Using the iPad with Students
who are Blind or Partially
sighted
Agenda
 Introduction of Participants
 What do you want to know? Small Group
 Introduction to the Device and the OS
 Basic Operation
 Accessibility Features
 Working with iTunes
 Apps for Students who are B/VI
Introduction
 Introduced in April 2010 with new version out 1
year later
 iPad has the lion’s share of the tablet market
with sales of 84 million to date. All tablets
expected 103 million at end of 2013
 iPad has front/back (5MP/1080p video)
cameras; retina display (2048X1536); is light; is
thin; has an enhanced processor (A6X chip)
 Accessibility features for b/vi built into the OS…
Voiceover(screenreader), Zoom (enlargement)
and gesture navigation
What’s Great About the iPad
It’s cool!
It’s what all kids are using… it’s UDL
Accessibility is built in
It’s light
It’s easy to use
It’s easy to navigate
It comes with a huge library of applications
(over 500 000)
 It has a decent sized screen
 Battery life good (10 hours)







Positives Continued
 There are good options for internet
connection… Wi-Fi and 3G
 Excellent book reader
 Speaker and microphone pretty good
What’s not so Great









No USB port for file transfer
Multitasking not as easy as a laptop
High end production (Wordprocessing/
Spreadsheets/Database) not high end
No Flash capabilities
Glare can be a problem
Have to be part of the iTunes ecosystem
Onboard keyboard not great for extensive
writing
Overview of the Device
Overview Continued
The Operating System
 iOS 6 is the current
version
 Determines how the
device operates, running
apps, security settings
etc., etc., etc.
 Biggest issue is probably
the proprietary nature of
the system
 Simple and intuitive
Basic Operation
 Home button always takes you back to the





home screen for app selection
Flicking lf or rt moves from screen to screen
Tapping opens an app or selects a hyperlnk
Dragging allows you to scroll vertically and
horizontally
Double clicking Home allows you to see open
apps
To remove an app tap and hold until it jiggles,
then tap the X… can also move apps in this
mode… click Home stops the jiggling
Basic Operation Continued
 Double-click the Home button, then flick
the bottom of the screen from left to right.
The screen orientation lock, brightness
slider, and media controls appear.
Basic Operation Continued
 Create new screens (up to 11) by dragging
a jiggling icon to the right edge and holding
it there
 Create folders by dragging a jiggling icon
over another , then name folder
 Delete folder… tap to open… hold to make
jiggle… drag icons out and when last is
gone folder disappears
Basic Operations Continued
 Search using Spotlight… flick to the search
screen… enter search parameters and it will
find
 Contacts: First, last, and company names
 Mail : To, From, and Subject fields of all
accounts (the text of messages isn’t searched)
 Calendar: Event titles, invitees, and locations
iPod: Music (names of songs, artists, and
albums) and the titles of podcasts and
audiobooks
 Notes: Text of notes
Basic Operations Continued
 Copy and paste…double tap and hold;
change grab points; select copy; tap and
hold in new location; tap paste
 Spell check…watch or it may give you
some weird words…X out the suggestion
box
 Add website to home screen…go to
website and tap Share (box and
arrow)…tap Add to Home Screen
 Frozen unit…hold Home and Power button
simultaneously
System Settings
 Airplane Setting disables wireless features …Wi-Fi, 4G







or GPS
Wi-Fi allows you to select a wireless network and will
connect automatically in future
Bluetooth allows pairing of Bluetooth devices
Do Not Disturb will block FaceTime call or
alerts…”except from your boss”
Notifications…allows notifications e-mail, calendar, etc.
Sounds…notification sounds can be selected
Brightness and Wallpaper allow screen brightness to be
adjusted and your screen background to be adjusted
Picture Frame settings allows the iPad to act as an
electronic picture frame when it is locked
System Settings Continued
 Privacy…request for access to contract,





photos, etc.
iCloud requires an account setup; free 5GB
of storage. Can backup your iPad…e.g.
Notes
Mail, Contacts, Calendars…various
selections
Notes…font selection, default account
Messages
FaceTime
System Settings: General
 Sounds shows sound levels and for which





actions sounds are produced
Bluetooth manages BT settings
Auto Lock can set time iPad locks after
inactivity
Pass Code is for setting a security code to
lock
Restrictions can restrict access to apps
and other actions
Lock rotation prevents flipping back and
forth
Power Saving
 Control screen brightness…settings
 Turn screen off when not using…General/
 Auto-Lock
 Turn off running apps…double click
Home/press and hold app until jiggles/X
out
 Turn off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Fetch New Data
(set less frequently
 Use airplane Mode in low cellular areas
Accessibility
 VoiceOver screen reader, Zoom magnification ,




Invert Colors, Large Text (increase font size in
Notes, Mail, etc., Speak Auto-text , Support for
braille displays
In Settings, Accessibility features can be turned
on and off
Some accessibility features don’t work in all
apps
Use Triple Click Home to turn VoiceOver or
Zoom on or off
In iOS6 VoiceOver and Zoom run
simultaneously
Zoom
 Turn on in Settings/General/Accessibility
 Double tap with 3 fingers zooms to a
specific size
 Double tap with 3 fingers…on the second
tap hold to the screen and slide up…
enlarges while slide down decreases size
 Dragging with 3 fingers moves the screen
around
 Pinch enlarge or diminish can be done
when zoom is not turned on
VoiceOver









