This device is a wireless optical sensor that replaces the standard desktop mouse and enhances the creative ability of students who have no hand use or a lack of hand use combined with a lack of functional speech capabilities. Many of our students language and literacy goals are made attainable by our teachers adapting curriculum for our students. For example, IntelliKeys which is an alternative expanded keyboard for use with software that responds to keyboard commands, can also be fitted with custom 'overlays' that teachers design for specific lessons.
Students then press a switch or touch the keyboard to become active learners.
Providing assistive and adaptive curriculum technology for students with disabilities will be the future, and we have no doubt that our iMacs will take us there. A.T. Lab Manager, The Learning Technology Center, runs an assistive technology lab at the University of Texas at Austin. The lab sports a collection of workstations for demonstrating various types of technologies used by individuals with disabilities. However, I find that there are several aspects of the Mac OS that lends itself to use in the area of disabilities. SimpleText, for example, is quite useful.