Photo of Aeden laughing at the Joke of the Day and text
Strategy

Aeden’s Journey on the iPad: Part 3

Aeden learns how to turn speech on and off and, he learns about titles.

Lesson 8: Using voice over to pause/play speech

Materials needed

Objective

To be able to pause/play speech using voice over gestures.  

Activity

Turning on and off speech using the VO gesture on the iPad.  This gesture I was not planning on teaching right away but my student heard me do it and wanted to know how I was able to make the speech disappear.  We talked about how we make music go away or a sound go away by turning it off until we want or need to turn it back on. At this point I had to explain the difference between muting and pausing.  This is a difficult concept for the totally blind child. Using the Smart Brailler, I showed him when we braille his name, it speaks it out loud. I showed him the braille on the paper as well. Then I turned the voice off and brailled his name again and showed him his name in braille.  I asked him does the brailler still work with no voice? He responded with a yes. When we mute it, the sound goes away but the brailler is still moving That is what it means when you turn speech on and off. The iPad still is playing, but it is not speaking to you. He picked up the three finger double tap quickly, as it is easier to use all three fingers at the same time versus one or two.  This lesson took only about ten minutes and he understood the concept. Rule: I can use three finger double tap to turn speech on and off.

Lesson 9:  I can use VO gestures and/or the RBD to navigate the pages app to select a document that I need

Materials needed

Objective

To be able to access a file in the pages app using voice over with minimal help.

Activity

When I introduced this concept, I wanted him to understand the concept of titles or headings.  Although we use this term when reading a book, it is often used when we use technology. We took a walk to the school library where I showed him rows and rows of books.  I told him that most of the books have a different title for us to know the name of the book and a summary of what the book is about. I then transitioned into the Pages App.  I told him that it is just like going into a library where we need to look at the titles to know what we are about to open. The first time I had him listen to each of the document in its entirety (Pages announces title, date last opened, how big the file is and announces what kind of document it is).  We talked about how the bigger the number, the bigger the file is. Then I told him that when I am looking for a file, I don’t want to look at everything about the book, just the title. I showed him the flick right gesture but only listened to the title and then flicked right to the next document. When he tried it, I told him to flick right every time he heard me tap.  Once he picked up the clue on his own, he quickly maneuvered to the next document. I told him to find the joke of the day folder which he loves. He needed some verbal reminders to stay on task, but was able to quickly get to the correct document. This only took two to three trials before he was able to independently access the correct document. Rule: I can use the RBD or VO gestures to select the document I want in Pages.    

View Aeden’s first post here: Aeden: Introduction to the iPad and VoiceOver

View Aedens second post: Aeden’s Journey on the iPad: Part 2

Speech on/off video below:

Pages App video below:

 
 
View all the posts in this series:
Aeden’s Journey on the iPad: Part 2 (Home button, Cause & Effect)
Aeden’s Journey on the iPad: Part 5 (Connecting with Braille Display)
 
 

By bcskayaker

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