Use the Web Page Communicator package to turn any device that can run Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, or Safari (direct select only) browsers into a communications device for free!
The screenshot to the left shows a typical communication page assembled using formEdit and a template from the Web Page Communicator package. This page supports multiple access methods including direct selection (point and click), single switch scanning (auto scan) and two switch scanning (step scanning.) It also has a random selection method useful as a spinner for games. It supports auditory scanning as well.
These pages and the resource files for the page's pictures and sounds should be stored on the device being used rather than on the Internet to achieve acceptable performance. However, the pages, the resource files and formEdit are all portable, and work fine off of CD-ROM disks, or flash memory devices. So, you could carry a complete communications system in your flash drive. plug it into any computer, open your pages with almost any browser, and you are ready to communicate!
You can see a couple of online sample pages here, but remember the performance of these pages is better when viewed as off line pages stored in local memory. Scanning online may interrrupt auditory cues until the cue sounds are all cached locally. Keyboard input is used to control scanning methods with these sample pages. Type '0' to start/stop a one-switch scan. Type '1' to advance highlight and '2' to select items for two-switch scan. Type '3' for a spinner (random) scan.
formEdit, a Windows 95+ compatable program, shown to the left, makes it easy to to edit picture grids, assign sounds to cells for both messages and auditory scan cues, and define links to other communications pages, or anywhere your browser can go. Currently, the templates include 1X4, 2X3, 2X4, 3X4, 4X5, and 4X6 grids for basic communicators. In the future, I hope to add more advanced features for the more sophisitcated communicator.
Here are a couple of devices that could be used as portable speech generating devices with no modifications necessary:
The Nova 5000 Windows CE device with touchscreen, wifi, and CompactFlash card slot
$600
The Samsung Q1 Windows XP Computer with touchsceen, wifi, hard drive, and more
starting around $800
Here are some low cost "netbooks" that I have tried with the web page communicator pages that work well but without touchscreens. These might be good choices if partnered with a switch interface for single or dual switch interface users. Look for models with extended life batteries to achieve 5 to 7 hours usable life.
The Acer Aspire One around $350 - really nice device with 10" screen, XP Home, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom, 160GB HD, 1GB RAM and reasonably loud speaker.
An Asus EEE 701 4G PC - Around $299. This was a closeout I saw a BJ's warehouse around Christmas '08. It had XP Home, a smaller screen than the Acer, and was overall a smaller unit but with impressively loud speakers.