Turn on and set up in Settings/Accessibility
Flick or slide moves from one item to another
Double tap opens or activates links
2 finger flick up reads from top of page
2 finger flick down reads from current position
2 finger tap pauses reading
2 finger tap restarts the reading
Rotor changes settings and commands
PLUS MANY MORE… SEE iPAD MANUAL
Interactive White Board Sharing
 Can use Join.Me or Splashtop to wirelessly
connect to teacher’s computer being used
to run the whiteboard.
 Need to have software on the teacher’s
computer and on the students iPad.
 iPad can use Zoom to enlarge the image
 Splashtop Whiteboard ($19.99) allows
connection and annotation…even viewing
Flash
iPad as a CCTV
 iPad camera can be used to zoom in on an
image for viewing…select camera, hold
iPad up and focus on image to be viewed,
use thumbs to magnify the image, take
photo
 Hold the camera s still as posible to get the
clearest image
 Fill as much of the screen as possible to
get the best possible enlargement
 Save images for later use
Working with iTunes
 Is the conduit for purchasing apps, books,
music, movies etc. and transferring content
 Need an account, which must include a
credit card
 Can purchase from your iPad directly or
through your computer… then sync to
iPad
Working with iTunes: Files
 Connect iPad to computer…iTunes opens
 Click on your device (Left side of window)
 Click on Apps in top menu bar
 Under file sharing apps click on PDF reader
app (ie: Goodreader) or word pro app (ie:
Pages)
 Drag file (PDF, Word, etc.) and drop it in the
Documents pane on the right side of the window
 Open app and read… VoiceOver won’t work
with Goodreader, but does with Pages
Working with iTunes: DAISY
 Create a folder on computer (You choose




location) for files from CD/DVD… right
click/new/Folder
Move all files to this folder from your
CD/DVD
Create a new zip folder. Same process but
pick new WinZip file… name it
Transfer all DAISY files from regular folder
to WinZip folder
Connect iPad to computer…iTunes Opens
Working with iTunes: DAISY
continued
 Click on your device (Left side of window)
 Click on Apps in top menu bar
 Under file sharing apps select click on
DAISY reader app (ie: VOD)
 Drag zipped file to the documents pane in
the right part of the window.
 File will show up in Bookshelf of the app
 Play it
Working with iTunes: Photos
 Create a folder on your computer that will





contain the photos you wish to have on
your iPad
Connect iPad to computer…iTunes opens
Click on your device (Left side of window)
Click on Photos in top menu bar
Browse for the name of your folder
Click sync on bottom right corner
Some Apps for Students who are
B/VI

GoodReader: Allows one to read PDF and
you can personalize magnification settings
and contrast. You can also go into text only
mode where the text auto wraps so you don’t
have to navigate horizontally. Cost: $4.99
Other PDF readers are free.
Dragon Dictation: Voice recognition where
you speak, see and edit your text, then share
it to Notes, SMS, or email. Cost: Free
More Apps for Students who are
B/VI
Free Books: Allows download of thousands of
books that no longer have copyright on. All the
old classics are available.
Cost: Free
Free Audiobooks: Same as above but the
books are recorded. Cost: $3.99
VOD: DAISY player that will read and
sync highlighted text. . Cost: $25.99 If
you want to test this app get VOD Lite for
free. It does everything VOD does but it
only plays for 120 seconds. Cost: Free
More Apps for Students who are
B/PS
inDAISY: This has been removed for
upgrading, but may be back soon. It
was quite good
Dictionary.com: App with about 2
million words Cost: Free
 Digit-Eyes Audio Scanner and
Labeler: Helps people who are Partially
sighted or blind select products at stores. It
utilizes the camera to scan the UPC barcodes
on products. Then, the app calls
the inbuilt database of over 7.5 million products
and reads out the name of the product that
matches the barcode. Cost $19.99
More Apps for Students Who are
B/PS
 SayText : App scans documents and then reads
the text contained in the document to you. Simply
place your device center of a document and
double-tap the “Take picture” -button. Then slowly
elevate the device over the document. When it
detects your document, it will beep and start
scanning. While the OCR is running, tap the
screen to hear the progress status. When the
camera is done scanning, swipe the screen to
initiate a read back of the text. Cost: Free
 DocScanner: From same company. Integrates with
Dropbox Cost: $4.99
More Apps for Students Who are
B/PS
Qwicki: An online encyclopedia with over
3,000,000 topics. Works with VoiceOver
AND has a built-in text-to-speech engine.
Cost: Free
Dropbox: Allows you to save files “in
the cloud” for viewing, downloading for
offline viewing, capturing and syncing
photos and videos, and sharing links.
Cost: Free for up to 2 GB of data
More Apps for Students Who are
B/PS
VoiceReader: Paste text into reader and hit
play. Good quality voices. Cost: Free
SpeakText: Similar features to
VoiceReader but will also translate. Cost :
Free
VizWiz: Take a picture of an item, ask a
question and web workers provide and
answer
oMoby: oMoby searches the Internet
using photos taken with your camera
and works well with VoiceOver.
More Apps for Students Who are
B/PS
ViA: From the Braille Institute this app helps
blind and low-vision users easily sort through
the 500,000+ apps in the iTunes App Store
to locate the apps that were built specifically
for visually impaired users
Audio Memos: Voice recorder with many
features
Color Identifier: Uses the camera on your
iPhone or iPad to speak the names of
colors in real-time.
More Apps for Students Who are
B/PS
Audible: The app allows you to access your
Audible account to listen to your
downloaded books. All the latest titles are
available.
Talking Scientific Calculator: is just
that, a talking scientific calculator. It is
easy to operate and works with
VoiceOver for the fully blind, or has a
high contrast options for those with low
vision.
JoinMe: Internet enabled screen
sharing tool. Can be used to connect a
Smart Board with a students iPad
Resources
 Apps for the Blind and Partially Sighted
 A Community-Powered Site for Vision-
Impaired Users of Apple's iOS Devices
 iPad Users Manuals
 VoiceOver in Depth
 VoiceOver Keyboard Commands