page layout to improve readability. Web Adaptation Technology also enables selected text to be read aloud, using a " text-to-speech" feature, and eases the typing of people who have difficulty with a keyboard (such as those with tremors or arthritis or who are recovering from a stroke) in part by detecting these errors and automatically adjusting the keyboard sensitivity to accommodate the typing. Available in nine languages, this software is in use by nonprofit organizations and schools around the world.

atutor
AForm is a utility used to create accessible online forms, tests, or surveys. Using this utility to create forms ensures that people with disabilities accessing the Web with assistive technologies will be able to read and use the forms as would any fully able individual. Use the demo to create your own accessible forms. Download AForm from the SourceForge website.

Web Search

webbie
WebbIE is a web browser for people who are blind and visually-impaired... especially those using screen readers. It is based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer to ensure that a maximum of sites work with it. It allows you access to the vast majority of webpages and tries to present all the information there simply and easily so you can explore and use the web fully.

Google Accessible Search

Here are some suppliers of assistive devices:

Essential Aids - Daily Living Aids for the UK - Essential aids supply mobility and living aids for the disabled, elderly or those caring for people with mobility difficulty

Maine CITE - Maine CITE is a statewide project designed to help make assistive technology and universal design more available to Maine children and adults who have disabilities.

Maryland Department of Disabilities - Maryland Technology Assistance Program

MOBILIZR - Mobilizr, wheelchair users torso support system, back support with control, the MOBILIZR(tm) freedom, safety and security is truly a dream come true

Nursinghomeapparel - Online source for adaptive clothing, adult bibs, hospital gowns, and slipper socks - Personal Touch specializes in products such as hospital gowns, adaptive clothing, incontinence products, diabetic socks and other health care apparel. ---

Standing Frames and Standers to assist with active standing; made by EasyStand - A standing frame or stander is assistive technology at its best. Quality rehab equipment created by Altimate Medical for healthy, active standing.