Apps for Special Needs

Advances in technology along with the affordability of computing hardware has made special needs supports so much more prevalent and accessible. You may already have read the section on read&write for Google Chrome, an extension suite that provides literacy supports to students who struggle with reading and writing. Previously, in order for a student to have access to these tools, the only software available was Kurzweil, a software program that cost over $1000. As much as I appreciate r&w, it is still not a complete solution - for students who are given worksheets in class, they are still having to complete them by hand which is either an onerous task or an impossibility depending on the extent of their disability. Typically, these students struggle with fine motor difficulties making their writing hard to read or overly large. Other students struggle with writing output or difficulties of adhering to conventional writing standards such as spelling or sentence structure. Either way, the worksheet that takes the average student ten minutes to complete becomes a source of frustration and/or anxiety for those other students.

Enter SnapType, the brainchild of an occupational therapist and her team who saw the need to help students through the functionality of a mobile device. Put simply, SnapType uses the camera of a mobile device (iOS or Android) to take the picture of a worksheet (or any other document). Students are then able to input text or annotate the scanned document using drawings to demonstrate their learning. Once completed, there are a number of ways to share their work with the teacher.

Accessible solutions do not need to be prohibitively expensive these days. At the price of this app, writing on an iPad is now truly accessible.

Back to Apps